Everyone wearing black and white was licking their wounds, but Shane O’Bree knew he still had a job to do.

It was the day after last year’s Preliminary Final loss at the hands of eventual premiers Brisbane, and the Pies’ National Recruiting Manager was on his way to Tullamarine, eager to board a flight bound for South Australia.

While his colleagues and Collingwood’s players from that penultimate weekend of the 2025 AFL season woke up to the realisation their year’s dreams had been dashed, O’Bree was immediately acting on getting prepared for 2026.

And in his sights was a member of Sturt’s midfield by the name of Angus Anderson, who was looking to lead his side to SANFL premiership glory that Sunday afternoon in Adelaide.

O’Bree and fellow Collingwood recruiter Shannon Collins had been tracking the 22-year-old in the back half of the season, circling his name as a player of interest for November’s draft. They were as disappointed as anybody that AFL Grand Final week didn’t await them upon their return from South Australia, but they knew they might be arriving back to Melbourne with a long-term bargain up their sleeves.

“The recruiting landscape is a weird lifestyle because all weekend you’re watching footy here, there and everywhere and you’re trying to identify talent to help your football club going forward,” O’Bree said.

“For us as a recruiting team it was just like ‘we lost, but we had a good year and wanted to go one better, but we didn’t’, so for us we’ve just got to move on quickly and do our job.

“We stayed focused on the future for what else we needed to keep doing.

“We noticed Angus halfway through the year and he was going really well as a midfielder which he hadn’t played a hell of a lot of.

“It was more for us to keep a close eye on him and then the finals came around and he had a good Prelim final and then Shannon Collins and myself flew over there to watch him to confirm that interest.”

The Pies’ presence was unbeknownst to Anderson, who at that point was laser-focussed on putting the cherry on top of a fairytale SANFL season. He certainly didn’t hinder his draft case in the process though, as his Sturt side ran out comfortable winners in the decider.

Collecting 24 touches and kicking a crucial goal on the three-quarter time siren, the SANFL Team of the Year member firmly put himself on the draft radar in a performance that earned him the Jack Oatey Medal for best on ground.

It was all O’Bree needed to see to know Anderson was a player that could fit straight into the Pies’ 2026 plans. Already enamoured with his toughness, it was the midfielder’s versatility that stood out in his starring role on South Australia’s main stage.

“It was everything, he had an all-round day,” O’Bree said.

“He took a few courageous overhead marks for his size and he was able to get forward and kick a goal and set up a couple of goals with his kicking as well which made him more of a complete player.

“What he’s going to show the Collingwood supporters as well and what he’s done over the pre-season is he’s a contested beast with the ball but also when the opposition’s got it, that’s his one-wood.

“We were really happy with what we saw and thought he could fit into our system and thought he played like a Collingwood player so that gave us a lot of confidence that Grand Final day the way he stood up.”

Barely six months on having been taken with pick 57 in the draft, Anderson will return to the scene of his Grand Final heroics to make his AFL debut in the Pies’ Gather Round clash at Adelaide Oval.

It’s a beautiful bit of symmetry for the New South Welshman who turned South Australia into his adopted home as he pursued a career in the AFL.

Undrafted in 2021 as an 18-year-old, Anderson tried his hand with Sydney’s reserves team the following year before moving to Sturt in 2023.

Things didn’t come easily though, as his coach Marty Mattner recalls. The former Crow and Swan of 222 games couldn’t find a spot for him in his senior side in Anderson’s first year on the Double Blues’ list, before he blooded him early in 2024 as the improvement began to show.

“When he first got the club he was a real keen and eager young player and we love that and it was just about the standards and level of footy,” Mattner said.

“The training standards and commitment and just playing roles within a team, I mentioned to him that we had a pretty good midfield at that stage.

“We had a couple of guys that had won Magarey Medals (the SANFL Best & Fairest) and been state players and stuff like that, so it was like ‘you’re not going to walk straight into our midfield so you’re going to have to play a different role’.

“He started as a midfielder and played a bit of half forward as well and we talked about what he needed to improve on.

“He needed to get fitter and he did that and then we talked about ‘the standard of fitness you’re at now is good for SANFL, but if you want to get drafted then it’s got to go get better again’, and he did that.”

That commitment to turn himself into an ultra-professional is what Mattner has been most impressed with on Anderson’s journey to the top level.

The reason for Anderson shifting his life from Sawtell on the north coast of NSW to Adelaide was clear, encouraging Mattner to push his mentee the extra mile.

“He wanted to get drafted – that’s why he came to SA and came to Sturt,” he said.

“Initially it was just the standards to play league footy and as that progressed he achieved those standards and ticked those boxes and then we discussed that ‘now you want to get drafted, you’ve got to raise the bar again’.

“To his credit he worked harder and more professionally than any other player I’ve seen and ticked all the boxes.

“He was in the club early in the morning before work and I think the thing that gets forgotten is he was working full-time, but he would come into the club early in the morning and do his off-legs or do his weights and then go work all day.

“Those players when they do get drafted, they have a real appreciation for the opportunity they’ve been given because of the hard work they’ve put in.

“Last pre-season he got super fit and super strong in the gym and just took his game to the next level each year which was a really vital progression during his time at the club.”

But even at the beginning of 2025, getting drafted wasn’t entirely on Anderson’s radar despite his uplift in standards.

That is perhaps most backed up by his pre-booked off-season sojourn to Europe which was prematurely cut short after the Pies read his name out in last year’s draft, with a quick start to last season allowing things to snowball.

Finishing 2025 with multiple personal accolades after averaging 20 disposals, four clearances and four inside fifties per game, O’Bree and his recruiting team felt they’d uncovered a gem that could slot straight into Craig McRae’s team early the next year.

“He’d played wing and high forward for a couple of years at Sturt and then he got a midfield opportunity and played really well,” he said.

“For Gus, it was his contested side and stoppage work and his ability to transition too for a big inside mid which really stood out to us.

“Some big mids can’t run as well as others and we thought he could do both.

“After that day (the SANFL Grand Final) we thought he was a draftable player and after that you rank every draftable player on your board and ‘Gussy’ being a mature age player that we thought could come in straight away and be ready to go with the other guys that we were going to draft, that helped his cause as well.”

It’s only taken an impressive pre-season and two standout VFL performances for the Anderson’s chance to arise.

Mattner has kept in touch with his young match-winner since he moved across the border to live out his dream, with the 2012 Sydney premiership player offering a great sounding board for the Pies’ newest debutant.

He has a special connection with the Anderson family too, with Angus’ young brother Hamish now playing with Sturt having assumed the vacancies left by his sibling when he moved his life to Victoria to embark on a career in black and white.

“We’ve keeping in touch and Hamish his brother is at Sturt now as well so they’ve basically swapped lives and Hamish has taken over Angus’ bedroom and his job,” Mattner laughed.

“I text Angus last week to see if he was close and he said he was pretty close, but they went down a different path.

“I bumped into his dad last week at the game here in Sturt as he was coming to watch Hamish play. The family are great and I think that connection with the Andersons and the Sturt footy club now is quite strong.

“I asked my lads if they wanted to go and one of them said they’d love to go to this game but I might have to take both of them now that they know Angus is playing.

“We’ll definitely try get along there and watch him debut which is pretty amazing.”

There will be no shortage of support for the number 41 on Friday night as the Pies run out for a blockbuster clash on neutral territory against the Dockers.

With touchpoints all over the globe, even as far as London where he was when he was picked up by the Pies, few cities hold as special a place in Anderson’s heart as Adelaide, where a suite of his fans will pack out the hill to see him run out on the main stage for the very first time.