By ZAC MILBANK<\/p>\n
SANFL is celebrating a record haul in the first-round of the 2025 AFL Draft, with seven Croweaters having their football dreams realised at the annual roll call in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
As many as seven South Australians had their name called inside the opening 24 selections, edging past the League\u2019s previous best of six first-round choices in 2012.<\/p>\n
SANFL had four players in attendance for the opening night of the AFL Draft at Marvel Stadium, North Adelaide\u2019s Sam Cumming, Central District pair Dyson Sharp and Cameron Nairn and last minute inclusion Latrelle Pickett from Glenelg.<\/p>\n
And it was hard-as-nails Rooster Cumming who got things rolling for the Croweaters, selected by Richmond at pick No.7 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Described by SA U18 coach Tony Bamford as a \u201dsilent assassin\u201d, 183cm Cumming hails from Wentworth in NSW and has modelled his game on Swans star Isaac Heeney.<\/p>\n
Pickett, who was ushered into the Victory Room without any fanfare, was the shock selection from SA when he was taken by Melbourne at pick No.12.<\/p>\n
The fleet-footed Tiger was presented his Demons guernsey by cousin Kozzy Pickett in a memorable moment, leaving him to soak in the fact he was playing for Tumby Bay just over twelve months earlier.<\/p>\n
SA U18 captain and Larke Medallist Dyson Sharp, who measures in at 188cm, was next to have his name called, by Essendon at pick No.13.<\/p>\n
A readymade midfield prospect who has gained plenty of experience playing in Central District\u2019s Hostplus SANFL League team for the past two seasons, Sharp has been likened to Carlton Brownlow Medallist Patrick Cripps.<\/p>\n
Hailing from Barossa District where he followed in the footsteps of his club legend father Darren, Sharp has the capacity to play in Round 1 for the Bombers in 2026.<\/p>\n
It caused Bulldog Cameron Nairn, who received a late invite last week to attend at Docklands, to sweat a little longer than expected before being snapped up by Hawthorn at pick No.20.<\/p>\n
Nairn has impressed with his versatility in being able to play as a roaming forward, or as an athletic wingman, where he shone with Central in the SANFL U18s in the second half of this season.<\/p>\n
Measuring in at 188cm, Nairn \u2013 from Willaston in the Barossa \u2013 attracted the attention of scouts with his seven-goal haul against Western Australia at the National Championships whilst also running a slick time of 6:13 in the 2km time trial.<\/p>\n
He will be joined at the Hawks by another Bulldog in Aidan Schubert, who slid to pick No.23 in a frenetic night of South Aussie selections.<\/p>\n
Schubert, from Gawler Central Football Club, brings great versatility in being able to play as a key forward while also pinch-hitting in the ruck with his 197cm frame.<\/p>\n
In between, West Adelaide\u2019s Mitch Marsh became the first ever draftee from the Kangarilla Football Club when he landed at Adelaide with pick No.22.<\/p>\n
Marsh, the son of 1998 Crows premiership ruckman Ben Marsh, is a roaming tall forward who is strong overhead while also possessing a lovely left-foot kick for goal or in general field play.<\/p>\n
Sturt\u2019s Harley Barker was the seventh and final Croweater chosen on night one, finding an AFL home at Geelong with pick No.24.<\/p>\n
From the Mount Barker Football Club, the athletic wingman presents great value for the Cats at this position in the draft as he recovers from an ACL injury.<\/p>\n
An U18 All-Australian, Barker has great aerobic capacity which he used effectively with his superb ball use by foot for the Double Blues.<\/p>\n
More SANFL players are expected to get their opportunity on night two of the AFL Draft tomorrow and in the AFL Rookie Draft on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By ZAC MILBANK SANFL is celebrating a record haul in the first-round of the 2025 AFL Draft, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-295085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}