‘Heard all the boys start cheering’: Why Crows draftee Archie Ludowyke ‘missed’ magic moment

When newly-minted Adelaide forward Archie Ludowyke had his name called out at Pick 50 on Thursday night, the youngster was nowhere to be found.

His family and friends jubilantly leapt up to celebrate, but the emotional Sandringham Dragons forward was in his room gathering himself.

With the national draft nearing its end, and with no AFL club having called his name, Ludowyke “headed upstairs and started crying” — only to quickly become aware his footy dreams had been realised.

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“I missed it, I was up in my room,” Ludowyke, overcome with emotion, later informed viewers on Fox Footy.

“Yeah, I mean, I didn’t know if I was going (to be picked), so I headed upstairs and just started crying.

“(But) I just heard all the boys start cheering downstairs and I raced down.

“I know (I missed it) — you know what, I don’t care, I’m happy.”

Ludowyke was picked 50th overall by the Crows despite having a Fox Sports Lab rank of 29 — with Adelaide snaring a bargain to add to its forward brigade.

The freshly-turned 18-year-old, who began to tear up mid-interview, said of having his family and friends with him during his special moment: “It means everything. It’s what I’ve worked (towards) for 18 years — to have it finally come true is the best thing ever.

Ludowyke added “it will” make him hungrier to achieve his top-level potential after injury issues this year and having to wait until late on day two to have his name called.

“One hundred per cent … Adelaide, thank you. I guess just work as hard as I can (to) prove everyone wrong,” he said.

“I just want to work as hard as I can, try and get in the team.”

Ludowyke kicked bags of four and five goals for the Sandringham Dragons and booted five majors across two AFL Academy games against VFL opposition this year.

Long-time draft guru Kevin ‘Shifter’ Sheehan spoke glowingly of what Ludowyke had produced this year before being struck down with injury.

“Kicked five in a game earlier this year, and I think everyone would be thinking ‘he’s a top-10 choice’. He played for the Australian under-18s and was impressive, (he) kicked three and two against VFL opponents,” he said on Fox Footy.

“He’s got a bit of Aaron Cadman about him — lovely size at 197 — and like many of the kids we’ve talked about for two days, just had injuries when the national championships came up.

“A couple of games in, hurt himself, and we didn’t see him in the back half of the year.

“His aerial ability is pretty special … there’s a massive upside with this young fellow, and that marking, when you see him mark the ball at the highest point, he’s very, very hard to match up on.”