![Andrew Whittington during his first round match against Adam Pavlasek.](/web/20170118070741im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/t/b/g/3/image.related.landscape.460x307.gtta69.png/1484689935749.jpg)
Aussie wildcard goes from caravan to Melbourne Park winner
This time last year Andrew Whittington was staying in caravan parks.
Emma Quayle joined The Age as a cadet journalist in 1999 and has been covering football since 2001. She has won awards from the Australian Football Media Association and AFL Players Association for her feature writing, and specialised for many years in covering junior football and the AFL draft. Emma's two books - The Draft and Nine Lives (the story of former Essendon wingman Adam Ramanauskas' battle with cancer) - were published in 2008 and 2010.
This time last year Andrew Whittington was staying in caravan parks.
Seen and heard at the 2017 Australian Open
The first thing we needed to know was that he was going to make it, that he was going to live. It still seems such a ridiculous thing to have had to wish for: 33-year-old people are not supposed to have strokes, not the ones who sit at the next desk over. The next thing we wanted to know was whether Jesse would still be our Jesse and he answered that question for us quickly, too.
Adelaide hopes that Alex Keath's fresh taste of the football club environment will inspire him to re-establish his promising junior career there next year.
If you broke the AFL's new broadcasting deal down into $100 notes and piled them up next to Buddy Franklin, they would make Sydney's highly-paid superstar look tiny.
Alex Keath has not closed the door on a possible return to football, with clubs told he is open to talking with them at the end of the season.
Discarded Victorian cricketer Alex Keath would be a realistic chance to find a new home in the AFL should he decide to return to the sport he quit five years ago.
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