The 18-year-old, who has trained with the QBE Sydney Swans Academy since its inception, was named in the Under-18 All-Australian squad, earned the Rams’ MVP honour and took out the prestigious Ben Mitchell award at the tournament, which concluded in Melbourne last week.
The talented midfielder, who will be eligible for this year’s Draft, said he felt his performance at the recent championships was another step in the right direction towards playing AFL football.
“I think what I’ve just achieved has obviously furthered my chances of being picked up - hopefully to the Swans - at the end of the year,” Perris told SwansTV.
“I know I’ve still got a lot to work on but the advantage of all of this is being able to communicate with coaches and AFL staff about what I need to work on.
“I still know I’ve got a few months now to really knuckle down and do more work on what I need to do.”
Perris was named in the best in all five of the Rams’ matches during the Championships and was the only NSW/ACT player to gain selection in the All-Australian team.
But it was the honour of taking out the peer-voted Ben Mitchell Medal just one year after he took out the Cameron Ling Medal that meant the most to the youngster.
“Similar to the Cameron Ling Medal for level one, this was the level two award for the AIS, so each of the players get given a value like loyalty, honesty and all that sort of stuff,” Perris said.
“Then at the end of the program we had to vote a 3,2 and 1 on who we thought best modelled those values, so luckily enough there were a few people who voted for me and I came home with that one as well.
“It was good especially because I look up to a lot of those guys in the AIS.
“Being from New South Wales, there are a lot of guys there from the home states of football, so I sort of look up to them, so to have them voting for me was just awesome really.”
While confident his recent performances would hold him in good stead for the Draft, Perris admitted that he still had a lot of work to do in order to be considered.
The midfielder, who has been training with the Sydney Swans and playing reserves intermittently this season, said he hoped to improve the defensive aspects of his game, as well as his goal kicking.
“I’m really looking forward to the next four months of football and really working on those things,” he said.
“I hope to become a bit more of a goal-kicking midfielder.
“I need to obviously work on my finishing and the defensive side of the game as well, so I’m just continually improving my fitness and keeping up that defensive mentality in regards to tackling and those sorts of areas. “
Off the field, Perris studies Media - Communication and Journalism part time at the University of NSW. Earlier this year, he wrote this piece about under-18 Academy athlete Vivek Sainju.
