The Club has used its second pick in the 2017 NAB AFL Draft, pick 66, to select young defender, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher.

After a positional change late in 2016, Zerk-Thatcher began to make a name for himself as a defender in Sturt's under-age side in the South Australia.

Following the impressive finish to 2016, Zerk-Thatcher carried that momentum into the 2017 season for Sturt, developing himself into an integral component of their backline.

Senior Coach, John Worsfold, said Zerk-Thatcher filled a missing gap of a young key defender to develop.

"Brandon is a developing key defender, something we really felt we needed on our list to slowly come through the system and be ready to step up when he is ready to go," Worsfold said.

"Again a South Australian and teammate of Houlahan so that makes the move a little bit easier for those guys."

The young defenders athleticism stood out at the State Combine, recording the best result of 95cm in the running vertical jump.

List and Recruiting Manager, Adrian Dodoro, is impressed with Zerk-Thatcher's journey to becoming an AFL footballer

"He is a great story, he’s a kid who travels from Murray Bridge to Adelaide each week and when he goes back home he is a pizza delivery driver," Dodoro said.

" He really will respect the fact that he has been given this opportunity and just speaking to him on the phone he is really, really happy. We think he will be terrific for us."

"We identified that we wanted to bolster our key positions stocks in this draft."

"We have been keeping an eye on him for quite a while, he gets a hand in, defends really well and is a natural defender.”