This is an extract from Emma Quayle's recently published book The Draftees. It details the journeys of five 2015 Draft aspirants and delves into the inner sanctum of St Kilda's selection process. You can purchase the book HERE.

Paddy McCartin loved to throw himself around but had had a disrupted championships. Back from a finger injury in time for the first game, he had strained a quad muscle in the next one then come back in for the final two rounds, played just five days apart. He’d had some good moments, said Elshaug, without completely nailing a game like he had as a seventeen-year-old, when he had kicked five goals and (accidentally) broken the collarbone of West Australian midfielder Dom Sheed while diving for a low ball.

‘He was starved for opportunity when he came back in and he’s had some interruptions, but he’s a natural forward. He attacks the ball, he’s aggressive and he kicks goals. He needs to improve his body shape and conditioning; he’s had diabetes since he was nine years old but he has that under control and everyone we’ve spoken to says he’ll be fine with it. His skinfolds are in the 70s and he’ll need to get those down but he’ll chase and tackle. He knows where to lead, where the space is. If someone’s in his road he’ll take them out and he’ll play for his team. He’s a down-to-earth kid, a really natural kid.’

‘How tall is he? Would he be 193?’ asked Richardson.

‘Yep. Maybe a touch bigger. He’s powerful. He attacks the ball. And 2.99 is his best sprint time, which is good. He’s the sort of kid who’s loved by all. He holds court and people rally around him.’

‘So is he a team forward or a selfish forward?’ ‘Team,’ said all three recruiters, at once.

‘He’ll pass it off, he’ll give it off. He’s a total team player,’ said Elshaug. ‘I watched him in a school game where he was ignored when he should have been hit up, but the kid kicked the goal and he went up to congratulate him. That’s one of his better traits.’

‘Does he defend?’ asked Richardson.

‘After a marking contest he’ll recover and he’ll tackle, and they’re big, powerful tackles,’ said Liberatore. ‘He’s not as natural a chaser as some of the others yet, but he wants to lay tackles.’

‘He’s up and about, he wants to be involved,’ Elshaug said. ‘He’s the sort of kid who will train at Geelong Grammar then go down to the Falcons as well, even if he doesn’t have to.’

‘Is he prepared to do the work? You’re convinced?’ asked Chris. ‘Yes. Absolutely convinced,’ said Elshaug. ‘And he’s got three or four months to get himself into better shape. We do want to see some results, I think that’s fair to say. We’ve told him that.’

‘Does his body shape actually worry you?’ asked Richardson.

‘No. He has the right intentions,’ said Elshaug. ‘It’s more like,
“OK, he has diabetes, so what does that mean for him and who can we talk to to understand what sort of an impact that’s going to have?”’

‘That’s the medical side, and we accept that,’ said Pelchen. ‘But is he doing everything he possibly can?’

‘He needs to improve his conditioning,’ said Elshaug. ‘But they all have something. You’ve got Petracca who’s got to keep his feet on the ground; Wright, we’d like to be more aggressive; McCartin needs to tone up a bit more. They’ve all got their little issues.’

‘He looks competitive and he looks like he loves the game,’ said Richardson. ‘Does he have the desire? The drive?'

‘He has it,’ said Elshaug. ‘No question.’

‘He looks like he’s a pretty special player, on the very little I’ve seen,’ said Richardson.

‘If he could get to 195 centimetres it would be ideal,’ said Pelchen.

‘He’s grown about half a centimetre this year. But he marks the ball high. With his reach and his timing, it’s like he’s closer to 195,’ said Elshaug.

‘How’s his kick? If he has ten shots, how many does he kick?’ asked Pelchen.

‘He kicked 6.4 the other week,’ said Elshaug. ‘Last year it was a bit inconsistent, but he’s worked on it.’

‘His timing on the lead is really, really good,’ said Richardson. ‘He’s so balanced. You’d want to kick it to him.’

‘The only thing I want to be convinced of is that he won’t leave any stone unturned to be the best he can be,’ said Pelchen.

‘We’ve never questioned that,’ said Ameet Bains. ‘His family is very grounded, he’s driven, he has a lot of support behind him, he’s immensely likeable. He’s selfless.’

‘I’d agree with all that,’ said Liberatore. ‘He had the finger injury when he went to Europe, so all he could do was the running. Paddy and Sam Durdin ran laps together and they didn’t need a coach there telling them what to do – they just went and did it and pushed each other along. I think he’s going to do whatever he needs to.’

The top 10 draft picks pose for a selfie last November.