193 centremeters tall, 94 kilograms.. this is the size of the "Next big thing" in football. Hayden Sumner, the 17 year old from Bendigo in Victoria will embrase himself into the AFL in the 2008 AFL Premiership Season.
The young boy from the country town, has dominated his junior years at Senior Level. The Adelaide Crows are lucky enough to be the team to pick up Sumner who was a Crow follower all his child hood. Sumer recalls that the 1997 & 1998 premierships was the time that Sumner started following AFL Football. Sumner says, Andrew McLeod was his favourite player when growing up as a child, the way McLeod moves along the ground, he seems intouchable in his standout 97 and 98 Seasons where he won 2 Norm Smith Medals.
The Adelaide Crows coach Neil Craig had this to say about the rectuitment about Sumner. "This kid could be the solver of our problem we have been facing since Darren Jarman left. We haven't had that "big goal kicker". We haven't got a Brendan Fevola or Matthew Llyod who kick 70+ goals a season, Brett Burton has played our main forward target since 2002 and has done a resonable job being at 186cm tall. Sumner could be the solver in this problem we have. 193cm and 94kg, is a massive build for a 17 year old, he will certainly get bigger being at the club and will get taller, so how good can this kid really get?
He is another Lance Franklin, Franklin is already dominating the competition at the age of 21. Is Sumner the same as "Buddy" let's hope so.
Round 1 AFL Premiership season Western Bulldogs vs Adelaide @ Telstra Dome
Match Preview: Hayden Sumner has been picked in the starting 22 for the Crows against the Bulldogs at the Tesltra Dome. Sumner will make his AFL Debut. Sumner has been named on the Half Foward Flank for the Crows, and has been named to be maned up by Lindsay Gilbee who is one of the Bulldogs best players, that is a massive ask for Sumner to play on Gilbee in his first AFL game of his career, let's see how the kid goes.
Star shines on Debut
Debutant Hayden Sumner shone in his first AFL game against the Western Bulldogs at the Telstra Dome on Sunday. The Crows however didn't win the match, but their were a lot of positives coming out of the match and one of them being the dominance by 1st gamer Sumner.
Sumner who started on the Half Foward Flank started on Lindsay Gilbee, but being too tall and strong for Gilbee, Sumner kicked 3 goals in the first quarter which saw Gilbee get dragged at the end of the quarter. It was a lighting start from Hayden who looked to be on show early on. Hayden finished with 5 goals for the afternoon, not a bad start for his 1st game :P.
Hayden was also named best on ground for the Crows as the were beaten by 18 points infront of a poor crowd of 12, 253 @ the Dome.
Hayden finished with 21 possesions, and took a game high 14 marks. He kicked 5.2 and had a whopping 11 inside 50's. This kid already looks a STAR, and it's only his 1st match.
GOALS: Western Bulldogs: Harris 5, Johnson 3, Murphy 3, Cooney 2, Addison, Gilbee, Ray, Akermanis, West, Hill
Adelaide: Sumner 5, Doughty 2, Knights 2, Burton 2, Reilly, McLeod, Thompson, Goodwin, Vince
BEST: Western Bulldogs: Harris, Johnson, Eagleton, Murphy, Cross, Hargrave
Adelaide: Sumner, Johncock, Burton, Stevens, Symes, Reilly
DISPOSALS: Western Bulldogs: Eagleton 25, Harris 25, Cross 24, Hargrave 21
Adelaide: Johncock 27, Stevens 23, Symes 23, Sumner 21
Action from the under 17's, where Hayden played his junior footy at Marong in Victoria
