IT is the sight that would make every AFL club recruiting manager in the competition green with envy.

They are the very best 17-year-old players in the country and they've landed at the Gold Coast Football Club -- where they have joined the young guns who propelled the club to the finals of this year's under-18 TAC Cup competition.

When highly respected GCFC recruiting manager Scott Clayton took up his post at the start of the year, his first job was to scour Australia for the best young talent.

GCFC is already home to the best of Queensland's youngsters but the club were also able to list a dozen 17-year-olds from around the country.

The assembled talent is so strong that up to seven of the 12 would have been taken in the first round of last Thursday's AFL National Draft had they been eligible.

That is a heck of a lot of young talent at one club and GCFC recruiting manager Scott Clayton is ecstatic with his group.

"We think we have a good mix and they are a very talented -- there's no question about that," he said.

"It is up to somebody else to judge where they think they might have gone in a draft but we are really pleased with them."

For the record, the club settled on Maverick Weller (Burnie), Luke Russell (Burnie), Matt Shaw (Dandenong), Trent McKenzie (Western), Josh Toy (Calder), Hayden Jolly (Glenelg), Alex Keath (Murray), Brandon Matera (South Fremantle), Tom Nicholls (Sandringham), Taylor Hine (Calder), Jack Hutchins (Sandringham) and Piers Flanagan (Geelong).

Clayton said he went for the best players on offer as opposed to choosing players for different positions.

West Australian David Swallow has also come to the Coast a year early as one of the club's future national draft picks.

Also arriving is Darwin's Michael Gugliotta, 18, who has joined the Coast under a special listing.

Courtesy of Nick Smart, Gold Coast Bulletin