Adelaide has selected 21-year-old Werribee defender Kyle Hartigan with the Club’s only pick (No.14) in Tuesday’s AFL Rookie Draft.

At 194cm, and 93kg, Hartigan is an athletic key-position backman, who possesses a great speed and endurance. Earlier this year, Hartigan was selected in the inaugural AFL Victoria VFL Academy, established to enhance the talent pool of the VFL competition.

He represented Victoria Metro at the 2009 Under-18 National Championships and is a former member of the AIS-AFL Academy. He has spent the past three seasons playing senior football with the Werribee Tigers, who this year were coached by former Western Bulldogs legend Scott West.

National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie said Hartigan would help bolster the Club’s defensive stocks.

“Kyle’s an experienced key defender. In the rookie draft, you can look to needs a bit and Kyle fills a need for us along with Sam Siggins, who we recruited in the national draft,” Ogilvie said.

“Kyle can play both centre half-back and full-back. He’s really comfortable on the last line of defence, which a lot of younger blokes aren’t. He understands how to play back there on the big blokes like Ben Rutten does.”

Hartigan joins retained 2012 rookies Tim McIntyre, Rory Laird and Dylan Orval. Former basketballers Ben Dowdell, Tim Klaosen and Jack Osborn are listed as Category B rookies.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, the Crows reclaimed young midfielder Nick Joyce with Pick No.10 in the AFL Pre-season Draft