Shepparton’s Oscar Ryan attended the event, not as a draft invitee, but as a guest for one of his teammates, however, not long after 9.30pm he found himself front and centre of the coverage.
The Shepparton United youngster lived out his childhood dream as Adelaide gave him one of the biggest shocks, and memorable moments, of his life.
Crows senior coach Matthew Nicks greeted the 18-year-old to tell him the good news moments before the club selected the skilful, dashing and tough defender with pick 27 of the draft.
It was sensational and heart-warming scenes for viewers at home.
The cameras panned to Ryan as he was swamped by teammates, followed by moments of pandemonium as the reality of what was occurring began to sink in.
A Murray Bushrangers polo top was quickly flung his way before he was embraced by the club’s talent manager Mick Wilson ― who had just watched the fourth Bushranger land on an AFL list.
Seconds later Ryan was up on the stage alongside his new coach, Nicks, with a Crows jumper in his hands and with the biggest grin plastered over his face.
It wasn’t a miracle that Ryan was drafted, however, it was a shock to many, including Ryan himself, with the United talent expected to be selected during the latter rounds of the draft which resumed today.
Even Fox Footy had the draft bolter tipped to go pick 50.
Ryan, who spoke to The News ahead of the draft, revealed he was attending night one of the draft to support his fellow Bushrangers teammates before watching the rest of the draft with his family in Shepparton.
“First round is Monday and I’m going down with Connor O’Sullivan to celebrate with him, he’s invited me and a couple of other Bushies boys. You can have a lot more people this year to make a bit more of an atmosphere,” he said last week.
“I’ll stay down in Melbourne and then come home on Tuesday and I’m not sure yet if I’ll have anyone around watching with us. You only know if you get picked when they read your name out on TV, so hopefully it will work out.”
Worked out indeed, with Ryan set to join fellow GV talents Josh Rachele and Jordy Butts at the Crows.
Crows national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie said the club was rapt to have the promising young gun head to West Lakes.
“He’s such a great person and some of his footy is really exciting, we think he can maybe move off half-back and play a bit of wing and midfield as well in time,” he said.
“That’s the great joy of draft night, to see a kid like Oscar, his mum and dad will be so pleased, we had great meetings with them and he is an A-grade top-class kid with some great footy skills.”
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