St Kilda Select Paddy McCartin First In AFL Draft

St Kilda have made Paddy McCartin the No.1 pick in the 2014 AFL draft, confirming rumours the Geelong Grammar product would be selected over the highly touted Christian Petracca.

The 18-year-old marking forward spent last season with the Geelong Falcons and is a reliable forward mark capable of moving up the ground.

McCartin’s miraculous story has seen the teenager manage his professional football future while also living with type 1 diabetes since age nine.

“Ever since then I’ve had to deal with (diabetes) on a daily basis,” McCartin told the AFL broadcast. “It was a bit of struggle to start with, I was pretty young and a little immature, but I had a lot of help from my parents.”

“As footy came into more of a serious note I’ve had to take care of it a lot more. I’m really lucky the Falcons and I have been able to build a really good management plan for it. I’m taking about 10 (blood) pricks a game and feel like I’m pretty well on top it.”

McCartin revealed he had no contact with the Saints in the lead up to the draft after his high school exam period and a family holiday overseas, but had spoken with Melbourne in the past few days.

“I’d had none (contact),” he said. “I got here tonight the same as everybody else. I didn’t have a clue so half an hour felt like about five hours and I was a bit nervous.”

Melbourne picked Petracca and Paul Roos favourite Angus Brayshaw with the second and third picks.