With a famous name and a famous father, this draft prospect is generating his own buzz

A FAIR chunk of Mitch Marsh's childhood was spent yelling out to Mitch Marsh.

Marsh, the aspiring footballer, would head to the Adelaide Oval as a kid. He would sit at the fence and yell out to Marsh, the established Australian Test cricketer, trying to catch his attention. Unfortunately, he could never get his namesake to notice him.

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So, when Marsh the footballer began attracting some draft buzz earlier this year – with his performances for a victorious South Australian side at the Marsh AFL National Under-18 Boys Championships putting him firmly in top-20 calculations – he started gaining some 'Marsh buzz' as well.

Marsh, the cricketer, had finally caught on. He sent a video through to AFL.com.au's trade and draft show Gettable, congratulating the youngster on a season filled with goals for both his state and at SANFL under-18 level for West Adelaide.

"If this other Mitch Marsh is any good, or half as good as me, then clubs are staring down a 250-game player, so all the best to him," Marsh, affectionately known as 'The Bison' to his cricketing teammates, joked in the clip back in May.

"That got brought up a fair bit," Marsh, the footballer, tells AFL.com.au.

"My mum actually texted me saying, 'Have a look at the latest Gettable episode'. I thought, 'Righto'. But then I watched it and I just thought, 'Far out … that's pretty cool'. I had all of my mates sending it to me, it was sick.

"I've played heaps of cricket growing up and always watched heaps of cricket, so I thought it was really cool. At the games, I've always yelled at him from the boundary to try and get him to say g'day, but I've never been able to do that. It was pretty cool."

The video came amid Marsh's hot start to the season. He kicked four goals in his first game for the year against North Adelaide and continued on from there, kickstarting a campaign that yielded 30 majors in 15 matches and multiple goals in 10 of them.

But his season would culminate in a national carnival where his 12 goals helped spearhead South Australia to a first title in seven years, an All-Australian selection, and a growing reputation as one of the best forward targets in this year's draft pool.

"It was a great achievement, being able to play all of the games," Marsh said.

"Being picked in the All-Australian team as well at the end, it wasn't something I was expecting, to be honest. That was a pretty cool feeling. To be able to do that, it definitely exceeded my own expectations.

"At the same time, it's probably just a bit of reward for the effort that I've put in and everyone around me has put in. To be able to get us and the team into that sort of position for those things to happen, it's awesome."

Crucially, Marsh also improved in key aspects of his game. While his speed and his huge endurance base had always been a strength – he finished eighth in the 2km time trial at the recent Telstra AFL Draft Combine, running it in 6:21 minutes – he needed to become a better mark.

Able to out-run opponents on the lead, Marsh was asked to out-grab them in the contest as well. He demonstrated that right throughout the season, averaging 6.1 marks for West Adelaide and six for South Australia.

"One thing that we were big on this year, and he's been able to add this to his game, is a little bit more marking craft," South Australia's title-winning coach Tony Bamford tells AFL.com.au.

"When he was 17 and playing as a bottom-ager, he was all about leading and marking off his opponent. He can do that, because he was so much fitter than most of the blokes he was playing on. But we needed to see him do a little bit more body craft given he's going to play against better opponents, as opposed to just trying to out-run everyone.

"That was a bit of a shift for him. We had to get him a bit stronger. But he certainly showed us in the first month of the year playing for 'Westies' that he was able to stand and compete a bit more as a marking forward and not just on the move.

"His fitness has always been his weapon and one of his strengths, which is good, but he just relied on it too much. We knew that at the next level, the smart defenders won't follow him that high up the ground. They'll just sit and wait for him to come back. He needed to learn other ways of beating better opponents."

It helped Marsh become a more damaging prospect. Remarkably, 29 of his 34 disposals across his Marsh AFL National Under-18 Boys Championships campaign resulted in score involvements. He got his own reward for that work in the final game, kicking five goals against Vic Country to secure his state the crown.

"Going into the last game, everyone was talking about winning that one and winning the lot. We hadn't won for however long, but it always felt like we definitely should've won and we did. It was good," Marsh says.

"That was great. To be able to play well, as well as have that great feeling of winning it … when you feel like you're able to help the team and help us get across the line, it is a great feeling."

Marsh has footy – and the Crows – in his blood. His father, Ben, was a premiership player for Adelaide in its 1998 flag-winning side. It was part of an eight-year AFL career, which finished with a short stint at Richmond.

Unfortunately for Marsh, he's not eligible for either side under father-son rules given Ben only hit 48 games for the Crows and seven for the Tigers. However, he's still benefited from plenty of lessons passed down from his dad's career.

"I know a little bit about his career. He was obviously a premiership player, which is pretty cool. I try and ask him a fair bit about his career just to learn about it. He must have been pretty good," Marsh says.

"He just talks about not going into it too worried about the game. He just wants me to think about what I can control and the work I've put in before the game, so you deserve to have a good game. He says you know you'll play well based on how you've trained and what you've done beforehand."

Marsh's draft range is now in the balance. Having entrenched himself in first-round calculations, the chance to follow in his dad's footsteps at Adelaide with the No.16 pick looms large for the youngster. Not that he's paying it too much thought just yet.

"I'm in two boats," he says.

"You don't expect to get drafted, but you've also got to prepare yourself in case it does happen. If it does, you're gone in a couple of days. You've got to be ready.

"But you also don't want to be too overconfident about it and expect you're going to get drafted, because you really don't know. It's out of your control. You've just got to prepare for it and see if it happens."

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