Central District’s Aaron Nietschke boosts draft hopes with under-18s’ Most Valuable Player award
HE LIVES on a farm in a town with just 42 people and drives an hour every week to train and play his beloved footy. Now, Aaron Nietschke has been named SANFL’s under-18’s Most Valuable Player — with his sights set squarely on his AFL dream.
AARON Nietschke’s hometown has just 42 people but being faced with a move to the city to follow his AFL dream does not scare him.
The 18-year-old Central District utility was raised on his family’s 930ha wheat and sheep farm in the mid-north locality of Hansborough and later played for Eudunda-Robertstown.
It takes Nietschke almost an hour to drive from home to Elizabeth Oval for trainings and games — and obviously longer for matches further away than the Ponderosa.
His chances of having to move away from the family farm to join an AFL club have been boosted after receiving an invite to next month’s state draft combine and also being named the SANFL under-18s’ Most Valuable Player.
He averaged 32 disposals, 14 contested possessions and nine marks in eight games for the Bulldogs’ under-18s this year and also played five reserves and three league matches.
“A lot of footballers obviously dream of making it to the AFL, so it would be amazing,” Nietschke says.
“It (moving from home) would be a bit of a change, but after a few weeks I’d probably get used to it.
“If you want to play AFL, you have to make a few sacrifices.”
Picture: Tait Schmaal
Nietschke, a member of SA’s first under-18 national championship-winning squad since 2014, has since been in contact with a few AFL recruiters.
But he refuses to get too far ahead of himself.
“I just have to keep training for the testing, working hard and hopefully I do all right.
“The clubs have asked me questions about my footy, but I think they want to try to get to know me as a person as well.”
The 184cm, 77kg rising star’s introduction to league football was a brutal one — a 44-point loss to Norwood at Elizabeth Oval on August 11.
“It was a good experience to play against the best team in the comp,” Nietschke says.
“It was a lot tougher and they had really good skills.
“Their (Norwood) workrate was pretty elite and that was the biggest thing — how hard they work to get the footy.”