With the AFL Draft now in full swing, Osborne's Nick Madden is confident of getting picked up and finding a spot on a list

Monday night saw the first 21 picks of the draft and while Madden's name was not called out during the first round, he was confident that he would find himself on a list.

"I'm pretty confident, but obviously a bit nervous," Madden said.

In addition to his nerves, Madden has also copped a blow with the young ruckman needing to go under the knife later in the week on his ankle which will mean a delayed start to his pre-season.

"It's disappointing," he said.

"I got told that I need surgery on my ankle, so I'll be out for two to four months of the pre-season and I'll have surgery on Thursday."

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Since coming home from the draft combine, Madden has continued to work away despite the injury in order to get himself in the best possible shape.

"I've spent a fair bit of time in the gym just trying to build my cardio and maintain that," he said.

"I haven't been able to run, so I'm just putting on some size muscle wise and just trying to best prepare myself for it."

Tied in with the GWS Giants through their academy, Madden could very well be on his way to Western Sydney however spoke to a handful of clubs while in Melbourne at the combine.

"Originally I only had three," he said.

"But I ended up talking to about six and I was pretty happy with that.

"I was just happy to talk to anyone."

If selected, Madden would be the third player to be drafted from Osborne in the past 25 years with Adam Schneider (Pick 60, 2001) and Dean Terlich (2008 rookie draft) both going on to play at the top level.

"It would be exceptional if I got to represent them," he said.

"I'm pretty hopeful, but I'll just wait and see what happens.

"It would be a lot of hard work, but it would also be pretty cool. They had Adam Schneider who is a gun and also Dean Terlich.

"There has also been a few good enough, three or four from the 90's and 2000's who could've played, but they were happy enough to stay on the farm."

Although having a strong season on the field, Madden believes that he possibly could've done more off it, but was looking forward to getting to work once on a list.

"I tried pretty hard," he said.

"But I could've done more off the field, but that will come if I get on a list and have more time to do so."

At 204cm and 112kg, Madden is already bigger than some of the AFL's established ruckman including Geelong's Rhys Stanley, Sydney's Tom Hickey and Fremantle's Sean Darcy.

While admitting that his size is an advantage, Madden said that he has still got a lot of work to do in terms of his fitness.

"It's definitely good being my size at 18," he said.

"But there is a lot of fitness to come and I'm just doing cardio and looking to get bigger as a ruckman."

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