The new AFL club in western Sydney intends to raid Canberra's best sporting talent across all codes ahead of its inaugural season in 2012.
The AFL unveiled the recruiting and draft concessions for the expansion club yesterday, with top talent from Canberra and southern NSW set to be the big winners.
Western Sydney has been given the right to sign 16 juniors from that region between 2010 and 2013.
It is an opportunity that has never before been afforded to Canberra's players, who have historically struggled to attract significant interest from clubs since the first VFL draft in 1986.
But while Western Sydney high performance manager Alan McConnell said he would keep a close eye on Canberra's best Australian rules players over the next four years, he also intended to search further afield.
''There's obviously some talent [in Canberra] that will be good fun to work with and pretty exciting,'' McConnell said.
''But in addition to that we'll be looking to see who we might be able to access that's not playing our game.
''We're not limiting ourselves to just our code. We're looking at talent really and my experience with the AIS tells me that talent is not sport specific.
''I ran the AIS program for five years and traditionally we looked at two-thirds of the boys being state athletes in another sport.''
The inclusion of the ACT and its surrounding regions as key recruitment areas for Western Sydney was warmly welcomed by AFL Canberra chairman Brian Quade.
Quade said it would open up opportunities that previously hadn't existed for Canberra's best juniors.
He said that would in turn ensure the Canberra community embraced the AFL's 18th club when it entered the competition.
''There's been probably a few [Canberra] players slip through the cracks over the years and we've certainly got some pretty exciting kids here,'' Quade said. ''This is a great opportunity for them to get a look in.''
The AFL's desire for Western Sydney to succeed quickly has been backed with more chances to recruit established players than fellow expansion club Gold Coast.
As with Gold Coast in 2010, Western Sydney will be given the lion's share of early choices in the 2011 national draft.
But it will get some significant extras.
Whereas Gold Coast can spend next year poaching up to 16 uncontracted players from existing clubs ahead of its 2011 AFL entry, western Sydney will have a two-year span to do the same.
It can do so both in the lead-up to its inaugural season and its second season, although the total cap of 16 players a maximum of one per club remains.
In another departure from the Gold Coast blueprint, Western Sydney will get a select group of talented 17-year-olds specifically to be traded away.
Gold Coast can this year sign up to 12 17-year-olds, which Western Sydney can do next year. But the NSW club will get another four 17-year-olds, spread over 2011 and 2012, which it must use as trade bait.
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