THIS stop wasn't on the itinerary. Angus Anderson was supposed to spend Christmas gallivanting around the French Alps. He wasn't meant to return from Europe until the end of January. But the après-ski at Val d'Isere will have to wait. 

Sixty players were selected in the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft. Some for the second time. But only one was 17,000km away from Marvel Stadium, anxiously watching the picks fall off the board while sitting in his grandfather's house in Surrey, just over an hour outside central London. 

Anderson was almost two months into a trip backpacking solo across Europe when Collingwood selected him at pick No.57 in November. He booked the holiday in March before producing a season that has dramatically altered the trajectory of his career. 

Five days after etching his name into SANFL history by winning the Jack Oatey Medal on the day he guided Sturt to premiership glory at the Adelaide Oval, the 22-year-old was on a plane to Munich for Oktoberfest. From there, he travelled to Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France, Spain and Wales before heading to London. 

By the time he arrived in the United Kingdom, Collingwood had reached out. His AFL dream had a pulse, but nothing was guaranteed ahead of the draft. While every other draftee experienced the unbridled exhilaration of a boyhood dream realised surrounded by parents, mates and coaches, Anderson was sitting on the other side of the globe.

The Magpies didn't have a pick in the first round but were busy on night two. They selected Brisbane Academy graduate Tyan Prindable at No.32, then West Perth midfielder Sam Swadling at No.37 before nabbing Next Generation Academy member Zac McCarthy at No.55. 

By then, clubs were passing. Almost everyone was done for the night. Anderson feared Collingwood was done. It wasn't. AFL EGM of football performance Greg Swann walked on stage to reveal one of the final names of the draft.

"I reckon my name got read out at 10am. I'd been watching on the AFL app from 8am. It was a unique experience. When my name was called out, I was yelling and screaming. There was a bit of carry on, especially internally," Anderson told AFL.com.au this week.

"My phone was blowing up. I called Mum and Dad first. They were watching and carrying on. My two brothers and sister were at home with Dad. Mum was in Sydney with her parents for a Sam Fender concert. Everything was on WhatsApp because I was overseas. Then I got this random FaceTime call and I thought it had to be someone from Collingwood and that was 'Fly' [coach Craig McRae]. It was pretty crazy."

Anderson didn't believe this was a remote possibility when he boarded a flight out of South Australia. He didn't consider changing his plans. Despite being named in the SANFL Team of the Year and winning the prestigious best-on-ground medal in the Grand Final – the award won by recent AFL graduates Harry Boyd and Jack Hayes, along with Nathan Buckley in 1992 – he hadn't heard from a single AFL club. 

Growing up in Sawtell, 15 minutes south of Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales, Anderson dreamt of being drafted when he played senior football as a 16-year-old in the AFL North Coast League. But his journey has led him to play football in four different states and seldom been smooth.  

There was a pre-season at Southport heading into Year 12, but his parents didn't want him to move to Queensland until he finished school. Then Sydney discovered him and invited him to join the Academy, where he captained the Swans in 2021 amid the pandemic. They then added him to the COVID contingency list in 2022 in a year where he played seven games for the VFL side. 

Sturt was the only state league club that picked up the phone ahead of 2023, but he spent his first season at Unley stuck in the reserves. In 2024 he played the full season of league football as a role player under Sydney premiership player and former Crow Martin Mattner. But everything changed this winter for the 190cm midfielder. 

"As a 22-year-old, you think AFL might not be for you when you miss four drafts," Anderson says, explaining why he was in Europe when the draft was on. "My journey was playing limited VFL as a top-up through COVID, then at Sturt was a year in the ressies, a year as a role playing third tall in the forward line, then this year was a breakout year, but you don't think one year is enough. 

"At the beginning of the year I played one game, hurt my hamstring, missed a few games and thought why not travel? I travelled the year before and always wanted to backpack through Europe. A few guys were meant to come but they canned, so I went by myself."

Anderson didn't have a manager this year (and still doesn't). Mattner was his sounding board, but there wasn't any real interest out there. At least not to his knowledge. Collingwood national recruiting manager Shane O'Bree and his team started tracking him late in the season and were at the Adelaide Oval for both finals. They were there when he collected 27 disposals and laid seven tackles in the semi-final. And they were back a fortnight later when five of the eight judges voted him best on ground in the decider. 

Collingwood did its work in the shadows, then reached out in late October when Anderson was in the Swiss Alps. He'd never spoken to a recruiter, other than veteran scout Kinnear Beatson when he was in the Swans' Academy. O'Bree organised another FaceTime call, this time with list manager Justin Leppitsch, recruiting and list administration manager Shannon Collins and pro scout Richard Little. 

Anderson was prepared to come back to Australia there and then, even for a trial during the pre-season supplemental selection period. Collingwood couldn't promise anything, but three days out from the draft, O'Bree touched base again. He wanted to know if any other club had reached out. They hadn't. Anderson was the plan for the last pick, he just couldn't confess that then.

"I didn't hear anything from anyone throughout the year. When I went overseas I kept in close contact with 'Moose' [Mattner] our head coach because he knows I didn't have a manager and I thought he would be the middle man. He helped me out if anyone reached out," he said. 

"I hit Switzerland a month in and Collingwood reached out. They booked in a call when I was in Switzerland at 8am and I didn't hear from then for a couple of days and I was getting nervous. I didn't know if the call went well or not. They reached out again and organised a FaceTime. They told me I interviewed well, to stay fit, stay ready and that was that next month. There were no guarantees. I understand how it works."

If Collingwood didn't come calling, Anderson was committed to playing for Sturt again. He would have gone back to assembling marquees across Adelaide Monday to Friday and working in a bottle shop in Unley on the nights he wasn't training. Mattner and football manager Chris Trapp had approved his request to travel across the first half of the pre-season. He wasn't going to start back at training until the start of February. 

Now he isn't going back to help Sturt go back-to-back. Instead, Anderson departs Thomas Farms Oval a premiership hero and a much better player than when he arrived as a naive teenager with no clue of truly how much the SANFL matters to people in that neck of the woods. 

"I love that club to death," he said. "I didn't even know what the SANFL was at the time to be honest; I'm not really a footy nuff. I didn't know how much it meant to the state and the quality of the footy. I have made lifelong friends and partnerships. 'Moose' and 'Trappy' for them to develop me the way they have. I had a few hard chats with 'Moose' in my first year when I wasn't playing. I'm so grateful for that."

Anderson hasn't been back to Adelaide since he left for Europe at the end of September. Collingwood organised a flight out of Heathrow eight hours after it picked him. He flew to Melbourne via Shanghai, started at Olympic Park three days later and has been living out of the same backpack he traipsed across Europe.

Since then, Anderson has travelled to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory for the Magpies' annual cultural immersion camp. He was supposed to be with mates in Iceland to see the northern lights at the time. They sent photos from the iconic Blue Lagoon. But he was posing for his own photos alongside his new teammates. 

Anderson will finally head back to South Australia on Thursday to collect his clothes, surfboard, car and to bid farewell in person to the people who helped put him on this path over the past few years. His younger brother is moving into his room and joining Sturt. Then one last leg of an unforgettable worldwide tour awaits.