Victorian teenager Patrick Wearden, for instance, was afforded only a short time to celebrate the exciting news with his friends and family before travelling to Brisbane to commence pre-season training with his new team-mates.
But Wearden wasn’t alone.
In fact, all four of the Lions’ draftees hailed from outside of Queensland (three from Victoria and one from Western Australia), but had still managed to land at the Gabba less than three days after hearing their names read out at the 2011 AFL National Draft.
Such are the demands on modern-day AFL athletes, there is no luxury of planning an interstate move in a few weeks. It is immediate.
But with the assistance from the Club’s welfare and development team, the transition is made as easy as possible - for both the players and their parents.
Over the Christmas period, Wearden and his fellow draftees got the opportunity to return home and spend two weeks with their respective families, fresh from a gruelling first month of pre-season training.
Wearden said it was certainly a happy homecoming when he returned to Kyabram.
“It was really good,” Wearden said.
“I had all my brothers and sisters over from Perth, so I just hung out with them in Kyabram.”
Now a local hero, the 18 year-old said it hadn’t taken long for his family to switch allegiances and show their support for the Lions.
“My dad even got some Lions caps out at Christmas gave them out to everyone to wear,” he said.
“Everyone’s on board and they are really happy for me. They all love Vossy and are happy that I’m at the Lions.”
