Collingwood coach Craig McRae is thrilled with the Magpies’ potential signing of Category B rookie Alex Condon.
Condon, a 212cm basketball talent, has nominated the Magpies as the AFL club he will sign with … if he doesn’t make it to the NBA.
The 18-year-old is set to chase his NBA dream by playing college basketball for the University of Florida, but will join the Magpies if the sport doesn’t take him to the heights he is aiming for.
Condon was reportedly chased by multiple clubs under the same arrangement after the tall played for Western Australia as a bottom-age player in the under-18 AFL championships in 2021.
With some suggesting Condon could have been an early first-round pick if he kept playing football through his draft year, McRae described potentially securing the teen as a “great get” after the Magpies put in the work to come to terms with the ruck prospect.
“Alex Condon, he’s seven foot tall, the same size as Mason Cox and he’s 18,” McRae said on SEN The Run Home.
“It’s a great get, he played football with WA in the pathway programs, and he has got talent in basketball as well.
“Derek Hine has done a power of work, this isn’t something that’s happened over weeks, this is a year plus.
“We were talking about this during this time last year and trying to see what could be.
“We’ve put a power of work in, had multiple conversations and putting things in front of him of what could be.”
McRae says Collingwood won’t get in Condon’s way as he pursues an NBA pathway, but says the club will be ready to welcome him if he comes back to football.
“He’s going to play college basketball and he wants to get drafted to the NBA, that’s his passion,” McRae said.
“But if it doesn’t work out, we’re here with open arms.
“We’re putting things in place to welcome him into the Collingwood family if he doesn’t make it to the NBA.”
Australian basketball great Andrew Gaze is one who has watched Condon play his primary sport as a junior and he thinks the WA product has a genuine chance of fulfilling his dreams in the sport.
“It’s not beyond him to do that (make the NBA),” Gaze said.
“All of the kids who play basketball, it’s their goal to get there.
“He’s got a bit of development to do, but size, you can’t teach seven feet.
“He’s pretty mobile, he’s got good hands and he moves well.
I think he’s got a chance if he develops, in fact, a good chance, because he’s got an asset (with his height) that’s rare.”
McRae says the Magpies will give Condon his first taste of what an AFL career could look like as he heads to Melbourne to be a part of the club’s Anzac Day clash with Essendon.
“He’s a Category B rookie so you can sign them outside of the salary cap,” McRae said.
“We’re not here to interfere with his basketball and his goals, that’s another conversation.
“We’re here when it’s not in front of him, but he’s coming to Anzac Day.
“Him and his father, I said, ‘Come to our pre-game, our captain’s run, embed yourself in the program then come experience the game, be in the rooms’.
“We want to show him what we do, if it doesn’t work out (with basketball), it could be what’s in front of us.”
Collingwood have previously had success with turning a seven-foot-tall college basketball product into an AFL player, with Mason Cox joining the club in a similar fashion.