Sam Flanders turning heads ahead of AFL Draft with comparisons to Christian Petracca
In two years, basketball fan Sam Flanders has gone from a social footballer to a likely top-10 draft pick. Here’s how he went from a casual footballer at Fish Creek to one of the country’s hottest prospects.
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Sam Flanders never had the energy for Saturday morning football.
More focused on another ball sport, he used to just go through the motions playing as a forward for Fish Creek.
“You’d play basketball on Friday night, get home at 2am and it was just easier to play forward the next day because you were buggered,” Flanders said.
“Footy was more just a social thing just then.”
Flanders always had football talent, but it has only been the past two years that he has “got serious” about the sport and allow that to flourish.
Now he is shaping as a high AFL draft pick, having been compared to Melbourne’s Christian Petracca as a powerful mid-sized forward who can also run through the midfield on the back of improving aerobic capacity.
“Hopefully if I can build my tank a little bit more I’d like to be more midfield dominant and rest forward,” Flanders said.
“But as Petracca does, he plays up forward and has short bursts in the midfield. That’s me at the moment.”
Playing for Vic Country, Flanders was the fifth-ranked player at the under-18 national championships, averaging 113 ranking points across his four games.
Strong overhead with explosive speed and power, he averaged 22.5 disposals (10 contested), 4.5 clearances, 4.8 score involvements and six tackles to be named an All-Australian.
“I put a bit of pressure on myself because that was one of the goals that I set at the start of the year,” Flanders said of the honour.
“I wanted to come out and show something I hadn’t done at NAB League and try and take that next step and the way I finished off the carnival I was stoked.”
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Flanders grew up on a dairy farm at Fish Creek but now resides in Newborough, near Moe, where he is finishing Year 12 studies and has become a coffee snob.
“We’ve got a couple of coffee groups with mates,” he said.
The North Melbourne supporter is also a big NBA fan, his favourite player Derrick Rose.
“I just follow the league and the good players,” Flanders said.
“I guess I’m a Detroit fan now he (Rose) is at Detroit.”