For the second week in a row the GIANTS will blood a debutant with Tom Hutchesson to run out against the Swans.

Less than two years ago, Tom Hutchesson led his local side to a long-awaited premiership.

On that day the Millicent Saints broke a 34-year drought. Hutchesson was named best on ground in the Grand Final.

That award capped off his 2018 season when he won the Western Border Football League Male Medal as well as the Saints’ Best and Fairest.

That season put him on the radar of the Adelaide Crows and last year - while still playing the odd game for Millicent - he also signed on as a top-up player for the Crows’ SANFL team. 

Millicent is a town of just under 5,000 people 399km south-east of Adelaide and the now-25-year-old was working as a carpenter full-time. 

He flew from Mount Gambier to Adelaide on the weekends to play 14 games in the SANFL last year. 

It was there that the GIANTS’ South Australian scout Tyson Bourke first noticed his speed, agility and toughness, playing in the midfield and forward line.

A complicated draft night scenario saw the GIANTS select Hutchesson with the final pick of the 2019 NAB AFL Draft, straight onto an AFL senior list. 

But when his name was called out, Hutchesson didn’t even know.

He and partner Natalie were thousands of kilometres in the air, on their way back from a month-long Europe trip. 

He only found out when he logged on to the in-flight wi-fi and his phone went ballistic.

From there, just days later he moved to Sydney and was suddenly starting a pre-season at an AFL club.

Hutchesson showed a bit in a few NEAFL trial games early in the season before the COVID shutdown.

Nat had just got a job as a theatre nurse at Concord Hospital so he stayed in Sydney to train with Jeremy Finlayson, Jeremy Cameron and Daniel Lloyd. 

But then, just a week before everyone returned to the club, he injured his right hamstring. 

Two weeks later, he injured it again and had to spend almost two months on the sidelines to get it right.

He finally returned to the footy field three weeks ago for a practice-match against the Hawks at Tom Wills Oval.

Since then he’s also played against the Swans and last week, against a combined Essendon and Richmond team.

In all those games he's shown he’s just a pure footballer. There’s been plenty of that speed, agility and toughness, as well as goals.

He's made it impossible not to pick him and an injury to Phil Davis opened a spot for him to make his AFL debut on Thursday night against the Swans.

From the local leagues, to the state level, to Optus Stadium in the Sydney Derby.

It’s been a whirlwind two years for Hutchesson and on Thursday when he runs out, he’ll become GIANT number 103.