New England Nomads young gun Morgan Dunn is on the cusp of an Australian Rules Football dream.
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Fresh off playing a starring role in the Nomads' win over the Tamworth Swans on Saturday, the 17-year-old is one of two AFL North West juniors, along with Inverell's Lachie Martin, to be invited to trial for the Sydney Swans Academy this Saturday.
The former Northern Inland Academy of Sport AFL athlete of the year was among "a lot of the action" in the Nomads 12.17-89 to 11.11-77 win over Tamworth on Saturday.
"Everywhere the ball was contested, he was always on the ground," Nomads player-coach James Treweeke said.
"Someone said to me he looks like a spider crawling on the ground all the time because he just wanted the ball much more than everyone else and he got it."
While the Academy opportunity could mean Dunn misses the rest of the Nomads' season, Treweeke is rapt the youngster has the chance to showcase his skills.
"To be honest I wouldn't mind if he didn't play the rest of the season and played in Sydney for the rest of the year," he said.
"For people out here to get selected and play over there, it is always great for the league.
"I am hoping he does well.
"He has been brilliant for us in every game we have played, especially on the weekend."
Much of Morgan's success can be attributed to his father Neil who was the driving force behind the local league starting up a junior competition.
Morgan expressed an interest in playing and Neil sought out the league to get the competition up and going in 2016.
Aside from starring for NIAS, Morgan captained the Northern Stars representative team, won the New England sports awards junior athlete of the year and spent time in the Northern Heat squad.
For the Nomads on Saturday, aside from Morgan, Conor Nest, Andrew Gray, Dave Richards, Luke Raymond and Angus Quail were among their best.
"They [Tamworth] came at us pretty hard in the last five minutes," Treweeke said.
"I say this every week but we are still missing 10 blokes when we play so for us to tough it out again and get the win, I was really proud of the boys."