Lindsay gets cooking ahead of AFL Draft

LEONGATHA and Inverloch footballer, Xavier Lindsay, is expected to go top 20 in the AFL Draft this Wednesday and Thursday, November 20 and 21.

Having shaken off a late-season knee injury, which hurt Gippsland Powers’ chances of winning the Under 18 Coates Talent League competition but didn’t stop him securing the Morrish Medal, like Dyson Heppell before him, and an all-Australian blazer, Lindsay has been courted by all 14 clubs.

But, speaking to the ABC in the lead-up to the draft, Lindsay revealed one of his biggest concerns as he considers the prospect of being remote from his parents, Kate and Mark’s home cooking.

“Mum harps on about it, she tries to get me in the kitchen a little bit,” he told the ABC.

“I can cook, it’s just more that I can’t be bothered half the time.”

Facing the real prospect of being selected by an interstate club, it’s a skillset he’s going to have to work on.

The rest of his game is very much the finished product having impressed league scouts all year, especially when dominating for Victoria Country in the national titles and while putting up an impressive body of work for the Power.

Lindsay won the Morrish Medal on 21 votes, three ahead of other draft prospects Cooper Hynes (Dandenong Stingrays), Jayden Nguyen (Calder Cannons), Jagga Smith (Oakleigh Chargers), Josh Smillie (Eastern Ranges) and Zak Johnson (Northern Knights).

Together with teammate at Gippsland, Alixzander Tauru, Lindsay is expected to go top 20.