by Booney » Tue Nov 10, 2015 8:47 am
Corey Enright: The Power didn't know it at the time but they had a star right under their nose at the turn of the millennium. Geelong's four-time All Australian and three-time premiership defender was a Port Adelaide Magpie before be was drafted by the Cats with pick No.47 at the 1999 NAB AFL Draft. He never played a senior game for Port in the SANFL, but the Power had three chances to snare the youngster before Geelong did.
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WHEN Geelong recruiting boss Stephen Wells selected Corey Enright with pick 47 in the 1999 national draft, he had only modest expectations for the 18-year-old South Australian.
"Corey, all those years ago, was a player drafted I suppose as a bit of a punt," Wells told CatsTV.
"We hadn't seen a lot of him play. Just enough of him to know that there was a chance he was going to be a good AFL player."
Enright was selected with a draft pick that had been traded to the Cats as part of the deal that took Leigh Colbert to North Melbourne.
He was considered a recruiting punt because he hadn't been selected in Australia's team for the 1999 national under-18 championships.
In fact, the bulk of his footy career to that point had involved playing junior and then senior footy with his home club, Kimba Districts, on the Eyre Peninsula.
Enright had also made a few appearances in the SANFL's under-19 competition with the Port Adelaide Magpies (lads from Kimba were zoned to Port in those days).
READ: Kimba Salutes its favourite son
"He was one of those players that had been noticed in South Australia," Wells said. "The Port Adelaide Magpies had mentioned Corey as player that could develop over the course of the season.
"He wasn't going to play the whole season with the Magpies. He was going to spend some time in Kimba and come down for occasional games.
"When he did that, we were lucky enough to see him play a little bit at Port Adelaide live, then we followed it up with the available vision that we had at the time.
"He was a player that attracted our interest because of his decision-making and skill, and just a natural ability to play the game."
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!