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Sport Nation
“I like what I’m seeing”: Malcolm Blight makes his 2025 AFL Rising Star pick
Lachlan Geleit • March 6th, 2025 8:41 am
Australian football icon Malcolm Blight is picking Adelaide’s Sid Draper to win the 2025 Rising Star award.
The young midfielder, who was taken with Pick 4 in the 2024 draft, looks a lock to make the Crows’ Round 1 team against St Kilda.
The 18-year-old also helped himself to 14 disposals and five clearances in the AAMI Community Series win against Brisbane, with that outing convincing Blight that he has the attributes to succeed at the top level.
“This young fella called Sid Draper, I reckon he’ll win the best first-year player,” Blight said on SEN's Sportsday SA.
“If he can stay on the ground with the skill set that I saw, I think he could win the Rising Star.
“I like what I'm seeing, and I'll repeat from what I said last night, he's got speed, but he's got football smarts.”
Blight is so bullish on the Crows that he’s even picking them to make the top four in 2025, with the addition of Draper bolstering the side on top of returning trio Riley Thilthorpe, Izak Rankine and Nick Murray, who spent much of 2024 injured, as well as off-season recruits Isaac Cumming, Alex Neal-Bullen and James Peatling further strengthening the best 23.
“I went through the list last night, and I think they’ve got six beauties, and a couple might emerge on top of that,” Blight said.
“They're not going to go backwards because they're good players. There’s a revitalised Thilthorpe who didn’t play much last year, Izak Rankine only played 15 games and Nick Murray is going to be a massive change at the back.
“Then you've got Isaac Cumming - who's an 81-game player, Alex Neal-Bullen – a 176-game premiership player, and you've got James Peatling at just 24 years of age who's played 45 games, and he did really well the other night.”
Adelaide’s Round 1 clash against St Kilda comes on Sunday, March 16 at the Adelaide Oval.
