It's been a testing year for Brisbane Lions draftee Alex Witherden.

After being touted as a potential top ten pick, Witherden suffered a massive setback when he broke his leg earlier in the year.

Witherden is considered one of the best kicks in last night's draft, and his poise under pressure is a standout quality, but perhaps his best trait overall is his persistence and attitude to overcome any obstacle.

His father, Brad, said that the way his son responded to the injury spoke to his strength of character.

“He is very dedicated to his footy and to his recovery,” Brad Witherden told The Geelong Advertiser.

“He had his hips done a couple of years ago and he got himself right through hard work and this year he was all set for a killer year, a golden year, and who knows, he could possibly go top 10 in the draft, but it obviously didn’t pan out that way because he broke his leg very early.

“But then he just set about his recovery and just last week he ran a 2km trial about 20 seconds quicker than he did at the start of the year. So he has done everything and it makes me very proud, very proud.”

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Witherden was surrounded by family and close friends at his Newtown home, when the moment he has been waiting for finally came.

The Brisbane Lions took him with pick 23 and despite knowing the Lions were interested in him, came into the night not knowing where he'd end up.

“I was left in the dark pretty much,” Witherden told The Geelong Advertiser.

“But I’m not surprised at all and I saw that Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry, a couple of mates of mine, went there earlier so as the night unfolded I was hoping to get there in the end.

“I’m over the moon.

“Having hurt my leg earlier in the year, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, and now that it has I am super excited and it is a dream come true.”

Witherden joins a growing list of Falcons products at the Gabba, that includes former team mate Rhys Mathieson, Darcy Gardiner, Lewis Taylor and Allen Christensen, who texted the family on draft night to offer his congratulations and that he was free to chat “as one Geelong boy to another”.

His mother, Chon, was just rapt to see her son get the chance to live out his dream.

“It is his dream, his passion, it is a new career and new phase of his life. I don’t think a mum could be prouder," Chon said.