WADE Derksen drove 3760km across four days in January to chase another chance. From Darwin to the Daly Waters Historic Pub in the outback down to Alice Springs. Then he crossed the South Australian border and spent a night in Coober Pedy, before staying with his uncle in Echuca on his way to a medical at IKON Park. 

Carlton had picked up the phone in the days after Jesse Motlop did his knee on January 12. They didn’t offer Derksen a contract or even promise an official trial during the pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP), but they had an extra spot available on the list and would expose VFL-listed players to the AFL program. 

Derksen had moved home to Darwin with his partner, Deika McGregor, and three kids Kaelan, Harlow and Kody after Greater Western Sydney delisted him in October without playing a senior game across three and a half seasons. He was playing for Nightcliff in the NTFL and working as a deckhand on a boat when then Blues list manager Nick Austin called to open the door.

That’s all the 25-year-old needed to pack up his life again. He had already moved from the Northern Territory to Melbourne, then back to Darwin during the pandemic, across to Perth where he was drafted out of Peel Thunder, all the way to Sydney. Now he needed to move again. 

Almost six months on from that long road trip to Victoria, Derksen has played ten times for Carlton, including the past seven straight. There was a lot of thinking time in the drive from Darwin. The trial was crucial, not for him, but for his family. And this week the key defender was rewarded with a two-year contract extension, finally providing some security after years of uncertainty. 

"When Carlton called, I just didn't think twice about it, I made the move down pretty quick. It was an opportunity that when I get older, one day I'll regret [if I don’t go]. Obviously my dream is to play AFL one day, so I went," Derksen told AFL.com.au at IKON Park this week. 

"It was a long drive with a lot of thinking time. You're not on your phone, you're just holding the steering wheel, you're just watching white lines. Just you and hundreds of thoughts. 

"I think the driving factor was that I felt like my family's moved all the way around the country to help me pursue my footy. They can do it one more time in the hope that I reach my AFL dream, which is ultimately going to repay all of us. 

"There was a bit of fire in my belly that I want to do this for me, but also my family. And if you got this fire in your belly, do not give up on your dream. No way.”

Carlton had left a spot open at the start of the pre-season for Elijah Hollands and Will White to compete for after they were delisted. A second spot opened in January. Derksen had two sessions a week for two months to prove he deserved a contract before the SSP deadline. 

When Jacob Weitering sustained a rib fracture in Origin on February 14, Derksen made the most of his chance in match simulation against Brisbane. The Blues couldn’t play him in the AAMI Community Series if he wasn’t on the list, but by then they knew he deserved the final spot. 

The 195cm versatile tall was picked by Michael Voss to make his debut against North Melbourne on Good Friday. He played the next week, then returned to the VFL, but since Josh Fraser stepped up as caretaker in round 10, Derksen has played eight more games. Thursdays are selection day, the day of the week he dreaded at GWS, but currently serve as a reminder to be appreciative for what he has. 

"A day like today is when I think about how grateful I am to play AFL," Derksen said on Thursday. "My family, everyone at the club, just everybody gets around me. I'm in a great spot. It's been a whirlwind, but yeah, I feel super fortunate. Every day I sort of remind myself how lucky I am to be here."

The plan was to play in Melbourne in 2026, like it was in 2025, just for the Demons, not the Blues. Melbourne made a move for Derksen in 2024, but Greater Western Sydney held him to the final year of his contract after he requested a trade to the Dees. 

The Giants had recruited him as a mobile key forward out of the WAFL via the 2022 Mid-Season Rookie Draft, but had developed him as an intercept defender in the VFL. Adam Kingsley’s side has a stacked defence built around Sam Taylor, Connor Idun, Jack Buckley and Harry Himmelberg. There wasn’t room for another tall, and when a spot opened, Leek Aleer was the next one in. 

Wade and Deika welcomed twins that September, heightening his desperation to make a career in this caper, which is why he wanted the move to Melbourne. 

"It was super tough because all every kid wants to do is play AFL," he said. "When I caught up with Melbourne and the coaches and they saw me as an AFL player there, which I'm not saying the Giants didn't, but they thought I could slide into their AFL team, so I just had my mind set on going to be at Melbourne.

"Who's going to keep a rookie that hasn't played a game? It doesn't happen. It was tough for me and my family because we were lucky to have another club interested and we just didn't think anything else was going to happen until it did."

Melbourne circled back again in 2025, but circumstances at that club shifted dramatically across that winter. The Demons underwent a major reset with Steven King replacing Simon Goodwin as coach and senior players moving places. Derksen also failed a medical with the club after undergoing toe surgery, which is part of the reason they withdrew their interest amid the uncertainty of Steven May staying or going.

"Yeah, it was a funny one. I don't know why they pulled out. I'm sort of thinking maybe it was from the toe. But then again, in saying that, there's a new coach and things changed at each club. Maybe things happen for a reason and that's what sort of got me here," he pondered. 

"I had an operation that I don't think many AFL players have had. I was getting bone spurs. It's like a bit of an arthritic joint, so they just shave that down, but I haven't missed a single training session. So yeah, it's speaking for itself right now."

Life in the AFL looks glamorous from the outside, but Instagram isn’t reality. Not everyone is on the big bucks. Mid-season recruits are paid $58,000 ($50,000 in 2022 + $4,000 match payments). Category A rookies are paid $105,000 ($90,000 in 2023-24, $100,000 in 2025). Getting paid to play footy is the dream for hundreds of thousands of kids, but when you have three children and live in the most expensive city in the country, life in the AFL can actually be financially debilitating.

That was Derksen’s experience at the Giants. Not that he is looking for sympathy. Other mature-age rookies experienced that at GWS, especially those with children like Dawson Simpson, while Dylan Buckley and Tommy Sheridan have publicly discussed the financial challenge they experienced while finishing their careers in the harbour city on minimum AFL wage.

Derksen and his family lived pay cheque to pay cheque in an apartment near the club in western Sydney. The club helped them as much as they could, as did Derksen’s manager, Nigel Baldwin from Centimeter Perfect, but they were a long way from family support. 

"It was very hard at the time, but we always find a way, we're always going to find a way. If I did need help, the club was very good for me, but it was very challenging with three kids in one apartment," he said.

"It just wasn't working for us. I wasn't playing at the time, so you're not getting match payments; we were living month to month. I felt like I had to do more for Deika because they moved and were trying to support me. It's definitely doable [on a rookie salary], of course, but you definitely have to budget very hard. We were doing everything to just make it."

Two-year contract extensions mean more to some than others. For Derksen, who now lives in Sunbury with his family, the financial security and certainty of what life looks like until the end of 2028 has removed that stress from his life and fuelled his confidence to achieve more. 

"It gives you so much confidence that the club believes in you," he said. "Even just this week I felt like I've trained with good confidence, so when you train well, you're naturally going to get better. In my game I'm hoping I can continue to improve and just go to another level. Just purely based at the club backs me in. And they want me to be around, so I need to repay the favour."

When Carlton signed Derksen in February, his six-year-old son’s reaction went viral on Instagram via the Blues’ official account. Kaelan has moved states six times in his life, living what fringe footballers experience in pursuit of a childhood dream. Kaelan wrote a poem about Melbourne, but that move didn’t happen. Now he writes about his beloved Blues.

"That [viral video] makes you realise why you do it," Derksen said. "Because, you know, we're all young kids striving. That was my dream as a little kid, like I'm sure it was for almost every player in the AFL. Lots of players that don't make it – and it’s tough to get here.

"That was raw emotion, just brutally honest and raw emotion, except like visually seeing it rather than internally, like he just let it all out and it was beautiful. It was a great moment for me and my family. We look at that all the time. It makes us happy."

Wade and Deika celebrated when Essendon offered him a VFL contract in 2021. They couldn’t believe it. Football has taken them all over the country since then. After years making ends meet, Derksen’s perseverance is now paying dividends.