Moller claims U16 best and fairest

“It was very humbling [to win the best and fairest award], it’s always nice but anyone in our team could have won it,” Moller said.

Growing up, Moller was an exceptional athlete in both basketball and volleyball.

It was only when he was introduced to AFL by his school friends at eight years of age that he realised the enormous potential he has in the sport.

It is this potential, and his striking height of 201cm, that has the Western Australian football community talking loudly about their new key ruckman to accompany triple All-Australian Aaron Sandilands.

Moller, who plays for Sydney University in the AFL Sydney competition, said he is hoping to emulate the achievements of Fremantle’s number one ruckman but admits it’s not going to be easy.

“I’m at the height of a ruckman at the moment … but I’ve got very big shoes to fill,” he said.

“He’s [Aaron Sandilands] been a great player over the last couple of years, so

I’ve just got to keep working and maybe one day I’ll be playing alongside him.”

After breaking his collarbone and missing eight weeks of football earlier this year, Moller responded in the best possible way by playing a key role in the RAMS’ NAB Nationals campaign.

The highly-rated athlete, who also played in Team GWS’ inaugural TAC Cup team, said the AFL (NSW/ACT) Talented Player Program and Fremantle have been instrumental in his development.

“The TPP has been really good. All of the coaching you get, there are always four or five coaches there every week, so they give you a lot of individual coaching,” he said.

“Fremantle has been great. They’ve given me specialised coaching and I’ll be actually heading over in a couple of months for two weeks where I’ll stay with one of the players – so it should be a good experience.”

While Fremantle will be eagerly anticipating Moller’s 18th birthday when he’ll be eligible for the draft, NSW and ACT locals will be able to see him in action next year for the Joss State Zone Trials.

2010 has been a remarkable year for the AFL (NSW/ACT) Talented Player Program with 12 players being picked up by AFL clubs. This number could increase following the NAB Draft and NAB Rookie Draft in November and December respectively.