THERE are a number of things NSW/ACT defender Kade Klemke is looking forward to if he realises his dream of being picked up by an AFL club at the NAB AFL Draft on November 29.

And one of those is living within two hours of his club’s training facility.

Klemke, 18, was one of many aspiring AFL players to make the journey from their home in country NSW or Victoria to train and play with the victorious Murray Bushrangers in the TAC Cup competition this year.

Klemke, who was born in the remote NSW town of Henty, was advised to play only for the NSW/ACT Rams this year, but desperate to bolster his chances of being drafted, he decided to do the more than 12 hours a week of bush-bashing necessary to be a Bushranger.

“I live about one hour out of Albury and the [Murray Bushrangers] zone goes from Northern Victoria to parts of Southern NSW, so it just depends how far you want to travel as to whether you play for the Bushrangers or not,” Klemke said.

“To Wangaratta, it’s a two-hour drive from my home. To home games in Shepparton it was three hours away and then to get to Melbourne it was a five-hour drive.

“Wednesday nights were in Wangaratta and Mondays were in Albury, so I did that twice a week as well as game day on Saturday.”

The expensive and time-consuming exercise more than paid off for Klemke, who captained the Bushrangers to the premiership despite carrying a badly injured ankle.

The tenacious, rebounding defender played alongside 10-goal hero and fellow draft prospect Steele Sidebottom in the Bushrangers’ big win.

“Steele still had to get the supply to kick 10,” Klemke said with a laugh.

“I was very happy with the year and being captain of the club, just topped it off nicely. That’s what you play for, so to take out the premiership was amazing.”

Klemke, whose is of German descent, also took home the silverware as the Rams’ best player in the U18 Championships in June and was named in the All-Australian side.

He was rewarded with an invite to the 2008 NAB AFL draft camp, where he was one of only two NSW/ACT boys not already tied to a club through the AFL’s NSW Scholarship Program.

“Most of the guys from NSW/ACT are scholarship holders, but myself and Dylan McNeil, who is another Bushranger, were at the camp. Dylan’s bottom-age, so he’s got another year,” Klemke said.

“NSW footy is really improving. The money the AFL is putting into the state is huge, but Victorian footy is still a lot better.

“The skills are a lot better in the kids that have been brought up in Victoria. It’s good to get a taste of both [NSW and Victorian football] because one footy is real hard and contested and the other is fast, skilful footy, so it’s a good mix.