While most of this year’s draftees were swarmed by family and friends on couches across Australia upon hearing their names read out, that was not the case for new magpie Angus Anderson.

Not only was Anderson the sole occupant of the couch he sat on as he observed the draft alone, that piece of furniture wasn’t even in the same hemisphere as the rest of his new draftees.

That’s because he was all the way in London, having spent the best part of the past two months exploring central and western Europe on a pre-booked off-season trip that has ended prematurely after the news of his selection.

“I was in London for three days before the draft and Shane O’Bree text me going ‘has any other club spoken to you? Are you staying fit?’,” Anderson recalls mere days later in his new black and white training uniform.

“I didn’t hear anything for a day or two and then it was the second night of the draft, and I was sitting there watching it on my phone at about 11am on my own.

“Sammy (Swadling) and Ty (Prindable) got picked up as two mids so I was like ‘this is not looking good’.

“They picked up Zac (McCarthy) and then they traded away the next pick, so I was like ‘there’s no chance I’m getting grabbed here’, so I was texting all my mates I was going to Europe with saying ‘looks like I’m coming to Europe for the next two months’.

“There was this little bit of hope that they still had their last pick, but everyone was saying they were going to pass it and then with like three minutes to go they put the bid in and the rest is history.”

If it all sounds a little bit unusual, that’s because it is – but Anderson wouldn’t have it anyway.

The 190cm midfielder, who turned 22 this year, has been doing things differently for most of his career, despite what is a rapid ascension to an AFL list.

Growing up in Sawtell on the north coast of NSW, Anderson was a star junior in his region, but it was southern Queensland where he first earned higher honours, spending time during the 2021 pre-season with Southport in the VFL.

Based six hours north of Sydney, the Swans noticed and invited him to be part of their academy, where he even found his way onto the COVID contingency list in 2022, playing a pre-season practice match against GWS.

But ahead of 2023, the tough nut decided it was time to move south to gain further opportunity, choosing South Australia as his home and joining Sturt.

But things didn’t take off straight away. He spent the entirety of that year in Sturt’s reserves side, as well as the first game of 2024, before earning his chance at the SANFL top level the next week.

While pleased with his step up in 2024 – featuring in the next 19 games at senior level - his performances weren’t rocketing him into draft calculations, offering important context as to how he would find himself on the other side of the world when he was, just 12 months later.

“I booked my trip earlier in the year, not expecting to play the level of footy that I did towards the back end of the year and gain any attraction from Collingwood in general,” Anderson said.

“I never really got any AFL clubs reach out or anything in those couple of years I was there.

“I guess I didn’t really prove a point or play well enough to prove that attraction, but I think the back end of the year I did so it’s been pretty surreal.

“I booked my trip early in like March or April and I got injured and missed out of two games, so I was like ‘there’s no chance’ and I’ve always wanted to go to Europe so I booked that trip.”

As 2025 went on, Anderson’s confidence grew, and so did Collingwood’s recruiting team’s attraction to him.

By the mid-point of the year, Anderson had become a consistent ball-winner for his side, complementing his pre-existing fierce attack on the contest and ability to hit the scoreboard.

As Sturt completed its path to the 2025 premiership in late September, Anderson put the exclamation point on a Team of the Year season, winning the Jack Oatey Medal for best on ground in the decider.

Amid his rapid rise throughout the season, the trip to Europe was waiting patiently for him, with the midfielder jetting out to Germany just days after he was jangling dual medals around his neck in his premiership celebrations.

Riding mostly solo as 2025 clicked into October, with an AFL dream still not fully in immediate sight, Anderson was having the time of his life, hoping between the European alps, observing plenty of fun facts and snow along the way.

“I left five days after that Grand Final and flew straight into Munich and then did Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, which is this little country between Switzerland and Austria,” he said.

“I think it’s the sixth smallest country in the world and there’s only 39,000 residents that live there and only 100 cops as well which I read while I was there.

“After Switzerland I went to France, I have a mate from back home who is doing exchange in Grenoble (southeastern France), so I met up with him.

“Then I caught an overnight bus to Barcelona and did Spain for two and a half weeks and then flew across to UK and did Cardiff and watched a rugby game over there and then went to England.”

And it was only amongst this much-anticipated trip, that the first point of contact with the Pies came.

Having just returned from one of his many hikes as he spent his days with a beanie and a backpack as his two main essentials, the call from Shane O’Bree first came.

“When I was in Switzerland, maybe a month and a bit ago (was when I first spoke to Collingwood),” Anderson said.

“Collingwood was the only club that really reached out which was good and bad.

“It was nice to get recognition that an AFL club thinks you’re good enough and to be on a list, especially with the journey I’ve been on where it’s been setback, setback, setback and relocate, relocate, relocate.”

While relocating to further his football career is what Anderson alludes to here, the Pies’ interest in him forced a minor adjustment to the itinerary of his trip, with the Club suggesting he get himself close to a major airport just in case his dream became reality.

That’s how he found himself in London during the week of the draft, picking up a rogue rugby ball along the way to rekindle himself with an oval-shaped object having spent the past 50 days abroad.

“I went for a run around in England and just found a rugby ball in a ditch and it was wild – it was pretty cool and I was just kicking that around the rugby park after I finished a run,” he said.

Fast forward a few days, having experienced the emotion of getting drafted from the UK – sharing facetimes with family, friends and Senior Coach Craig McRae – and Anderson has touched back down in Australia, ready for his maiden AFL pre-season.

With the help of the Club’s player development team, Anderson was out of London shortly after his name was read out, arriving in Melbourne, which is in all reality, just as foreign of a city for the New South Welshman.

But the travel hasn’t ended there, with Anderson now in Tennant Creek alongside his fellow draftees on Tuesday for the Pies’ annual cultural immersion trip to the Northern Territory in his first week at the Club.

From there, he still needs to get back to Adelaide to retrieve his belongings and move across the border, but as his two-month expedition from the Alps of Switzerland to the cold of London, and finally the bubble of the KGM Centre has shown, Anderson is ready for anything.

“This is all I brought, whatever I have on me now, because I’ve come straight from England to here,” he said.

“The Club called me and were like ‘we’ll get you home’ and so we booked the first flight out of Heathrow at about 8pm on the Thursday night.

“It was about an eight-hour turnaround. I packed my bags and had to put my phone down for a bit because I was just tunnel vision.

“Within eight hours on the plane to Shanghai and had a four-hour layover in Shanghai and then into Melbourne.

“All my stuff’s still in Adelaide so we go to Tennant Creek and I’ll do the Monday training next week and then they’re going to send me home for three days to get my stuff.

“I can’t wait for it all.”