For about six months in 2017, Wil Powell was known as ‘Player X’, the central figure in one of the greatest AFL recruiting stories of all time.

It was classic old-time recruiting in the modern era when the Gold Coast SUNS identified Powell as a prize target in less than an hour early in his draft year and swore never to mention him publicly again until the draft.

It was a ‘sting’ masterminded in extraordinary fashion by then list manager Scott Clayton and current list and recruiting manager Kall Burns, with so many twists and turns that it should be in print.

Indeed, as Powell prepares to play his 150th game for the SUNS against Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday and attention turns to how he got to the club, Clayton was left cursing himself.

Why? Because he’s just released a fascinating book called Deal Maker, which lifts the lid on his 40-year career in AFL recruiting. And he forgot to include the Powell epic.

It all started when Clayton and Burns joined SUNS Perth-based talent scout Rod Willet, a Morningside QAFL player and Queensland representative, to watch a very skinny and young Powell play for Claremont Colts at Lathlain Park in Perth early in the 2017 season.

Powell had been a state Under-12 and Under-15 representative but was overlooked by WA at Under-16 and Under-18 level. And somehow he’d fallen off the radar of the two WA-based AFL clubs.

“We watched the first half and that was all we needed. I remember vividly turning to Kall and saying ‘I’ve seen enough’. He was of the same view so right there and then we decided we had to draft him regardless of what it cost,” Clayton said.

“I said to him ‘this bloke is going to be a star’ and it didn’t matter where he fell in the draft, we were going to take him. He was just too good to pass over.”

What did Clayton see in him?

“Everything. He was quick, his skills were good, his decision-making, his reaction times - he was tough, so tough and he was raw as could be. His upside was massive.”

And so began a story that is almost too funny and too twisted to believe.

It all began at the picturesque home of WAFL club Perth, where cinema-style chairs overlook the oval. Clayton, Burns and Willet were among a large group of recruiters from across the league.

“We couldn’t believe that nobody was talking about this kid so at half-time we decided to walk out. We wanted to make it look like we weren’t interested in anyone playing that day.

“As we left we pledged never to mention him publicly until the draft. We called him ‘Player X’ in any internal discussions or documents just in case,” Clayton recalled.

“We told Wil we’d draft him and we asked him and his family not to say a word about anything to anyone. It was our little secret … it’s very rare you see a talent like that who was always going to be a good AFL player and slides completely under the radar.

“We didn’t take any chances. Rod followed him through the season but never at a game when other scouts would be there. It was like a covert operation in a best-selling spy novel.”

Powell was the third of five children to Scott and Sharon Powell, who hailed from Wales and Italy respectively but were big football fans. Sharon was secretary of the Scarborough junior club and much of the family life revolved around football.

Wil, who for no special reason is definitely Wil with one ‘l’ and not William, came after brothers Daniel and Stephen and before sisters Jade and Natasha.

The SUNS recruiting team got to know them all, visiting the Powell family home in suburban Karrinyup several times.

As recruiters do, on one visit they asked him to show them his bedroom. It’s common practice and can tell a bit about prospective draftees in relation to their non-football make-up.

“We were sitting in the lounge and when we asked to see his room he looked at us blankly and said ‘you’re in it’. We said ‘what do you mean?’ and he explained that he’d sit up watching TV late at night until he dozed off and stay there,” Burns recounted.

“He wasn’t your average draft candidate. He was a very young, very naïve and very immature kid. But he desperately wanted to play. He was prepared for our interview with a little black book full of questions he wanted to ask us about his game, AFL lifestyle and how he could continue to improve.

“They are a lovely family and we didn’t see or learn anything through the course of the year that changed our mind from that first day.”

Every week counted. With every passing week the SUNS were one week closer to pulling it off.

Powell was overlooked by the WA Under-18 selectors for the national championships, which for the first time were played under a round-robin format between Vic Metro, Vic Country, SA, WA and the Australian Alliance, a combined side from the former Division Two states which quickly became known as the Allies.

WA finished second behind Vic Metro as WA’s Oscar Allen won the Larke Medal for the best player, while the Allies’ Nick Blakey won the Hunter Harrison Medal, decided in a separate series prior to Allies selection which involved the SUNS, Lions, Swans and Giants academies, plus Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Four West Australians won All-Australian selection: Allen, later pick No.21 to West Coast and now at Brisbane; Sam Taylor, pick No.28 to GWS; Aaron Naughton, pick No.9 to the Western Bulldogs; and Brayden Ainsworth, pick No.32 to West Coast.

Things were getting tense as the draft, to be held in Sydney on 24 November, approached.

Again there was no mention of Powell when Claremont, the WAFL club for the Scarborough region, issued via Twitter a list of possible draftees from the region. They nominated Zac Langdon, later drafted at No.56 by GWS, Matt Guelfi, pick No.76 to Essendon, and Bailey Banfield, a rookie to Fremantle.

Only one opposition club showed any interest in Powell when Melbourne interviewed him at the family home. Powell was worried. As soon as they left he rang Clayton to tell him what had happened. By then he had his heart set on the Gold Coast.

But there was no follow-up from the Demons, and a week before the draft the SUNS started to believe that Operation X might actually work.

Then there was a hiccup. Powell’s Perth-based player agent sent an email to every AFL club with an attached highlights package and an invitation to call him for further information.

“We couldn’t believe it. We’d told him we’d draft Wil but still he broke the cone of silence,” said Burns, able to laugh about it now. “Fortunately, it didn’t do any damage.”

But there was still one more part to the story. It was an omen which confirmed to Clayton and Burns that it was meant to be.

“We walked out of our offices in the Hostplus building in Melbourne one day to get some lunch before the draft and stopped at the traffic lights. We were on the corner of Bourke Street and William Street, and there was a bloke pushing the walk button repeatedly even though it had already been pushed,” Burns recalled.

“When the lights turned green and we started across the street we saw the bloke’s bomber jacket … in big cursive writing were two words … Wil Powell.”

Neither can remember whether it was Wil or Will, with two l’s in a possible reference to four-time Masters CrossFit champion Will Powell, but it didn’t matter.

“Scotty is really big on omens, he always has been. So we figured that was as big an omen as you’ll ever get. And we’d get our man,” Burns said.

All the signs were good, but what the SUNS pair didn’t want to do was embarrass the experts on draft day by picking someone they didn’t know. It wasn’t the done thing in the first round.

So on the morning of the draft Clayton rang AFL website draft expert Cal Twomey and Burns rang AFL talent guru Kevin Sheehan in the strictest confidence to let them know the SUNS would draft a player they probably didn’t know, and offered some background information.

Finally, it was draft day. Friday, 24 November 2017 at Engie Stadium.

The SUNS, who had traded pick No.2 to Fremantle for academy product and former first-round draftee Lachie Weller, watched anxiously as the first round unfolded.

Cam Rayner was pick No.1 to Brisbane and Andrew Brayshaw went No.2 to Fremantle. Then it was Paddy Dow to Carlton at No.3, Luke Davies-Uniacke to North Melbourne at No.4 and Adam Cerra to Fremantle at No.5. Two WA picks down.

Jaidyn Stephenson was pick No.6 to Collingwood before St Kilda took Hunter Clark and Nick Coffield at No.7 and No.8 ahead of Naughton at No.9. Then it was Lochie O’Brien to Carlton at No.10, Aiden Bonar to GWS at No.11, Darcy Fogarty to Adelaide at No.12 and Jarrod Brander to West Coast at No.13. Another WA pick down. No more before the SUNS’ first pick at No.19.

Matthew Ling went to Sydney at No.14, Zac Bailey at No.15 to Brisbane, Ed Richards to the Western Bulldogs at No.16 and Jack Higgins to Richmond at No.17.

One to go, surely they were safe, they thought.

And they were. At No.18 Brisbane took Brandon Starcevich, leaving Powell for the SUNS at No.19. Operation X was, indeed, an overwhelming success. The SUNS had their man.

Twomey and Sheehan duly explained to the TV audience exactly who Wil Powell from Scarborough was, but the following day the media described him as “a shock pick” and a “bolter”.

Not for too long. Not after his AFL debut in Round 15, 2018 against Collingwood at People First Stadium. And not since.

Powell played seven games in his first season and has pretty much been a regular when available since, going 13-15-22-12-18-18-25 games year by year to 2025 and adding 19 games this year.

He was runner-up in the club champion award in 2021, ninth in 2023 and 2025, and seventh in 2024, and this year won selection in a star-studded WA State of Origin side that played Victoria.

The silky-skilled half-back-turned-midfielder will be the 15th player from the 2017 draft to reach 150 games and, despite playing only two finals, sits on the games list behind only seven players drafted ahead of him: Brayshaw (191), Rayner (188), Naughton (186), Bailey (186), Richards (168), Cerra (166) and Davies-Uniacke (151).

Other 150-gamers are Geelong-turned-West Coast pick No.25 Tim Kelly (183), Melbourne pick No.31 Bayley Fritsch (190), Sydney pick No.33 Tom McCartin (170), Hawthorn/Geelong pick No.45 James Worpel (158), Geelong pick No.57 Gryan Miers (168), Richmond/West Coast rookie Liam Baker (169) and Collingwood/Melbourne rookie Brody Mihocek (169).

And what happened to the Claremont trio? Powell has them all covered. Guelfi has 124 games at Essendon but only three this year, Banfield has 118 games at Fremantle but none this year, and Langdon played 31 at GWS and 25 at West Coast before being delisted at the end of 2022 with a year to run on his contract.