Jordan Dawson summed up the thoughts of almost every potential draftee following his selection in last week’s National Draft.

“You feel a bit helpless as you know you’ve done everything in your power you can do,” he said.

“You’ve played all the games, had all the interviews and done all the testing…but at the end of the day the decision is up to the recruiters.”

For Dawson, who was chosen with Pick 56 at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Tuesday, those words meant even more following an interrupted preparation.

In what was his most important year to date, a somewhat last hurrah to impress club recruiters before D-day, the 189cm forward was struck down with injury on the eve of the Under 18 Championships.

He had strung together good form early on for Sturt in the SANFL reserves competition which set him up nicely for the state carnival but an inflamed disc would derail his campaign after just two games.

Dawson worked tirelessly to get himself right, strengthening his core through Pilates and extra sessions in the gym, to find form for Sturt’s reserves which quickly transformed into five appearances at the top level.

If not for the hard work post-injury, who knows whether Dawson would have fulfilled his AFL dream.

“Against the bigger bodies, that was a good experience,” he said of his senior career with Sturt. “I was pretty happy to keep my spot in the senior team.”

Likened to Hawthorn’s Jack Gunston, Dawson is blessed with strong hands and a booming left-foot.

He could be best described as a “third tall” – a difficult match up who can fly under the opposition’s radar and kick goals while a run on-ball isn’t out of the equation.

“I like to work up the ground a bit and use my height to my advantage,” he said.

In the lead up to his first session, the boy from Robe in South Australia’s east wasn’t about to set his goals or expectations to high.

The aim is to get through pre-season then work hard to put his best foot forward throughout 2016.

“I’m definitely keen to get stuck into training,” Dawson added.

“I’ll just take it week by week and see what happens.”