Front-Half Box of Tricks
Tall Forward · 193cm · West Adelaide
AFL: October rucks and tall forwards ↗ · Website details checked 26 October 2026.
Charlie Bradford is the 2026 draft’s "front-half box of tricks." Standing at an incredibly athletic 193cm, the West Adelaide product is a highly mobile key-to-medium forward prospect who has generated serious buzz ahead of the Under-18 National Championships. Bradford breaks the mold of a traditional, structural stay-at-home tall; he plays with dynamic offensive flair and exceptional agility, allowing him to push high up the ground, lose his opponent on the lead, and immediately wheel around to dissect defensive zones with elite field kicking. Highlighted by a classy 14-disposal, 6-mark display where he kept elite state-academy defenders honest, Bradford combines clean overhead marking acumen with a tenacious, high-work-rate chasing edge that makes him an incredibly isolated and tricky matchup in the forward half.
Bradford can offer a forward target who is comfortable leading away from the deepest scoring area and helping connect the next entry. That mobility can make a defender choose between following him and protecting space nearer goal. We would look for his marking, decisions and pressure to stay consistent when the opposition limits the clean lead and asks him to compete through more physical contact.
Riley Thilthorpe
Bradford is a marvelous stylistic fit for the Thilthorpe "agile, field-carving tall forward" blueprint. At 192cm, he possesses the height to command an aerial pack, but his absolute super-weapon is his ground-level mobility and creative distribution. Like Thilthorpe, Bradford refuses to be anchored deep in the goal square. He loves to push right up to the arcs to act as a primary transition target, using smooth lateral movement to evade trailing defenders before looking inside 50 to drop pinpoint passes to small forwards. His "big bag of tricks" means he can snap goals from impossible angles, impact heavily on the lead, and apply defensive clamping pressure on the counter-attack—presenting as a true prototype modern utility forward
Scouting text, projected ranges and comparisons are SotaramAFL editorial assessments, rather than confirmed club decisions or predictions of career achievements.
The simulator currently places Charlie Bradford in the Top 60 group. Compare the role and scouting assessment with the players available at your club’s selection, then test an alternative in your own mock draft.
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PROSPECT INTELLIGENCE / 2026
The numbers. The draft context. The bigger picture.
SOTARAMAFL SCOUTING VIEW
74 profiles share this band · editorial snapshot, 19 October 2026
Highlighted span: picks 1–60. A range, not an exact ranking or consensus score.
Dots show known results from the same event and protocol. Higher on the bar means faster or higher. This leader-biased sample does not represent the whole draft class.
Compare with a named historical mark. These are benchmark gaps, not all-time rankings or percentiles. National and state conditions can differ.
SA state combine · 11 October 2026
4 / 4 published results in this event
0.66s from benchmark
Darcy Jones · 2022 · 7.70s
National historical benchmark · AFL: combine records and test protocols ↗
SA state combine · 11 October 2026
3 / 3 published results in this event
1:48 from benchmark
Harry Sharp · 2020 · 5:28
AFL published historical benchmark · 2020 event conditions · AFL: combine records and test protocols ↗
No published figure in this collection: 20m sprint · Standing vertical jump · Running vertical jump.
Rankings use only published results collected for the same test and event, with competition ranking for ties. The denominator is the number of known results, not all participants. Preliminary and unofficial figures are shown without ranks or historical comparisons. Reaching-hand, side-specific and counter-movement protocols stay separate.
Scouting bands are the site's existing editorial view; no numerical skill ratings have been inferred from prose. Historical marks use the AFL's records reference. The 2km event began in 2017; no 3km, beep-test or Yo-Yo conversion is used. Harry Sharp's 2020 mark is a historical reference across differing event conditions. Finlay Yeo's WA agility result may surpass the national benchmark without changing that benchmark's event scope.
Research reviewed 26 October 2026. Read coverage and source discrepancies →
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