Four fresh faced rookies wandered around Linen House oval this week with their hearts and minds set on a career in the big time.

While Moorabbin might seem a world away from home for these young athletes from the NSW Scholarship program, their excitement and enthusiasm was evident as they spent a week in Melbourne to take a behind the scenes look at the club they one day hope to represent.

The NSW scholarship program has provided clubs with a fresh pool of talent and has this year delivered four very diverse players to the fold at Moorabbin.

The 208-centimetre Blake McGrath is a former state and national basketball representative and only tried his hand at AFL in the last year. His taste for the game developed when some of his mates invited him down for a game and his passion and intrigue grew from that point.

Kane Murphy comes from a strong AFL pedigree as the son of All-Australian, 156-game Sydney player David Murphy.  The small, intelligent midfielder from Pennant Hills attends Riverview College in Sydney and will represent NWS/ACT in the upcoming national under-16 carnival.

Playing alongside Murphy at these championships will be Jackson Ferguson. The 15-year old also hails from Pennant Hills which is the same club that delivered Lenny Hayes to St Kilda almost 10 years ago. Under-18 state representative Josh Duncan rounds out the talented Pennant Hills trio that was spotted by recruiter Danny Ryan and recommended to recruiting advisor John Beveridge who has taken them under his wing during their stay in Melbourne.

The boys have spent time training at Moorabbin and meeting some of the senior players whose feats they will seek to emulate in the coming years. They will also be in attendance at St Kilda’s Friday night clash against Carlton to get a first-hand taste of the inner sanctum on an AFL game day.

While their journey toward an AFL career is only just beginning, St Kilda’s NSW scholarship players are already showing the desire to compete at the top level and we look forward to following their progress with interest.