Essendon's first and only pick in the 2009 pre-season draft, West Australian Kyle Hardingham, says despite training with the Bombers at Windy Hill two years ago he was still shocked when selected. 
 
""One of the coaches at East Fremantle used to do a program where he would send over a few players each year (to Melbourne) to train so he organised for us to come over for three or four days just to train before the pre-season draft as more of a learning curve than anything,"" he said told Bomber.tv. 
 
""I missed out then and set my sights to make it to the AFL somehow.""
 
That dream came true when the Bombers called his name out with pick No.7 last month.
 
""I saw my name on the screen and was absolutely stoked,"" he said. 
 
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Hardingham said he had no idea the Bombers were planning to take him but was confident of being selected after a stand-out year with East Fremantle seniors.
 
""I played on a few of the big names in the WAFL, some AFL names and capped off my season by winning the best and fairest for East Fremantle,"" he said.
 
""You always have to set goals I reckon and I want to try and play that first (NAB Cup) game against the Eagles back in WA, that would be a great thing.""
 
The 184cm, 84 kg speedster says he sees himself playing in the backline and admits there were more people at the Bombers' recent captaincy open training session (his first session at the club) than at most of his WAFL games.
 
Hardingham also says having some familiar faces at the club in Cale Hooker and Paddy Ryder has helped him feel welcome.
 
""They said they would drive me around a fair bit which is the best part because I don't have a car yet,"" he said laughing.
    
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National list manager Adrian Dodoro says the 21-year-old is very similar to former North Melbourne champion David King and is very explosive and likes to take the game on.
 
""He is very quick over 20m and he goes onto our senior list and we expect him to give himself an excellent chance of playing senior footy in Round 1 this year,"" Dodoro said.