WHEN it comes to drafting players nowadays, no stone is left unturned by AFL clubs in the search for the next big thing.
Recruiters like to know everything about prospective draftees, so when they sat down with Geelong Falcons star Gary Rohan at last month's draft camp, they all asked the same question: What was the huge scar on his knee?
The medical records in front of them said Rohan, who grew up on a farm in Cobden in the Western District, hadn't suffered any major injuries.
But the ugly scar told them otherwise.
How it happened is one of Belinda Rohan's favourite stories about her son's amazing journey over the past 12 months, which could see him picked as high as No. 4 in Thursday's national AFL draft.
"Gary's younger brother Ashley had been given a rooster and we had it locked up but it got out - this was only a couple of days after we had it," she said.
"We tried to place it back into the pen, but it went over the fence into the paddock, so I said to Gary to jump the fence.
"But when he put his foot on the top wire it snapped and he sliced his leg on a bit of tin.
"He ended up having 12 stitches and this big scar on his leg. Everyone wanted to know at draft camp, 'What operation have you had on your knee?'
"So he ended up having to tell them all about the rooster story."
And what happened to the rooster?
"I took Gary to hospital and his father, brother and two sisters ended up catching the rooster."
