Jarrod Brander Biography

GWS delist Jarrod Brander.

"Jarrod has been a great addition to our group this season and it was a wonderful opportunity to welcome him back to the club after being part of our Giants Academy growing up," GWS general manager of football Jason McCartney said.

Greater Western Sydney recruit Jarrod Brander is eyeing a position in the forward line at his new club.

"I see myself as quite a versatile player, but I want to make my mark as a forward. That's where I grew up playing a lot of my footy," he said.

"I want to get in and train hard and earn the respect of my teammates and coaches and do my best to play as much footy as I can for this club."

GWS sign Jarrod Brander as a delisted free agent.

Brander grew up in Wentworth in NSW's south and was a member of the Giants Academy until his 2017 draft year when zones were changed and GWS lost priority access to him.

"We're really excited to welcome Jarrod back to the Giants. We obviously had a strong connection with him up until his draft year and have tracked his career closely," GWS's football boss Jason McCartney said.

"We identified a need to bring in another tall option and given we've lost some experience through retirements and delistings, it's great to add a player who has already been in the system for a few years."

Jarrod Brander will attempt to find a new AFL home after being delisted by West Coast.

Brander was unable to secure a trade during the recent 10-day exchange period, with clubs aware that the Eagles were unlikely to retain the 22-year-old for next season.

Having joined the Eagles as an elite junior centre half-forward, Brander was unable to establish himself in his preferred role at his first AFL club.

West Coast will field interest from rival clubs in out-of-contract tall Jarrod Brander and won't make a decision on his future at the club until after the NAB AFL Trade Period if he doesn't find a new home.

Jarrod Brander's move to a wing has been 12 months in the making, and the former key position player is determined to make the position his own in 2020.

After a frustrating second season that saw him play just two games to take his career tally to three, Brander has been earmarked to fill the wing position played by departed Chris Masten.

"The forward line is quite strong here and the coaches were trying to find a role for me to play to try and get me into the team," Brander explained.

"I reckon the move happened in the middle of a training session last pre-season. I was playing a bit of half-forward and they said, 'go and have a run on the wing and see how you go'. I ended up getting a few kicks as a taller winger and it was quite natural coming from half-forward.

"So last year was just see how you go and learning, and this year I've had much more of a focused role."

Jarrod Brander has put on six kilograms this pre-season as he looks to build a body capable of breaking into West Coast's backline.

"I want to get bigger and stronger so I can compete with bigger bodies if I get another AFL opportunity," Brander said.

"I think last year when I played down back I just used my athleticism to get me out of sticky situations.

"At the moment I'm working on getting into positions to defend dangerous spaces and that’ll benefit me going forward."

West Coast categorically rules out trading Jarrod Brander to satisfy Geelong in a trade for mature-age midfielder Tim Kelly.

"Jarrod is contracted to our club for the next three years," Eagles' general manager of football Craig Vozzo said.

"We made a commitment to him quite a long time ago, and he won't be considered in any of this."

Jarrod Brander makes his AFL debut for West Coast at the SCG with 5 disposals (5 kicks), 3 marks and a tackle in a 15-point loss to Sydney.

Jarrod Brander has been told by Eagles coach Adam Simpson that it's only a matter of time before he makes his West Coast debut in 2018.

"He's (Simpson) told me that it's when, not if for me this year and when an opportunity comes I'll hopefully get one," Brander said.

"I think if I played for the Eagles I'd probably look to play a bit higher up the ground and be the connector from the backline to the wing, but I'm not too sure."

Draftee Jarrod Brander signs a two-year deal with West Coast to remain at the club until the end of 2021.

"I probably thought about it for a little while with my manager. We talked about it and we were just going to wait and see how I went for a little while, but I’ve loved the club ever since I got here," Brander said.

"I’ve been supporting West Coast since I was about six years old, so it was a pretty easy decision to make for me."

Jarrod Brander says he is fielding a lot more interest from clubs after being withdrawn from Greater Western Sydney's academy zone.

"Everyone seems a little bit more interested because I remember last year some clubs were a little bit tentative about how much they wanted to know because they thought I was going to go to the Giants," Brander said.

"I could end up anywhere now. I thought there was probably a fair chance I'd go to the Giants with an academy pick if I was part of it, but it's weird now to have more open possibilities."

Greater Western Sydney has lost access to at least two potential early picks at this year's NAB AFL Draft after the League confirmed it had stripped back the club's wide academy region.

The AFL has cut the Giants' access to potential top-five pick Jarrod Brander and highly rated midfielder Charlie Spargo after cutting its access to players from the Albury/Murray region.

Jarrod Brander is viewed as one of the top players in this year's draft pool, but the League has been considering his status as a member of the Giants' zone for several months due to geography queries.

The 17-year-old tall forward/defender's family owns a farm in Wentworth, a small town in New South Wales close to the South Australian border. That falls within the Giants' zone, but the family also has a property in Mildura, outside of their catchment.

The AFL was expected to make a call by the end of last season but is yet to inform the Giants about whether Brander will be tied to the club or be available in the open draft.

The Bendigo Pioneers product starts his draft season unsure of where the decision-making process is placed, but says he is comfortable whichever way the AFL rules.

"I've had no indication on which way they're going to go. I thought they were going to make a decision a long time ago but it's drawn out a bit, so we'll see how it goes," Brander said at the NAB AFL Academy's training camp in Florida.

"It's different. It would probably be a worse situation if I was more involved in the academy and I wasn't down at school, but I'm not too worried about it. I have no preference either way really, whether I am able to go to the Giants and they want me, or if I'm not."