David Cuningham heard his name called as he watched on with his father, mother, older brother and three older sisters from the loungeroom of the family home in Melbourne’s east.
 
“I tried to keep it pretty low-key. I’ve since tried to respond to as many messages as possible, but it’s all a bit overwhelming really,” said the final year Melbourne Grammarian. “I’ve become a Blue.”
 
The smooth-moving, fleet-of-foot Oakleigh Chargers midfielder, a close friend of Jack Silvagni, thought his name might have been volunteered by Jack’s old man (the club’s List Manager) at selection 23.

“People at Carlton had quite a lot of meetings with me and I thought they were pretty interested. Stephen Silvagni was a fan of mine I think, so I thought it might happen around that mark.
 
“To play AFL was a dream I’ve had since first playing footy at the age of five. It’s taken 13 years of playing and now that I’m there I want to make a real go of it.”
 
Cuningham took a congratulatory phonecall from Brendon Bolton soon after he was declared a Carlton draftee. Bolton, he said, advised that he would call back when things settled, “but for the moment to enjoy the night”.
 
The only genuine on-baller taken by Carlton at this draft, Cuningham declared that he was an unabashed fan of the club’s recently-retired former captain Chris Judd.
 
As he said: “My idol growing up was Chris Judd. He was a superstar through the stoppages and if anyone I try to model my game on it’s him”.
 
So now it’s all before the young bloke as he prepares to embark upon the next phase of his footballing odyssey – but what’s the primary objective for 2016?
 
“My focus right now is to build respect throughout the pre-season with a lot of hard work,” came the reply.
 
“I’m just looking to build my own game and integrate well into the team and hopefully play a few games in the pre-season to see how I’m settling in,” Cuningham said.