Highly-touted Sandringham Dragons midfielder Archie Perkins has told interstate clubs he isn't prepared to move outside of Victoria, requesting to remain in his home state to start his AFL career.
Perkins is tipped to land in the top 10 of Wednesday's draft and has gained plenty of interest from AFL clubs both from Victoria and interstate.
In an interview onย SEN's Whateley,ย Perkins revealed he told interstate clubs he is "not ready" to venture outside of Victoria and begin his career away from home.
โI have (told clubs he wants to stay in Victoria). I hope they take that on board. I get that they do whatโs in the best interests of their footy club, but I just think personally Iโm not ready for that in my stage of life and I feel it would impact me too much,โ he toldย Whateley.
โI donโt think it would be in their best interests as a footy club to have me there because I wouldnโt be 100 per cent with it if I was going over there and couldnโt really commit myself 100 per cent as opposed to staying here where Iโd be 100 per cent ready to go and fully committed.
โI just donโt think Iโm ready for that and I wanted to be honest about it.โ
Perkins admitted there were reasons outside of his football career that drove his decision to notify specific clubs of his preference.
โItโs not everything. I think if it was itโd be detrimental to me as a person in my life. I think thereโs a misconception about me that when I say that, people think I donโt care about footy or wonโt be 100 per cent committed, thatโs just 100 per cent not true,โ he said.
โIโm really committed to footy, I really love the game and really want to have a good AFL career but at the same time Iโve got other things I enjoy in my life. I think when Iโm balancing all those things then I get the best out of myself in my life.โ
