'The most intrinsically motivated athlete I think I've ever come across'

"He's the most intrinsically motivated athlete I think I've ever come across," he declared.

"He does everything possible to be as good as possible and is athletically as advanced a footballer as we have ever had in our program, certainly from a running perspective."

Brown is about to enter his sixth season as the Bushies' head coach and has been in the elite youth system longer, watching Clayton Oliver (No. 4, Melbourne, 2015), Lachie Ash (No. 4, GWS, 2019) and Josh Rachele (No. 6, Adelaide, 2021), among a host of others, being drafted.

Wilson was also a first-round pick, No. 18 by St Kilda last November, and he will become an AFL player in Saturday night's away game against Geelong.

It's a long way from the 66kg, 16-year-old in his Wangaratta Rovers' debut against Corowa-Rutherglen on May 21, 2022.

The classy forward-midfielder bulked up to 75kgs by Draft time last November and will now play at a muscular 79kgs.

"Every time I used to leave our clubrooms on a Wednesday night, he'd still be in there lifting weights," Brown praised.

"I spoke about his running, but that work just translated into the gym. He's lived in the gym for the last 18 months and this is just reward for effort.

"He's talented, but talent gets your foot in the door, it's what you do when you're there."

And Rovers have also witnessed his physical and playing development.

"His work ethic to improve and develop the areas that he felt were required to get him to the next step have been terrific, he's nothing short of role model material," co-president Wally Pasquali outlined.

"It's good to see our other young kids get the chance to see that first-hand."

A passionate runner himself, Pasquali saw Wilson further develop when he trained with Jack Boulton, who won the 100m and 400m under 16 titles at the Australian All Schools Championships in 2019, the latter in a national age record (48.04secs).

"Darcy would go to footy training and be the fastest guy there, but you send him to training with Jack Boulton and he's not, Darcy realised, 'I can get a little faster here'," Pasquali revealed.

'You'd always see him down at the footy ground, practicing his goal kicking, he just ticked all the boxes and the extra curricular work around what he needed to do."

Wilson's family will make the trek to Geelong for the historic moment.

"He's been really focused, he's pretty shy, very quiet, deep down he's always been pretty determined to achieve what he wants to do," dad Mick, a Wangaratta Rovers' stalwart, offered.

"We'll take his grandparents and I'm pretty sure most of the family will be there."