Aaron Cadman isn’t shying away from it – 2025 is his year to take a “big step.”
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Entering his third AFL season, the emerging key forward is ready to show exactly why the GWS Giants drafted him with the No. 1 pick back in 2022.
Cadman has all the tools to be a traditional ‘third-year breakout’ after showing promising signs in his second season.
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The 21-year old booted 30 goals from 23 games – including three bags of three goals – one of those during the Giants’ narrow qualifying final loss to Sydney.
And after another big pre-season on the training track and in the weight room, Cadman is keen to carry that onto the field ahead of GWS’ season-opening clash with Collingwood.
“This year is the year for me to make that big step. I’ve got the players around me and everyone believes I can be the player I want to become,” Cadman told foxfooty.com.au last month.
“It’s just putting all the puzzle pieces together really. Just continuing to have that belief in myself, I know what I’m capable of. I’ve shown glimpses of it and now it’s just about piecing it all together.
“It’s exciting, I feel like I’ve had a really good pre-season. Feeling really fit and strong compared to last season. Super excited to get into games and I feel like I’ve set myself up really well.”
Cadman is still only 35 games into his AFL career, and of course, we know key position players take longer to develop.
The Greater Western Victoria Rebels product might even be ahead of his time, given most key forwards don’t hit their straps until their mid 20s or so.
Consider this. Of the 14 Coleman medallists this century, only four kicked more goals than Cadman in their second seasons.
GOALS OF THIS CENTURY’S COLEMAN MEDALLISTS IN THEIR SECOND SEASON
Jeremy Cameron – 62
Jesse Hogan – 41
Jonathan Brown – 38
Lance Franklin – 31
Aaron Cadman? – 30
Brendan Fevola – 26
Harry McKay – 21
Charlie Curnow – 20
Jack Riewoldt, Matthew Lloyd -18
Tom Hawkins – 13
Jarryd Roughead, Fraser Gehrig – 12
Josh J Kennedy – 6
David Neitz – 1
Of course, there’s no guarantees Cadman, who kicked six goals from 12 games in his first season, continues on his current trajectory. But the well-spoken, motivated and bulked-up youngster certainly fills you with confidence.
Easing pressure on Cadman is the fact he’s part of a stacked Giants forward line with weapons everywhere including reigning Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan and gun recruit Jake Stringer, who both won’t feature against Collingwood due to injury, as well as star skipper Toby Greene.
While Hogan is clearly ‘the man’ in that Giants forward line after his career-best 2024 season, there’s reason to be bullish Cadman can get to that level with more experience and become Hogan’s star running partner.
Cadman explained there’s multiple reasons why it takes longer for key forwards to develop including the need to “mature into your body” and “grow up a little” as well as learning the nuances of his position’s craft.
“When the ball is kicked to you every time, there’s so many little tips, tricks and pointers you have to learn. It’s completely different to when you’re in U18s and you lead up to the ball and it gets kicked to you 99 times out of 100,” Cadman said.
“Whereas when the ball gets kicked on your head in the AFL and you’re up against Harris Andrews, it’s a whole different story.
“It’s trying to create your own space but also knowing when to hit. Being aggressive but not being too aggressive where you’re going to get slipped.
“There’s so much to learn as a key forward. I never really valued bringing the ball to ground as I do now. I count that as a win now. If I dropped a mark in U18s, I was kicking myself.
“It’s just having that patience and making sure you’re spending time working on your craft whenever you can. I feel like there’s so much to it compared to any other position.”
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Cadman going to another level would help the Giants as a collective achieve just that after several deep finals misses in recent seasons.
It including a cruel straight-sets finals exits last year, leading Sydney (28 points) and eventual premier Brisbane (44 points) by big margins before collapsing badly in their September showdowns.
Cadman said it would only spur on the Giants, who many are backing to win the premiership including 11 of 35 Fox Footy pundits, to go a few steps further in 2025.
“It’s just more fuel to the fire, really. Last season was obviously disappointing, but we lick our wounds and we’re back it,” the young gun added.
“We wanted to go a bit deeper into September, but that’s just the way footy goes. Everyone is trying to have a shot at it.
“It does hurt but we’ll get back on it and we’re looking really strong coming into this year. Especially picking up new recruits and new draftees, we keep adding strings to our bow.
“I’m super excited to get into games and see where we can go.”
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