South Australia is set to kick off the U18s National Championships on Sunday against the Allies at Blacktown International Sports Park, with AFL Academy member Sam Cumming to feature heavily in the Croweaters midfield.
The dominant North Adelaide teenager has had a fine start to 2025, averaging 24 disposals and three clearances at SANFL U18s level.
He's set to feature in a stacked South Australian midfield, alongside top 10 prospect Dyson Sharp and Richmond father-son prospect Louis Kellaway.
Cumming's solid AFL Academy series proved he had the wares to match it with the best, and he has laid the foundation for his National Championships campaign.
His form follows a bottom-aged year where he won the SANFL U18s MVP, averaging 27 disposals and four clearances to establish himself as one of South Australia's leading draft hopefuls for 2025.
Cumming - who has earned comparisons to Swans star Isaac Heeney by his coach - also broke through for two games at the U18s National Championships as a bottom-ager as he showcased his growing skillset in the front third of the ground.
“He's become really explosive and has put himself on a good platform to launch,” North Adelaide U18s coach Mitch Clisby said of Cumming to Craft of the Draft.
“He's got this penetrating kick which forward of centre is quite damaging, his contest work is excellent and he's a hard matchup one-on-one because of his ability to mark overhead.
“I think he's ready to compete and have an impact at the next level.
“There's obviously water to go under the bridge, but we expect him to land at an AFL side next year and have an immediate impact.
“From an organisation point of view, he's very diligent, so if you put him in an AFL environment now, he'd look like a fifth or sixth-year player.
“I think he'd go into an AFL environment, start as a forward and pinch-hit in the middle.
“He plays similar to an Isaac Heeney because he's strong in the contest and can mark the ball overhead when he jumps at it.
“Sam isn't at that level yet but that's the role I compare him to.
“It would be scary for an opposition to see him as a forward at this level.”
Impacting forward of the footy remains a focus for Cumming, who booted four goals in his most recent match for North Adelaide before school footy took precedent.
He also played predominantly off half-forward for AFL Academy in between spearheading the Roosters' midfield in the first month of the season.
Cumming concurs that there are parallels between Heeney's game and where he'd like to take his own footy.
“Isaac's a good one because he started his AFL career as a forward and his overhead marking and elite kick and groundballs, I feel like I can bring that a little bit,” Cumming said.
“If I get picked up, I feel like I can play forward and he's obviously a great player and pretty unstoppable.
“At the start of the year I was that pure midfielder, and I knew if I wanted to play ‘champs', I had to add a string to my bow so I improved my forward craft a lot throughout last year.”
Cumming hails from Wentworth, a speck on the map in the middle of the southwestern New South Wales desert on the Murray River.
He made his senior debut in the Sunraysia League before his 15th birthday, playing 15 senior games, including the losing grand final side, and was named the league's rising star.
“Going up against bigger bodies has certainly held me in good stead,” Cumming recalled.
“It was awesome to just watch how everyone prepares and the training standards.
“Being part of the grand final team, it was special to see what it meant to everybody especially being so young, so it was a real eye opener.
“I think we had 10,000-15,000 at the grand final which is the biggest crowd I've ever played in front of.
“It's always nice, even now, to get back home and get back on the river, do a little bit of waterskiing, but it's such a great community and everyone knows each other, I feel like it's one big family.”
It's the same local club from which GWS 2024 draftee Jack Ough grew up at before moving to St Patrick's College, Ballarat, to advance his studies and footy.
Having seen Ough, with whom Cumming shares a close bond with, and others move away for their final years of schooling, boarding was a route Cumming was keen to take, for footy and education.
While highly regarded by those both in Wentworth and more broadly in the Bendigo Pioneers talent pathway region, boarding at Prince Alfred College has reduced the travel strain and helped develop Cumming holistically.
The off-field preparation, which Clisby highlighted as a strength of Cumming's, went to the next level in pre-season when he was afforded the opportunity to spend time immersed in Port Adelaide's AFL system as part of the AFL Academy program.
“I loved that week with Port,” Cumming said.
“It opened my eyes to what I need to do to be an AFL footballer with the amount of time they put in to looking after their bodies and the training standards as well.
“They're all best mates off the field but are accountable on the field which I loved because everyone is trying to get better and I learned a lot of midfield craft from Jason Horne Francis, Connor Rozee and Zak Butters.
“Connor opened his arms a little bit and brought me in and taught me the ways to be an AFL footballer and his footwork is unbelievable, the way he gets on the move at stoppage and has the agility and power to burst from packs and being able to find a target from that.”
