Trentham’s shock draftee

A BUDDING basketball star who reignited his football career late this year with Maryborough-Castlemaine District Football League club Trentham yesterday joined the Adelaide Crows.Ricky Henderson was one of the surprise stories of yesterday’s AFL rookie draft after the Crows used their first pick - No.10 overall - to selected the 20-year-old.Henderson was initially spotted by Adelaide recruiting staff at the National Basketball League Prospects Camp in Melbourne in July, where he impressed with his athletic ability.“I saw Ricky going up and down the court playing basketball and I knew straight away that he was an outstanding athlete,” Crows’ eastern recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie told The Advertiser.“I did some follow up and asked if he had ever played football before.“He said he had played in Ballarat until he was 16, but then turned to basketball.“I told him that if he ever wanted to have a kick of the footy again that we would watch him play.“I knew if this kid had played footy before, on his asceticism he would have some chance of making it because he’s a brilliant athlete.” Following his discussion with Ogilvie at the NBL camp, Henderson registered with MCDFL club Trentham, where he played three games late in the season.“I sent one of our part-time recruiters up to have a look at him and the reports were good,” Ogilvie said. “The part-timers looked at him for a couple of games, and then I went and watched him in his third game.” The game Ogilvie went to watch was Trentham’s 23-point win over Campbells Creek in the final round on August 23.And Ogilvie was certainly impressed with what he saw from the 190cm Henderson, who kicked seven goals in the first half.“I know the standard isn’t great, but Ryan just picked it up like he had never stopped playing,” Ogilvie said.“We saw enough in those three games for Trentham to know that Ricky had a chance.” Henderson, who spent the past week training with the Crows, played in the South East Australian Basketball League with the Ballarat Miners this year, where he averaged 15.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.“Ricky knew it was always going to be a long shot and a bit of a punt, but once he got to Adelaide and trained so well and picked it up so quickly, we were more than happy to go with him today,” Ogilvie said.“It’s going to be a good challenge for us in that we’re going to try to develop a kid from another sport who is an elite athlete to see if we can turn him into an AFL player.“We’re sure with his attitude and character that he will give it his best shot.”