By WILL ASHCROFT has a fundamentally disarming quality. It’s not that he lacks confidence – far from it – it’s that he simply doesn’t sound like a guy his age is supposed to sound.
At 21, Ashcroft speaks as though he knows how his career will unfold. He’s sure there will be ups and downs, and that his current streak of premiership victories must inevitably end. He knows there will be new risks, new responsibilities, new pressures. He carries a level of maturity that eludes most athletes until their later years and is already talking about becoming a member of the Lions’ leadership group. Even when he reflects on moments that would define an entire career for someone else – two premierships, two Norm Smith Medals (for best on ground in a grand final), winning a grand final alongside his brother – there’s a steadiness to him that suggests he believes that this is only the start, and that his best football is still to come.
Ashcroft grew up with the game baked into his DNA. His father, Marcus Ashcroft, played 318 AFL games and was part of Brisbane’s champion threepeat side of the early 2000s. Footy was always part of Ashcroft’s life, and he knew early on that it was the path he wanted to follow. “From when I was about seven, I had that dream to play in the AFL,” he says. “I did other sports – rugby, swimming, athletics, cricket – but footy was always the one.”
Interestingly, though, he wasn’t born until the year after Marcus retired, so he never watched his dad play live. Instead, his idols were the midfielders of a later era: “Joel Selwood, Gary Ablett Jr. . . . those are the guys I watched the most growing up,” he says. Both were long-serving club captains and premiership winners, you’ll note.
Even as a junior, Ashcroft gravitated towards leadership. He was usually the best player on his team, but he was also the captain. His desire wasn’t just to play well – it was to lead by example and make others better. “I always felt driven to be the best – but I wanted to elevate everyone around me, too.”
When he entered the AFL system, expectations were high. A prized draft pick selected second overall under the father-son rule, Ashcroft was portrayed as the cornerstone of Brisbane’s new era. His rookie season proved the hype was justified. He earned a Rising Star nomination in just his second game. In round seven, he scored what would later be judged Goal of the Year. By round 18, he had tallied 10 Brownlow votes. Then it all came crashing down. In round 19, he ruptured his ACL, Season over.
In Ashcroft’s absence, the Lions would make a run to the 2023 grand final, where they lost to Collingwood by four points. Ashcroft, watching from the sidelines, couldn’t help but think he would’ve made a crucial difference. “At the time, it felt like the biggest thing I’d ever had to grapple with,” he admits. “I hadn’t had many injuries growing up. I’d never really missed football. And then, 10 seconds later, I’m out for 10 to 12 months.”
The injury forced him into a lengthy spell of rehab. But it also gave him perspective. Instead of seeing his recovery as lost time, he reframed it as an opportunity. Suddenly, he had time to strengthen his body, refine his game and overhaul his mindset. “I had 11 months to work on myself in ways you can’t when you’re playing every week,” he says. “That mindset shift really set me up.”
When Ashcroft returned midway through the 2024 season, Brisbane were sitting 13th on the ladder. By season’s end, they were fifth, thanks in no small part to Ashcroft elevating the midfield’s play. The Lions would surge all the way to the flag. On grand final day, Ashcroft had 30 disposals and kicked a goal on his way to winning the Norm Smith Medal, making him the youngest recipient since 1979.
“I was shell-shocked,” Ashcroft says, of the moment he learned he’d won the award. “With the whole ordeal of the last two years leading up to that, it felt like I had gone from right down the bottom to the top of the mountain. I was a bit overwhelmed, to be honest.”
I want people to see me as someone who performs in the big moments and in the big games. I'd also like to be known as a good leader."
In 2025, Ashcroft proved that what had happened the previous year had nothing to do with luck. The Lions won the premiership again, and Ashcroft won the Norm Smith Medal again, becoming just the fifth player to win the award twice – and by far the youngest. This time, he did it alongside his younger brother, Levi, who had been watching from the sidelines the year before. “After the grand final against the Swans, I said to him, ‘It would be pretty cool to do this together someday’,” Ashcroft says.
“To win alongside him and be in the locker room with him, when a year earlier I was grabbing him over the fence, was unreal. He did so much work to get himself drafted, first of all, then he had to have a shoulder operation in his first preseason,” Ashcroft continues. “To build from that and play 27 games in his rookie season is pretty unbelievable.” Suddenly, the Ashcroft brothers were premiership teammates, living out a childhood dream they’d talked about since they were kids kicking a footy in their backyard.
Now that the club has won two in a row, the question on everyone’s lips is whether history will repeat itself and the Lions can pull off another threepeat. While Ashcroft doesn’t shy away from that expectation, he doesn’t indulge it, either. “That’s the goal,” he says. “That’s the carrot that we’re chasing. It’s important that we recognise it and understand how amazing it would be, but at the same time, we just need to focus on the process and not get ahead of ourselves.”
IN HIS EARLY twenties, Ashcroft owns a résumé most players spend their entire career working towards. With that comes pressure, but that’s something Ashcroft has become accustomed to. “There’s extra pressure when you’ve performed in the past or you come in as a high draft choice,” he says. “You carry that all the way through your career. I see it as inevitable, really.”
Pressure is an uncontrollable, external factor, according to Ashcroft. He prefers to focus on what is within his control, like his own performance. “I can’t control what other people expect of me,” he says, “but I can control how I perform, and I’m not putting any limitations on what I can achieve this year.”
Robinson prefers not to cap his performance by aiming for specific benchmarks. He acknowledges that it would be nice to win a Brownlow, but he doesn’t go into games thinking about how many disposals he needs to tally or how many goals he needs to kick. “It’s nice to win awards,” he clarifies. “But they’re not something I write down as goals. I just want to be the best player and teammate I can be to help the team win.”
That mindset extends to how he trains. Brisbane’s program is efficient rather than brutal and puts a heavy emphasis on recovery. Ashcroft supplements it with extra upper-body sessions, swimming and occasional running to meet the demands of his role. Midfielders like him routinely cover 12 to 13 kilometres per game, so a higher level of fitness is required. “I’d be in the top tier,” he says, when asked how he rates his fitness against the rest of his clubmates. “But there are guys who can just fly around.”
While Brisbane have made the grand final every year that Ashcroft has been at the club, every team suffers losses. When results dip, as they inevitably do across a long season, Ashcroft takes care not to dwell on it. “A big part of it is accepting and understanding that not every week is going to be perfect,” he says. “Sometimes you play really well and lose, sometimes you play badly and win. You just can’t dwell on things and beat yourself up for too long.”
Ashcroft is about to enter his fourth AFL season, but he’s already planning for his future like he’s on the brink of retirement. He’s currently building a youth health and fitness app, the idea being to make sport-specific training modules and expert strength-and-conditioning advice more accessible. “I was lucky with the programs I had access to,” he says. “I wanted to create something that could give more kids that opportunity.”
It’s not a vanity project. Ashcroft is laying the groundwork for life after football – or, more accurately, life alongside it. He’s one of those athletes who understand the inherent fragility of a sporting career. He also has a clear idea of the mark he wants to leave. In 10 years or so, he wants to be remembered as not just a winner, but as a leader. “I want to keep winning as much as possible and have a winning legacy. I want people to see me as someone who performs in the big moments and in the big games,” he says. “I’d also like to be known as a good leader and as someone who has helped others reach their potential. Hopefully I’ve moved into the leadership group by then, too.”
And despite reaching the pinnacle of his sport so early in his career, Ashcroft believes his best football is ahead of him. “Yeah, definitely,” he says, when asked if he has room to improve. “It’s like I’ve said, I’m not putting any limitations on what I can achieve. I’ve done a lot of work physically and mentally this off-season that I think will be reflected in the year ahead. But yeah, I think I can still reach levels that I haven’t quite gotten to yet.”
In other words, for all he’s achieved, Ashcroft still feels as though he’s just getting started. This is just the beginning, he warns. And that’s a scary thought for the rest of the AFL.
Credits:
Photographer: Jamie Green
Styling: Grant Pearce
Grooming: Candice September
Digital Operator: Paul Castle
