By Grant Hitzman
Palm Beach young gun, Bradley Scheer, has been named the Round 2 QAFL rising star after a scintillating performance against the UQ Red Lions on Saturday.
The 15-year old, who is the youngest Palm Beach senior in the club’s history, showed his potential as an AFL star in-the-making, bounding out of half-forward to take tough marks and boot five majors en-route to a 53-point win.
Scheer has transitioned seamlessly into senior football and has impressed teammates and coaching staff with his excellent game awareness and contested marking ability.
Despite a superb start to the year, the rising star nomination came as a surprise to the budding teenager, who remained very modest about the honour.
“I played a pretty good game on the weekend, but there were still way too many errors and things I definitely need to work on,” Scheer said.
“I’m just very thankful to Cressa and all the other coaching staff for giving me the chance to play senior footy,” Scheer said.
Palm Beach senior coach, Daryn Cresswell, praised the commitment and talent of Scheer, likening him to retired Swans utility, Dale Lewis.
“Brad’s dedication to pre-season training was exceptional, he never missed a training session and was among the hardest workers all off-season,” Cresswell said.
“He reminds me a lot of Dale Lewis – has an enormous amount of ability, is deceptively fast, with a great pair of hands and reads the play so much quicker than anyone else around him.”
While sky is the limit for Scheer, Cresswell admits that the club will have to carefully manage the rising stars role in the senior team.
“Brad has a whole range of school, state championship and SUNS academy commitments to juggle this year, which is a lot to manage,” Cresswell said.
“He is also very raw, needs to improve his work rate, grow into his changing body and learn further mental and physical aspects of the game.
“It is a lot to take on and my job as senior coach is to monitor his fatigue level to ensure we maximise his development.”
Scheer has set himself some lofty goals for 2014 and beyond, determined to take the next step in his football career.
“Senior football has definitely been a challenge, but I want to stay there for the rest of the year if possible,” Scheer said.
“I also want to make the U16 state team for Queensland, improve my work rate and go as high as I possibly can with my ability.”
Cresswell believes that the talented Queenslander has all the tools to make a legitimate run as a professional footballer.
“Brad is one of the most talented kids I’ve seen, his game knowledge and sense is at a first class standard,” Cresswell said.
“Purely on talent, he has what it takes to go to an AFL club, I truly believe that.”
