NICHOLAS Naitanui may be making headlines as a hot draft prospect at the moment, but he may be joined by other Fijian football talent in the near future with the Western Bulldogs signing two young Fijian athletes onto their international scholarship scheme.

Inoke Ratu, 19, and Solomoni Loki, 16, were both spotted by the Dogs during the trials the club held in Fijian towns Labasa and Suva earlier this month.

Both from Suva, the young pair were met with dreadful conditions during the testing day, with monsoonal rain soaking the turf for 12 hours before the trial and then throughout the afternoon.

Bulldogs development coach Simon Dalrymple said that both players showed "good game sense and ball handling skills", as well as "good athletic ability, speed and vertical leap" during the trial game held in the inclement weather.

"We played a number of handball games as well as some eight-on-eight games, and they really stood out as being competitive," he told westernbulldogs.com.au.

"They seemed to quickly grasp the knowledge of the skills of the game.

"They were familiar with the game, they'd seen it on TV, and they never played it but they knew who'd won the grand final. There is a bit of exposure over there."

The Dogs were willing to commit to as many as four young Fijians as part of the push into the South Pacific under AFL international rookie rules.

The players will now be offered a salary of $1,000 for this year, and will be in weekly contact with Dalrymple regarding how they are handling their training program.

"They still live in Fiji but we have first access to them so they can't go to another AFL club," he said.

"We send them over a development program, which will cover all their football skills, conditioning, diet and game sense. We've got a pretty thorough program that we'll put in place with them.

"We've got some people on the ground in Fiji that will help us deliver that, as well as the AFL Oceania, which will send a competition over there so they'll play some games and they'll link in some visits to the Bulldogs throughout the 12 month period."

The Bulldogs will have the opportunity to relocate the players to Melbourne at the end of the year and sign them as international rookies on a bigger salary, or they can keep the players in Fiji on a similar agreement for another 12 months.

Dalrymple said the Dogs wouldn't rule out returning to Fiji to hold further trials in the coming years, after being encouraged by the turnout at both testing days.

"It was very much based on the vision of Campbell Rose to look outside the square,  with the draft over the next few years set to be compromised," he said.

"It will be a real issue getting quality players over the next four years, and Campbell, along with James Fantasia, was encouraged by looking at [potential No.1 draftee] Nicholas Naitanui this year.

"He's going to be high up in the draft, and really from there, Scott Clayton and [financial backer businessman] Shaun Bassett went over there and did a lot of groundwork in setting up the program and developing some great contacts.

"We had over 400 attend the trials, and that was given the rain in Suva all day and night, and to get 300 there was an unbelievable result.

"The publicity out of us signing these two boys will be enormous. We see that it will just get bigger and bigger."

The Bulldogs will look at flying Ratu and Loki to Melbourne later this year, which will be their first overseas trip.
                                                                       
Inoke Ratu (19 years old, 197cm)          
Athletic, very competitive, raw
Lives in Suva

Solomoni Loki (16 years old, 185 cm)          
Raw but silky running style, great hands, an incredible aptitude for ball sport
Lives in Suva