SATop 2
Dougie Cochrane
Unicorn Utility
Central District (SANFL U18 / SA)
Port AdelaideScouting profile
2026 AFL National Draft
Mason McGroder: 2026 AFL Draft profile
Freakish Athletic Specimen
2026 NATIONAL DRAFTTop 60 · EDITORIAL RANGENSW
- Position
- Utility
- Listed height
- 195 cm
- Club / region
- Sydney Swans Academy
- Projected range
- Top 60 (editorial)
Mason McGroder scouting report
Mason McGroder is the 2026 draft’s "freakish athletic specimen." Standing 191cm (6'3"), the Sydney Swans Academy product is quite literally a world-class athlete. At just 15 years old, he won a bronze medal in the Men's Long Jump at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Peru with a monstrous 7.80m leap. Now focusing his explosive traits on the footy field, McGroder shattered the NSW/ACT pre-season combine by recording a gargantuan 103cm running vertical jump (the only player to breach triple digits) and a blistering 2.911-second 20m sprint. While he remains a highly raw, dual-sport talent, his rare combination of elite height, track-tested closing speed, and an astronomical vertical leap gives him a developmental ceiling that has recruiters drooling over his potential as a versatile, high-flying utility.
AFL player comparison
Aliir Aliir
A stylistic comparison from the scouting database, not a prediction of career output.
More from the scouting notes
Aliir Aliir is the perfect stylistic fit for McGroder's Key Defender / High-Impact Utility profile. At 195cm, McGroder relies on the exact same "athletic dominance" blueprint that makes Aliir a nightmare for opposition forward lines. Both players possess a rare, explosive vertical launch code that allows them to misjudge a ball slightly but still recover to pluck an intercept cleanly over a pack. More importantly, McGroder mirrors Aliir's daring, low-possession, high-impact style; he doesn’t want to just stop his man—he actively wants to use his 2.91-second closing speed to take off through the corridor on aggressive, bounce-taking rebound chains that turn defense into attack in the blink of an eye.
Club connection
Sydney draft hand · Academy in the scouting database. A listed connection does not confirm nomination or matching eligibility.
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Source: the existing SotaramAFL 2026 scouting database, republished as a dated editorial snapshot. Listed facts have not been independently re-reported for this page. See methodology and corrections.