Gold Coast AFL draft pick Sam Flanders on his connection with 1-2 selections Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson
Fremantle and Sydney were interested, but ultimately passed on Gippsland Power product Sam Flanders, paving the way for Gold Coast to reunite the Gippsland Power product with 1-2 picks Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson.
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Sam Flanders never enjoyed the cold winter months growing up on a dairy farm at Fish Creek.
But those days are over, with the Gippsland Power product bound for warmer winters on the Gold Coast.
Flanders was selected by the Suns with pick 11 in Wednesday night’s AFL national draft, slipping outside the top-10 where he had attracted significant interest from Sydney and Fremantle.
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“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it,” Flanders said of being snapped up by the Suns.
“What I’d heard was it was probably going to be Sydney or Freo but I didn’t go to them. I wasn’t nervous (after I didn’t), I was more just excited and then when Gold Coast read my name out I was over the moon.”
The midfielder and forward, who has been likened to Melbourne’s Christian Petracca for his explosiveness, was one of three first-round selections snapped up by the Suns alongside pick one Matthew Rowell and pick two Noah Anderson.
Flanders has played both against the Vic Metro pair and alongside them as part of the AFL Academy Australian teams over the past two years.
“I already had a bit of a connection (with Rowell and Anderson) which is good and I’m really looking forward to building that connection the next couple of years,” Flanders said.
“I’m really excited about what’s to come.”
