AFL draft 2018: Dandenong Stingrays forward Sam Sturt docks at Fremantle

Sam Sturt didn’t get a game for his local club’s Under 19s at the start of the 2018 season. Eight months later he was the No 17 pick in the AFL national draft.

Sam Sturt in Fremantle colours after the AFL national draft.

PAUL Goonan laughs as he confirms the story.

Yes, he says, it’s true Sam Sturt didn’t get a game for the Mt Eliza Under 19s for the first round of 2018.

But he quickly adds that it was nothing to do with a lack of ability. Sturt had been missing from training because of his cricket commitments with Frankston Peninsula, Mt Eliza had a big squad of players and as coach Goonan felt he had to reward those who had been there for the pre-season.

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Eight months later, having risen with the speed of a Beatles single, Sturt is off to Fremantle Dockers after they selected him at No. 17 in the AFL national draft last Thursday night.

“It’s 100 per cent right. Don’t worry, it makes me look like a bit of a fool, but, yeah, we didn’t pick him for the first game of the year,’’ Goonan said on Saturday morning.

“It’s a good story. I was just going through my text messages the other day, reading the conversations he and I were having. I kept saying, ‘Mate, are you coming to training, we need to see you’.

“He was like, ‘I can’t, I can’t, got finals for cricket and I’m training three nights a week’.

“He came down and trained for a week or maybe two before Round 1 but I had to tell him I wasn’t picking him. And he understood. It was more of a policy than a quality thing, obviously. We can have a bit of a laugh about it now. But that’s the reality of club footy, the team environment stuff.’’

Sam Sturt celebrates after kicking a goal in the TAC Cup grand final.

Sturt did play a few games for Mt Eliza, as well as Peninsula Grammar.

Goonan saw his ability and so did his school coach, Brett Lovett, who had alerted the Dandenong Stingrays to the left-footer in 2017.

Lovett continued to push him up — part of his role entails doing reports on Stingrays players when they turn out in the AGS competition — and the Rays selected him for the first time in Round 14, in early August.

By the end of the season he had played in the club’s first TAC Cup premiership and was attracting the tag “draft bolter’’.

Lovett said he could remember watching Sturt for the first time and thinking, “Shit, this kid can play.’’

“He’s just got genuine talent,’’ former Melbourne star and VFL coach Lovett said.

“He does things other players can’t do. Stands out whether it’s being able to take a mark or his cleanness at ground level, understanding of the game, his skills. He really understands how to play as a forward — leads his man back, turns on them, gets that gaps on them. Leads to the right spots too. If a player is under pressure he leads right into their vision. They look up and there he is right there. Some forwards lead the other way and you have to be Peter Daicos to find them.

“When the Stingrays kids were playing with us you could compare them with Sam and he stood out from them too.’’

In his first game for Mt Eliza Sturt kicked two goals but was otherwise quiet and apologised to Goonan after the match. Hauls of six, five, six and six followed, and Goonan said he began taking phone calls from AFL clubs in the middle of the year about his young charge.

“It didn’t take long for them (recruiters) to get on to him,’’ Goonan said.

Former Melbourne star Brett Lovett pushed up his Peninsula Grammar player Sam Sturt.

He also remembers the words of Mt Eliza’s Under 17 coach Jarrod O’Neill, who had told Goonan, “This kid could be anything’’.

Interviewed on stage at Marvel Stadium after being drafted, Sturt thanked Lovett for the lift-off.

“He’s been a huge mentor for me,’’ he said.

“He’s been someone I could rely on as soon as this whole process started. He gave me his phone number and said, ‘Call me any time’.’’

Sturt also marvelled at his rise.

“It’s been an unreal experience. In February I was just thinking about cricket and the Under 19 Vic side … yeah, didn’t expect any of this.’’

Sturt was the first Stingrays player selected in the draft. Five others followed.

Balnarring junior Will Hamill, the son of former Frankston captain Steve, was drafted to the Adelaide Crows with pick 30.

Crib Point’s Bailey Williams, whose, father, Paul, was also a Frankston VFA star, went to West Coast Eagles at No 35.

Another Ray went interstate when Sydney took Zac Foot (Langwarrin) at No 51.

Rosebud’s Toby Bedford will play much closer to home, joining Melbourne with pick 75.

The rookie draft also brought an AFL listing for Mt Eliza’s Lachie Young, taken by the Western Bulldogs. Young was a 19-year-old with the Stingrays this year.