McNeil, who skippered the Bushies as well as the NSW-ACT Rams at the under-18 national championships last season, wasn’t drafted despite a scintillating individual year.

He won the Bushies’ best and fairest award, was selected in the All Australian team and also won the Hunter Harrison Medal for the best and fairest player in division 2 at the championships.

Carson said while McNeil would be disappointed to miss out last night, he should stay positive.

“There are always surprises at each draft, it’s always really difficult to read what the 16 clubs are thinking,” he said.

“At the end of the day there are only 90 or so picks, so there are some really excited boys and some really disappointed ones.

“There are options there for Dylan, we have to try to get him the next best opportunity and hopefully that means training with an AFL club and pushing for a spot in the preseason or rookie drafts.

“It’s no different to what happened to Tom Rockliff last year (who missed out at the national draft but got picked-up by Brisbane in the preseason draft) — he went on and played senior footy for the Lions this year.

“It’s a delicate one, and we’ll just have to work with Dylan and get him into the best environment.”