The Northern Suns have shocked the AFLNZ community and selected relatively unknown Patrick Smith as their first choice. Smith plays for the Mid Canterbury Eagles in the Canterbury AFL and has big wraps on him from the Suns coaching staff.
Former Rising Stars Caleb MacPherson and Couper Jones were also selected and will bolster the stocks in both forward and defence for 2020.
Category 1: Caleb Macpherson
Position: Defender
From Papanui High School in Christchurch, Macpherson played a number of games in the 2019 Premiership as a development player. His efforts playing for the Western Crows during round 5 earned him the Rising Star Award after a strong performance playing in the forward line. Caleb was also selected into the the ‘Team of the Week’ for that round.
Standing at 195cm, Macpherson represented New Zealand for the level 2 Academy side before getting selected for the New Zealand U18 side to travel to Melbourne earlier this year.
Category 2: Couper Jones
Position: Forward
Couper Jones hails from Auckland’s North Shore and joins the Suns after recently playing for the Southern Saints last season.
Now in his fifth season playing AFL, Couper has developed into a handy small forward.
Jones was a squad member of the victorious U18 side who created history in May 2018 and will be a good link off the half forward line.
Category 3: Patrick Smith
Position: Midfield
Patrick Smith was a county star with Cavan in his native Ireland from age 14. Playing for 10 years as a specialist midfielder and half back.
Smith moved to Melbourne at 24 and quickly found his feet playing for Mordialloc FC in the Southerns Football League.
Patrick takes a hard nosed no none sense approach to his game style.
Coming off a stellar season with the Mid Canterbury Eagles winning both the Best and Fairest and Canterbury AFL League Best Midfielder, Patrick can not wait to pull on a Northern Suns Guernsey.
Read more:
Central Giants Player Profiles
Northern Suns Player Profiles
Western Crows Player Profiles
Southern Saints Player Profiles
