The long wait through an AFL draft has made Dan Houston fully appreciate his opportunity at Port Adelaide

Dan Houston is another AFL player who was left hanging through a nerve-racking draft period — and proven there are diamonds hiding in the rookie draft.

Every AFL player has a story. Port Adelaide defender Dan Houston’s tale very much explains why he dreads complacency; why he puts everything in his football.

Houston knows just how close his hope to play Australian football at the elite level never came true. This might underline how he also appreciates how quickly it could slip away too.

Imagine, to understand 21-year-old Houston’s story, being courted by four AFL clubs and not hearing your name called in the 70 picks of the 2015 AFL national draft.

And three days later — with your last chance to follow your dream — the AFL rookie draft gets to pick 34 with North Melbourne calling Majak Daw … and your laptop freezes with its internet connection.

Houston threw himself on the couch … dreams started being overwhelmed by reality. The pre-draft interest from West Coast, Brisbane, Carlton and the Power appeared to be vanishing call by call.

Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston is held back by North Melbourne’s Shaun Higgins in a JLT game. Picture: Sarah Reed

“I sat there … I always thought I would be picked up in the draft,” recalls Houston. “After (being overlooked in) the national draft, I started thinking VFL, go back to Oakleigh Chargers a 19-year-old, uni … and find a job … maybe.

“It was a nerve-racking time.

“I thought (in the lead-up to the draft) I was going to either West Coast or Port, around the third-round pick (after the Power had called Riley Bonner at 37).

“It went past that … and by the rookie draft, my manager said Brisbane weren’t going to take me; Carlton maybe and did not say much about Port Adelaide.

“My laptop froze at pick No. 40 … and then loaded up 10 picks at once; my Dad was going crazy, I knew then something was up.”

Houston was Port Adelaide’s last call at the rookie draft. No. 45. He came to Alberton — from the Victorian under-age system — labelled as a “forward”, a lead-up forward all through his junior career.

“But no X-factor,” says Houston.

Necessity — as the Port Adelaide Magpies in the SANFL had holes to fill in defence — turned Houston into a defender. The role works for him as an AFL player to, as noted with his Rising Star nomination in 2017.

However, there is still the forward in Dan Houston.

“I like kicking goals,” said Houston, who has kicked four goals in his 41 AFL games. “But I like doing what I am good at — and I think I’m better at defending.”

Houston was not sure the conversion from forward to defender was made in his five-game audition with the Magpies.

“I thought I was alright without being great,” said Houston.

The 2017 AFL pre-season made the difference.

“I’ve not been forward since,” Houston said.

The AFL draft scouting notes say of Houston: “Reads the play well, strong kicking skills.”

“They are my strengths … and I see myself more involved in the game from the back lines than if I was forward,” Houston said.

There is a telling tribute to two of Port Adelaide’s experienced defenders — new vice-captain Hamish Hartlett and Matthew Broadbent — that they tutored Houston in his progress to become a staple of the Power back six today.

“We play a similar sort of style of game,” Houston said. “They’ve helped me with all of my game — not just reading the play to have me improve my contest work.

“I feel (three years into the AFL game) more confident. I don’t worry as much. I just go out there to play my game.

“Time (helps) … and being able to improve my game over the past three years to a standard that I know I can hold up under pressure so that my team-mates around me can have confidence in me.

“Watching people play has helped me; I find I learn a lot from watching, more so on a Monday (at review) than playing.”

Having advanced his game in the contest, particularly in marking contests, Houston now has turned his attention to leadership — at just 21.

“I’m working to communicate more on the field; naturally I am pretty quiet,” Houston said.

THE BASSETT FACTOR

Dan Houston of the Power during a training session at Alberton Oval on Tuesday. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

Houston is one of Nathan Bassett’s success stories as the former Crows defender last year built the meanest Port Adelaide defence in the club’s AFL story.

Houston, in his second AFL season, played in all of the Power’s 22 home-and-away games.

“He has been awesome; he’s one of my best coaches I’ve had,” says Houston of Bassett, now the forwards coach at Alberton.

“He helped me understand my role in defence — and how the game works.

“He just understands,” adds Houston of the former Crows full back who played 210 AFL games after a false start at Melbourne.

“He understands how a player operates. He knows there isn’t always a right answer. And he is tough at the right time. For all those tough conversations, he understands — and explains everything well.”

Houston is now tutored by new Power defensive coach Brett Montgomery, in his first year back at Alberton where he was part of Port Adelaide’s successful 2004 AFL premiership campaign.

Houston’s education is to advance to appreciate systems more so than a role he has already made his own.

“Monty has worked a bit more on whole-team defence,’ Houston said. “He is different in how he looks more at how we defend as a team.

“(The off-season changes at Port Adelaide) left questions rolling into Round 1. Is everything that changed going to hold up? It is good to have that reassurance after two games.

“But we’ve had patches in which we have not been as good. We’d like to tidy that up.”

DAN HOUSTON

Age: 21 (May 12, 1997)

Height: 186cm

Weight: 83kg

Position: Defender

AFL games: 41

AFL goals: 4

Draft call: No. 45, 2015 pre-season draft

Recruited from: Oalkleigh, Victoria

Honours: 2017 Rising Star nomination