BLG Draft History – Footballers drafted to the AFL

PETER ARGENT

The AFL draft started in 1986 with South Australian Martin Leslie – who would later coach the Nuriootpa Rover Football Club – being the first pick ever. Just a year later, the Barossa and Light and the Gawler and Districts competitions came together in 1987.

From the iconic first AFL draft there was another local flavour. Interestingly Stephen Connelly, a Gawler Central junior and Central District league footballer, who would later be senior playing coach at Willaston was among six Brisbane Bears pre-draft selections in ’86, along with fellow SANFL talents of the epoch Matthew Campbell, Neil Hein, Mark Mickan, Colin McDonald and Ben Harris.

Twice so far, the BLG have enjoyed having three players selected in a single draft. The first was in 1997, when the Willaston trio of Ben Walton (pick #16), Ben Kinnear (#56) and Scott Whiston (#86) all went in that draft. Then in 2003 the trio of soccer-convert Sam Butler (#20) from South Gawler, Jay Nash (#28) from Nuriootpa and Gawler Central second-generation player Brad Symes (#30) all got their first opportunities on AFL lists.

Certainly, the most high-profile draftee from BLG football was Angaston’s Shannon Hurn, who had already played in an Under 19s and two league flags at Central District, before he was secured by West Coast with pick #13 in the 2005 AFL draft. Like 2025 first round candidate Dyson Sharp, Hurn was also captain of the SA state Under 16s and Under 18s, and an All-Australian in his draft year. Hurn was also an outstanding cricketer, who had received a rookie contract at the SACA. He would go on to have a 333-game AFL career where he captained the Eagles in two Grand Finals and was the 2018 premiership skipper.

Justin Westhoff took a different path to a 280-game career with the Power, only ever playing in one SA state junior representative game. That was for the SA Under 20s side in 2005 at full back, in a team captained by Freeling recruit and long-time stalwart Adam Cockshell. He played in the SANFL league Grand Final of 2006 for Central District and was collected by Port Adelaide with their final pick, number 71 that year. A year later Westhoff had the bittersweet memory of playing in the 2007 AFL Grand Final in front of a crowd of 97,302 patrons.

The Gawler Central pair of Hugh Reimers and Dylan Pfitzner were recruited by the Western Bulldogs and St. Kilda respectively. Nathan Steinberner from Tanunda was picked up by Port Adelaide from the Central District Football Club as a zone selection in the 1996 AFL draft as they were entering the big time.

Current Tanunda coach Sam Colquhoun was secured in the rookie draft after being the SA Under 18s MVP in 2012. Kapunda’s big man Jonathan Giles was originally drafted to Port Adelaide, but after a season and a best and fairest at Sturt, played 50 games with the GWS Giants in their inaugural years, before further AFL football with Essendon and West Coast.

South Gawler’s Alan Obst was originally drafted to Adelaide for a year, before getting a second chance and debuting with North Melbourne in 2008. He would co-coach the Barossa District side to the 2016 and 2017 flags with Todd Miles.

The Angaston pair of siblings Kent and Wade Kingsley were traded to North Melbourne in exchange for Eudunda lad Paul Geister who was drafted to the Kangaroos in pre-season draft of 1993. Kent Kingsley would play 125 AFL games, 110 of them with Geelong, before returning to BLG football to play alongside his mate, Craig Harvey.

Another Panthers junior, ruckman Jack Hannath was drafted to Fremantle, while Angaston defender Rhett Montgomerie was on the Essendon Demons list for a season, both as mature age players.

A member of the 2018 title winning SA state Under 18s side alongside Jack Lukosius, Connor Rozee and Izak Rankine, Jez McLennan was drafted to and had four years in the Gold Coast list, while father-son selection at Hawthorn Luke McCabe is also a Tanunda Magpies junior product.

The youngest of the three Westhoff brothers Matthew was drafted a year after Justin, at pick number 33, in the 2007 also by Port Adelaide, playing six games of AFL games in 2008 and 2009.

Perhaps the most unique draftee out of BLG football, was prodigious sporting talent James Moss. He was plucked out of the Willaston Donnybrooks Under 17s, after a Dean Tobitt Medal and a CDFC Best and Fairest at BLG Senior Colts level in premiership years. Sadly, after playing in the SANFL League Grand Final win of ’08, his body couldn’t handle the rigors of elite training, and the football public never got to see how good Moss may have been at a professional level.

A former BLG Barracker – Co-op Senior Colts Footballer of the Year in 2010, Jack Madgen had an unusual pathway to AFL football, after a significant basketball career. In November 2017, he was recruited as a Category B rookie by Collingwood, after discussions from his uncle Matt Rendell and played as a half-back in the inaugural 2018 AFLX tournament. He would go on to play 49 AFL games and captain the Adelaide Crows SANFL team, where he won SANFL “Team of the Year” honours this season. A line coach for the Crows AFLW team currently, he will be the Richmond Tigers VFL coach in 2026.

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The 2025 AFL draft will be held at Marvel Stadium on on Wednesday, November 19 and Thursday, November 20.

You can follow all the AFL trade action HERE.

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