Draft Profiles: Logan Austin

By Sam Canavan

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS OF LOGAN AUSTIN

Gone are the days of one-dimensional footballers, excelling at the top level nowadays more often than not means having multiple strings to your bow; with several genuine athletic strengths, a good sized frame, and a flexible football brain to match.

19-year-old Austin, cousin of All-Australian St Kilda star Sean Dempster, ticks all of those boxes, combing strong aerial skills and sharp closing speed, standing 196cm tall, and tipping the scales at 87kg.

But perhaps most crucially Austin has shown he’s equally adept playing at either end of the ground in key positions, even featuring in the ruck at times, and on the wing.

After moving to Canberra from Victoria aged six, Austin set about establishing himself as a key forward for the bulk of his junior career, with Gungahlin and then the Belconnen Magpies, and it was in a Magpie jumper that he first made the switch to the back half.

After a pre-season with Belconnen preparing for a year in attack, Austin was thrown into the unfamiliar back half at three-quarter-time of his side’s NEAFL practice match against Ainslie.

It was a baptism of fire for the youngster, sent to quell the output of red hot former Port Adelaide marksman Nick Salter, and he thrived under pressure, outpointing Salter – who finished the year with more than 50 goals and a top ten finish in the competition’s MVP award – and holding him goalless.

From that point on Austin played the majority of the year down back at NEAFL level, opposing the likes of GWS GIANTS No.1 draft pick Tom Boyd, and played as a defender in the NSW/ACT RAMS outfit in the TAC Cup and National Under 18 Championships, starring in the RAMS’ charge to the Division 2 title.

“Logan has a very impressive vertical leap, and is a difficult prospect for any key forward to match up on,” says NSW/ACT RAMS coach Jason Saddington.

“He provides strong attack from defence, has neat foot skills, and reads the game really well.”

Despite conceding he “loves a goal as much as the next person,” Austin has revelled in his time down back, with his intercept marking a particularly eye-catching feature.

“I’m not a traditional one out defender, in that I prefer to read the ball in flight and back myself,” Austin said.

“Occasionally I can get caught between staying on my opponent and helping my teammates out, but I like to think peeling off and backing myself works more often that not.

“I’m used to running and jumping at every ball and I haven’t changed that since going into defence, I really enjoy taking an intercept mark and stopping attacks that way.”

Unsurprisingly, Austin models his game on Essendon’s Jake Carlisle, a man similar in stature to him, who has proved one of the best swimgmen in the AFL in 2014.

When pressed on the possibility of joining Carlisle in a red sash, Austin is coy, as he’s had to be for the best part of the last two months, since his nomination to attend October’s National Draft Combine.

“It would be a dream come true to make it onto any AFL list, I would be elated to have my name read out by any club,” Austin said.

‘All my friends joke that I don’t need to go to University – I’m currently studying Sports Coaching and Exercise Science at University of Canberra – as I’m going to play AFL professionally, but that annoys me more than anything, and I just laugh it off.”

Austin is a Melbourne Demons supporter, and good friends with fellow RAM Tyler Roos, the son of Demons mentor Paul, with one of the highlights of his year the opportunity to go inside Melbourne’s inner sanctum during a RAMS talent camp.

He jokes he “wouldn’t complain at all” if Melbourne came knocking, but as quickly as Austin allows himself a laugh, his resolve hardens.

“I am really goal orientated, and like to tick off milestones, without dwelling on them,” Austin said.

“For example, I was very excited to be nominated for the draft, but I didn’t think about it too much afterwards, I began focussing on the next step, which is training as hard as I can leading up to the combine, and doing my absolute best during the week’s testing.”