AFL hopeful Logan Austin is training with Ainslie to keep in shape ahead of Thursday's draft as the Tricolours and Belconnen put their fierce rivalry aside for the benefit of Canberra football.
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Ainslie best-and-fairest Aaron Vandenberg is shaping as a draft bolter with the Melbourne Demons showing plenty of interest in the NEAFL ball magnet.
Austin, a key position player, is part of the Greater Western Sydney academy and is hoping to follow former Belconnen teammate Jack Steele onto an AFL list through this week's draft.
He's training with Ainslie, who have signed former Magpies Jordan and Lachlan Harper, Simon Curtis and Nick Collins, with John Harper also taking up an assistant coaching role.
Tricolours coach Chris Rourke said it was part of a new partnership between past rivals to ensure that there's a genuine pathway from juniors through to the NEAFL.
"Scotty Reid, [Belconnen's] president, has been terrific, we've sat down and we've had some talks ... everybody seems to be on the same path," Rourke said.
"We certainly don't want to rape and pillage them, we just want to give their players a bit of a pathway.
"[Austin] has come down and hasn't missed a training. All we're talking about at the moment is hoping that he'll get drafted.
"If he doesn't, he might stick around, but we really haven't gone down the pathway of him playing for us yet, just offering him a spot to train."
Vandenberg had shoulder surgery after claiming his second consecutive Ainslie best-and-fairest and has been chased by SANFL club Central Districts.
But Melbourne are considering picking him up through either Thursday's draft or the rookie draft on December 3.
Ainslie has two other draft hopefuls, with Liam Griffiths and Tom Faul also in the mix.
"[Logan's] a bit like Aaron Vandenberg, Melbourne are speaking to him," Rourke said.
"We hope both of them get picked up, it'd be a real shot in the arm for Canberra footy if both those boys get picked up.
"That's what we need is a big shot in the arm for the whole competition and if they both got picked up it'd be ours and Belconnen's loss, but it'd be really good for the competition.
"Melbourne have taken a pretty big interest in [Vandenberg] and I've had two interviews myself about him.
"They seem pretty excited by him, but whether they'll take him, who knows."
The structure for next year's NEAFL and AFL Canberra first grade is slowly taking shape.
Canberra's two NEAFL clubs, Ainslie and Eastlake, look set to play 10 home games and six interstate in an 18-game home-and-away season.
They'll play each other four times.
Their squads of 35 will be drafted out to the first-grade clubs in March, with the Gungahlin Jets potentially getting 32 of the 70 picks.
The 12 rookies both NEAFL clubs can have will stay aligned with their first-grade club.
"It will be six clubs, a flow-down of NEAFL players to those clubs, broken up percentage wise in terms of needs," AFL Canberra boss Steve Maher said.
"[The rookies] will be excluded from the drafting process.
"They can be from any club and to promote it as a true pathway, they can still remain at their community club and be called upon on a needs basis."
