AARON Christensen learned all about what it takes to be an elite footballer when his older brother Allen was drafted by Geelong in 2009.
"Just seeing him in his first year was a great reality check," Aaron recalled in an interview with AFL.com.au during the NAB AFL Draft Combine.
"As a first-year player, he was only doing about 50 per cent of the pre-season training, but he would come home at six o'clock, have dinner and go to bed.
"Then he'd be up at six o'clock the next morning."
Initially, Aaron found it hard to comprehend such a heavy workload.
But after watching Allen receive his premiership medal following the Cats' win in the 2011 Grand Final, he became adamant that he wanted to try and make the grade himself.
Two years on, Aaron Christensen finds himself on the verge of achieving his dream.
When the NAB AFL Draft is held on November 21, the 18-year-old is rated a decent chance to be selected with a late pick.
Melbourne, North Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide are among the clubs to have already shown an interest in him.
"I'm not a lot like my brother as a player," Christensen said. "I'm a bit taller than him.
"He's an inside mid and I'm more of a running, outside player.
"Where we do have similar attributes is we both have pretty good skills and decision-making."
Added AFL national and international talent manager Kevin Sheehan: "He's a creative player who has an innate ability to put the game into slow motion when the ball is in his hands.
"His balance and ability to read the game allows him to always be a step ahead of his opponent."
Christensen headed overseas with the Flying Boomerangs indigenous team in 2010, and he spent the past two seasons playing school footy for Geelong Grammar and in the TAC Cup with the Geelong Falcons.
He notched 11 games for the Falcons in 2012, kicking 10 goals and earning a mention among their best players three times.
This year he played eight games and kicked another 10 majors, three of them against Gippsland Power in mid-July and another three against Calder Cannons a month later.
But injuries meant he was unable to show off his full potential.
"I haven't done a pre-season yet, because in both pre-seasons I've had hip problems," he said.
"So I'm actually looking forward to doing a pre-season anywhere, just so I can run out a whole year."
Christensen's battle to build up a fitness base was a key reason he didn't make the initial 50-player squad selected to try out for a place in the Vic Country team that took part in this year's national under-18 championships.
"I was pretty angry about that," he recalled. "But the coaches down at the Falcons helped me through that really well.
"They just told me to relax, focus on playing footy at any level, and not worry about the representative stuff.
"After that I went back to Geelong Grammar and played the best footy I had played in ages."
Stung by missing out on the national championships, Christensen was delighted to score an invite to the NAB AFL Combine, which was held at Etihad Stadium in the week after Hawthorn defeated Fremantle in the Grand Final.
Although not among the most aerobically gifted players in attendance, he managed to record a 13.1 score in the tortuous beep test and completed the 20m sprint in a reasonably swift 3.16 seconds.
"It was pretty challenging," Christensen said of the three-day combine. "You pull up physically fatigued at the end of each day.
"Walking up the stairs to the hotel, it just kills you, and mentally it's a big challenge as well.
"But I loved it. At the start of the year, with my hip injuries, I wasn't sure that I'd be playing footy at all, so I felt very lucky to get an invite."
Christensen is hoping rather than expecting to be drafted on November 21.
If he gets ignored on that occasion, there's always the rookie draft a week later.
And if he gets overlooked in that one as well, it won't be the end of the world.
"I'll go back to the Falcons as a 19-year-old, and hopefully I'll be back in contention next year."
