The Snitch: Jacob Blight, Deven Robertson, Arthur Jones among West Aussie AFL stars being WASTED over east

Wednesday evening is movie night in Snitchville. Mrs Snitch and I go to a lot of trouble to strike the right ambience. We black out our loungeroom windows, switch our popcorn machine to the jumbo notch, pull a couple of choc tops out of the freezer and snuggle up in our Thing One and Thing Two onesies on our chesterfield chaise lounge with an elderflower spritz and press PLAY. This week’s movie of the week was one of our favourites, The Lost Boys. We are both big fans of the vampire genre. It’s one of our favourite “role play” scenarios: Me as Lestat pretending to levitate behind the couch and moving from side to side on a robot vacuum with Mrs Snitch channelling Buffy and chasing me around the house with a tent peg and wooden mallet. The movie title got me thinking about a number of West Australian AFL players plying their craft over east who are caught in their own vampirical twilight zone, unable to break from that liminal state of after-life that hovers between state footy and the AFL. They crossed borders with dreams as big as an AFL executive’s salary, hoping to star in a blockbuster but only given roles in vignettes. I’ll start with Jacob Blight at Richmond. He’s a beauty. A worker who stands at 196cm and can play in front of or behind the footy. He managed three games after being picked up in last year’s mid-season draft and was impressive in each. But he has not been seen at AFL level since round six ... there were far worse players than Blight in the early rounds. Last weekend he won the Sir Doug Nicholls Award for being best on ground for Richmond’s VFL team against Essendon with 25 disposals, 19 kicks, 11 intercept possessions and nine marks. They are numbers that I’m sure none of the Tigers are currently producing at AFL level. Yet he was not even named as an emergency in the side’s squad for their GWS clash on Saturday — what more must be possibly do?! Next is Deven Robertson, stuck in limbo at the Brisbane Lions: 44 games in six seasons, including the 2023 losing grand final, but only one appearance so far this year. Our Dev rejected a good offer to join West Coast after that grand final experience to sign on for two more years but his loyalty has been unrequited. That contract runs out at the end of this year. Take note Eagles – he’s more than handy with the ball and can run with an opponent as well. What about the only Arthur on an AFL list, the ever smiling Arty Jones, at the Western Bulldogs? He’s played three of 11 games in 2025 and is now banged up, sidelined for 7-9 weeks with a hamstring injury. Or Jack Buller, who joined Sydney from Claremont via the 2023 mid-season draft and has played one game. Does a 199cm and 99kg key forward and ruck fit the Swans’ needs list right now? You bet. Yet Buller, a teammate of Chad Warner and Logan McDonald in WA’s 2019 national championship winning side, can’t crack it. West Perth product Jasper Scaife has kicked 16 goals from seven games at Box Hill in the VFL this season, but can’t break into a Hawthorn side that desperately needs a spearhead. Go figure. This week, the WAFL sent another four players - Michael Sellwood (Peel to the Western Bulldogs), Lachlan Blakiston (East Fremante-Essendon), Archer May (Subiaco-Essendon) and Roane Steele (West Perth-Collingwood) – over east to chase AFL careers. Will they join David and Max in Santa Carla? Our advice is to come home, see if the Dockers or Eagles can open the door, and if it doesn’t work out there is always movie night with The Snitches. Next week’s feature: Donnie Darko. Mrs Snitch is airing the rabbit suits in anticipation.