West Coast’s top draft pick Campbell Chesser has declared spending Christmas Day in quarantine was a price worth paying after being free to start training with the team last week.

The Eagles selected Chesser with the 14th pick in the national draft but he took an unconventional route to WA. The midfielder’s family live on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, and he quickly realised he may be locked out of Western Australia if he spent too much time at home.

That led to the decision to drive for 10 hours to Adelaide, spend two weeks training with SANFL club Glenelg while waiting for clearance to come to Perth, and then live in quarantine for two weeks after flying to WA.

While that meant being locked up for Christmas, Chesser said his sacrifice was worth it.

“It was a bit unorthodox but it was fine. With COVID in Melbourne the last couple of years, I spent a lot more time at home because I was going to boarding school at Melbourne grammar. With online school I’d been home a lot,” Chesser said.

“The club was pretty open to letting me decide. there was no pressure form the club about coming over for Christmas. I made the decision I’d been home for a while and the border is so unpredictable. In Victoria and New South Wales it’s pretty crazy - its blown up so thank god I did get over when I did.

“I’m here now and I don’t know if I’ll be going back any time soon. It was a decision I wanted to be over here for day one which worked out to be exactly the day I got out of quarantine.”

Chesser’s host family travelled to Margaret River for Christmas and he spent the day training at home and speaking with family. He said his fitness hadn’t suffered from spending time in quarantine

West Coast chose Chesser despite highly rated West Australian talent being available and him barely playing in recent seasons. But the teenager was more interested in learning to be a West Coast midfielder than worrying about having to live up to expectations.

“The external stuff doesn’t really faze me too much,” he said.

“Once you’re in at the club you work on your own development and the team as well. as long as I can keep focused on that, I’m not too stressed on the expectation that comes with being a first round pick.”