Ed Richards was roughly seven kilometres from Ikon Park when it dawned on him that he wasn’t going to make his pre-draft interview with the Carlton Football Club.

The then 18-year-old had allowed almost an hour to get from his home in Glen Iris to the Princess Park precinct, but the Eastern Freeway had turned into a carpark. Slightly panicked, he was left with only one option: to abandon the car.

“I got on the Eastern, humming along, it was fine. I reckon I got 500m past the Chandler Highway exit and then it just stopped,” he told the Freedom in a Cage podcast this week.

“At that stage I was like, I've got quite a bit of time to get there, I should be alright, and then minutes just kept ticking over and I wasn't moving anywhere.'

“And at that stage I was like, if I just leave my car here I could probably make it if I run. But the issue was I didn't have my car with me, I was driving my girlfriend's car so I couldn't just leave her car stranded on the Eastern and just run down Alexandra Parade.”

It was the side of the story the Carlton recruiting team didn’t get to hear. 

In the end, Richards stayed in his car, was 45 minutes late, and walked into a meeting with some stern-faced Blues officials.  

“They tried to not be annoyed but you could sort of tell, he said. “But if someone was 45 minutes late, that's pretty annoying.

The rest is history as they say, and Richards was available when the Dogs second selection (16th overall) came up, much to the delight of any Bulldogs fan that has watched the former Oakleigh Charger in his first season at AFL level.

But, fair to say it was a stressful day for a young man about to embark on his football journey.

“I checked Maps and everything, it's not like Maps told me it was chockers,” he laughed.

“I had to park illegally as well. If I got a ticket, that would have been a nightmare.”

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