Only just back in Australia after end of season trips to Las Vegas and Bali, new GC SUNS ruckman Josh Fraser - the number one National Draft pick in 1999 - took a few moments to look back on the launch pad of his ten-year strong AFL career.

Fraser said draft talk during the preceding season with Murray Bushrangers in the National Under 18’s competition was inescapable.

“The lead up to the whole thing made for a big twelve months because once one draft passes everyone by, the focus pretty much straight away turns to the next one.”

Although his name was constantly being bandied about it recruitment circles, Fraser said he was always nervous at the prospect of missing out when the big day came.

“I was constantly thrown up in the mix as a possible number one pick and certainly as a high draft pick. But as a player running around in the under 18’s you’re never really sure about what’s going to happen until your name gets called out. Until that happened I was still just as edgy as anyone else.”

The AFL clubs’ apparent hesitancy to discuss his future prospects did little to put his mind at ease.

“I was briefly spoken to by Collingwood when I had a chat to Neil Balme and a few of their guys. The only other club to talk to me was Fremantle who from memory had three picks inside the top five. I reckon not being spoken to probably scared me a bit because a few of my teammates at Murray Bushrangers had spoken to as many as six or seven clubs. As a seventeen year old kid you’d probably prefer to speak to as many as you could to be a bit more confident about being drafted. But I only had the two. Looking back I was really pretty nervous about it all. I remember being pretty glad to hear my name read out so I could get the chance to go to Collingwood.”

He said the event itself was something of a blur.

“Back then it was a mid-morning event. It was at the Melbourne Tennis Centre from memory. So they invited me down there and it all happened very quickly. I had my name read out very early on so it was all done and dusted in a matter of moments. There was a few cameras clicking and pretty much as soon as they read my name out I had all the Collinwood gear on. There was a couple of interviews. Then we all went home and I had a few friends over for a barbeque to celebrate. After that I think I had about three days to get myself packed up and down to Melbourne to start my first pre-season.”

Fraser will start training at his new footballing home next week. He said he sympathised with the plight of the younger brigade of GC SUNS players who were already well into their first full AFL pre-season.

“The thing I noticed is that you go from training with 17- and 18- year old guys and you’re used to what they’re capable of physically and then all of a sudden you’re training with men who’ve been at it for years and who are just so more capable. It can be really intimidating. I suppose it was a bit easier for me because I’d arrived at a club that’d finished last, so they were introducing a host of young blokes all at once, but still it’s definitely a real challenge. It takes a while to get in the swing of it.”

Fraser urged this year’s batch of GC SUNS draftees to do whatever they could to make every post a winner.

“Soak it all up, but treat it very much as a beginning,” he said. “Just learn as much as you can and make the most of every opportunity to get better. The fact is the footy world moves pretty quickly. The whole thing’ll pass you by in no time at all if you’re not paying attention.”