Emerging Richmond forward Oleg Markov jumped for joy when the Tigers selected Jack Graham at last Friday night's AFL National Draft.
So much so, that Markov's Richmond teammate and housemate Nathan Broad looked at him peculiarly and wondered what was going on.
It meant Markov would be reunited with his good friend and former North Adelaide teammate Graham, who had been picked up by the Tigers with their second selection, No. 53 overall, at the 2016 AFL National Draft.
Graham was ecstatic - and so was Markov.
"I messaged Jack an hour before the Draft, maybe two hours saying 'Good luck, I hope it all goes well. It's all out of your powers, soak up the night' and as soon as his name got read out, I was jumping around the house," Markov said.
Markov and Graham were teammates at South Australian National Football League club North Adelaide, where they played a mixture of under-18 and reserves football together.
The pair, who hadn't seen each other since September's SANFL under-18 grand final, had spoken about playing alongside each other again, but conceded it would be a stretch.
"(Jack said) 'Mate, imagine if I came to the Tigs', and I'm like 'You never know ' and then we left it there," Markov said.
"His name got called out and I started jumping around the house and 'Broady' (Nathan Broad) was like 'Are you right mate?' and I was like 'One of my good mates just got picked up!' I was stoked. I sent him a big paragraph and all that."
Graham labelled his former teammate as "a freak of nature, he was really skinny" but was ultimately excited to see a familiar face at his new Club.
"As soon as my name was read out, I thought of Richmond and I thought of Oleg straight away," Graham said.
"It made it a bit more comfortable knowing I was coming to a club where I knew someone."
Graham, alongside new draftees Shai Bolton and Ryan Garthwaite, arrived at Richmond last Sunday.
The inside midfielder said it had been a whirlwind, but he could not wait to begin pre-season training.
"It's good, (on Tuesday) we got to join in with training, boxing, gym," Graham said.
Graham was one of two Southern Australian recruits the Tigers picked up at the National and Rookie Drafts.
He joins recently rookied Tiger and former Woodville-West Torrens small forward Tyson Stengle.
For the first time since 2011, Tiger talent factory Northern Knights was not represented in Richmond’s Draft selections.
The TAC club has produced 20 percent of Richmond’s current list including, captain Trent Cotchin and new recruit Josh Caddy.
The Tigers have six West Australian Football League products on their list, followed by four from each TAC Cup Club North Ballarat, Calder Cannons and Western Jets.
Breakdown of current Richmond players' junior clubs:
Northern Knights 9
West Australian Football League 6 (Peel Thunder 1, Swan Districts 3, South Fremantle 1, Perth 1)
North Ballarat 4
Calder Cannons 4
Western Jets 4
South Australian National Football League 4 (North Adelaide 3, Woodville-West Torrens)
Murray Bushrangers 3
Dandenong Stingrays 2
Tasmania under-18 2
Eastern Ranges 1
Sandringham Dragons 1
Bendigo Pioneers 1
Geelong Falcons 1
NSW/ACT under-18 1
Aspley (NEAFL) 1
Mount Gravatt (QAFL) 1
