St Kilda Select Paddy McCartin First In AFL Draft

St Kilda have made Paddy McCartin the No.1 pick in the 2014 AFL draft, confirming rumours the Geelong Grammar product would be selected over the highly touted Christian Petracca.

The 18-year-old marking forward spent last season with the Geelong Falcons and is a reliable forward mark capable of moving up the ground.

McCartin’s miraculous story has seen the teenager manage his professional football future while also living with type 1 diabetes since age nine.

“Ever since then I’ve had to deal with (diabetes) on a daily basis,” McCartin told the AFL broadcast. “It was a bit of struggle to start with, I was pretty young and a little immature, but I had a lot of help from my parents.”

“As footy came into more of a serious note I’ve had to take care of it a lot more. I’m really lucky the Falcons and I have been able to build a really good management plan for it. I’m taking about 10 (blood) pricks a game and feel like I’m pretty well on top it.”

McCartin revealed he had no contact with the Saints in the lead up to the draft after his high school exam period and a family holiday overseas, but had spoken with Melbourne in the past few days. 

“I’d had none (contact),” he said. “I got here tonight the same as everybody else. I didn’t have a clue so half an hour felt like about five hours and I was a bit nervous.”

Melbourne picked Petracca and Paul Roos favourite Angus Brayshaw with the second and third picks.

2014 AFL Draft Order

Round 1

  1. St Kilda – Paddy McCartin
  2. Melbounre – Christian Petracca
  3. Melbourne – Angus Brayshaw
  4. GWS – Jarrod Pickett
  5. Collingwood – Jordan De Goey
  6. GWS – Caleb Marchbank
  7. GWS – Paul Ahern
  8. Gold Coast – Peter Wright
  9. Collingwood – Darcy Moore
  10. Geelong – Nakia Cockatoo
  11. West Coast – Liam Duggan
  12. Richmond – Corey Ellis
  13. Fremantle – Lachie Weller
  14. Adelaide – Jake Lever
  15. Gold Coast – Jarrod Garlett
  16. North Melbourne – Sam Durdin
  17. Essendon – Kyle Langford
  18. Sydney – Isaac Heeney
  19. Carlton – Blaine Boekhrst
  20. Essendon – Jayden Laverde
  21. St Kilda – Hugh Goddard
  22. St Kilda – Daniel McKenzie
  23. GWS – Patrick McKenna
  24. GWS – Jack Steele
  25. North Melbourne – Daniel Nielson
  26. Western Bulldogs – Toby McLean
  27. Western Bulldogs – Lukas Webb
  28. Carlton – Dillon Viojo-Rainbow
  29. Gold Coast – Touk Miller
  30. Collingwood – Brandon Maynard
  31. Hawthorn – Daniel Howe
  32. West Coast – Tom Lamb
  33. Richmond – Connor Menadue
  34. Fremantle – Connor Blakely
  35. Adelaide – Harrison Wigg
  36. North Melbourne – Ed Vickers-Willis
  37. Sydney – James Rose
  38. Sydney – Jack Hiscox
  39. Western Bulldogs – Declan Hamilton
  40. Melbourne – Alex Neal-Bullen

Photo: Matt Roberts/Getty Images.

TRENDING
No content yet. Check back later!

X