Profile
Position: Midfielder
Club: Claremont (Western Australia)
Height: 181cm
Weight: 72kg
DOB: 13/2/97
Stats
NAB AFL Under-18 Championships
Games: 5
Avg. disposals: 13.4
Avg. marks: 3.2
Claremont Colts
Games: 10
Avg. disposals: 24
Avg. clearances: 6
Avg. tackles: 5
Mountford said (before the draft):
"I've worked as hard as I could to improve my game and I am pretty happy with what I have done.
"I've given it everything I possibly can."
AFL.com.au said:
Mountford is a medium midfielder who can break the lines with his pace. Strong overhead and aggressive in the contest. Consistent performer for WA in the NAB AFL U18 Championships and has been a prolific ball winner at Colts level.
Fox Footy said:
Declan Mountford’s speed and ability to break lines from a midfield contest will attract plenty of interested suitors. Managed only one senior game in the WAFL this year.
WA Talent Manager Raff Guadagnino said:
"Declan's a midfielder who can run both ways and who's good on both feet. He's been a sports fan all his life: he's always had a football or tennis racquet or something else in his hand. He's from the country and this has been his first year up in the city so he's gotten used to big city life. He has good awareness at the contest, he can play inside and outside the game and what holds him in good stead is he's probably the most professional and committed player we have in our program. He's at his club six days a week and he's been brought up on sport so he's very coachable and team oriented. There's games where won't perform well if you look at the stats, but where he's had a role to play for the team and been able to do it."
North Recruiting Manager Bryce Lewis said:
"He's a hard-working midfielder again who performed very well at the combine both aerobically and for speed/power. Represented WA in the nationals this year and finished off the year strongly, playing some league (WAFL) footy for Claremont and was also a really good performer in their colts premierships side."
In the news:
"Declan Mountford enhanced his national draft chances by producing six top-10 performances in an impressive weekend of testing at the NAB AFL Draft Combine in Melbourne.
"Mountford produced the fastest agility run of any WA player with his 8.35 seconds, beating touted first-round draftee Callum Ah Chee (South Fremantle), and also recorded the third-fastest 20m sprint of 2.90 seconds.
"His fourth placing in the agility run was backed up with fourth in the beep test where the Claremont midfielder reached level 15.2.
"Mountford just missed out breaking the nine-minute barrier in the 3km time trial, producing a time of 10:04, again finishing fourth.
"The 18-year-old also shone in the skills testing, scoring 21 out of 30 on the kicking test which showcases a player's ability in kicking to targets at short, medium and long distances on both sides of their body, and recorded 26 out of 30 in the clean hands handball test." - Albury Advertiser, October 14
