As the bus on the 2013 AIS-AFL Academy camp wound around the picturesque Lake Como in northern Italy, St Kilda Recruiting and List Manager, Tony Elshaug, gleaned an important piece of information from an unlikely source.
While the players remained at the AIS high performance training centre in nearby Gavirate, parents, staff and recruiters explored one of Italy’s most idyllic destinations, a halfway home to George Clooney, Madonna and Sir Richard Branson.
It was here where Elshaug sat next to a West Australian umpire at the back of the bus, who provided him with an insight into a player the Saints would draft late in the first round at the back end of the year. That player was Luke Dunstan.
“I was sitting on a bus in Italy going around Lake Como and I happened to be sitting next to the umpire on the trip, who umpired the AIS game at the MCG earlier in the year,” Elshaug told saints.com.au ahead of the National Draft on Friday night.
“And we were sitting there talking about the players in and around the midfield and he said that there was no doubt the whole midfield operated a lot better when Luke was in the centre square.
“That was an important piece of information, albeit a small piece, because this is a team game; you’ve got to play as a team. If you can get other people organised and make areas function, it’s going to have an impact on the side’s performance.”
While Dunstan’s form on the ground was hard to ignore in 2013 – he captained South Australia to the national championship title and was named in the middle of the All-Australian team – it was his character that compelled the Saints to take him with pick No. 18.
A glowing endorsement from AFL National Talent Manager, Kevin Sheehan, regarding Dunstan’s mental toughness has proven to be spot on, according to Elshaug who is days away from his sixth draft at Linen House Centre.
“Kevin Sheehan, whose opinion you can’t ignore, said he was as mentally tough as anyone that he knew for his age,” he said.
“In his first three years at the club we’ve seen that mental toughness; he’s overcome adversity via injuries a number of times and he keeps buttering up.”
