The livewire forward kicked two goals in the Power’s family day hit-out against Sturt last weekend and impressed fans and coaches with his blistering speed and fierce attack on the body and the ball.
But his football career hasn’t always accelerated at such a frenetic pace.
In fact, it looked like stalling five years ago.
In 2004, as his future club prepared for its maiden grand final win, Thompson walked away from the game.
“I was playing footy back home in Port Augusta and I came down to Adelaide to try and play for Central Districts,” Thompson told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“But I couldn’t play for Centrals because I was in North Adelaide’s zone and they hadn’t cleared me, so I decided to take the year off.”
The speedy forward dabbled in other sports during his hiatus from footy and emerged a promising athlete.
Thompson’s personal best time in the 100m sprint - 10.83sec - is less than a second outside the Australian record of 9.93sec set by Patrick Johnson in 2003.
“I was doing some athletics training because I was a bit of a sprinter,” Thompson said.
“But I realised I had too much passion for football and decided to stick with that.”
Thompson returned to the football field in 2005 when he joined North Adelaide’s U19s for pre-season training.
But it wasn’t altogether a smooth transition.
Thompson, who was living in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, struggled to find the transportation and motivation to become a regular at training at Prospect Oval.
“I went out to my first training session with North and I was off and on. I would go out for a while and then drop out again,” he said.
“I was probably a bit slack and I didn’t have that support. I was away from my family and I didn’t have anybody here, so some days, I just couldn’t get to training.”
It wasn’t until the dedicated staff at the South Australian Aboriginal Sports Training Academy offered their own time that Thompson was able to make a serious go of training with the Roosters.
“The teachers worked out a schedule where I would go home after school, get ready for training and they would come and pick me up as soon as they finished at school,” Thompson said.
“They would take me to training, watch me train and then drop me home again. Finally, I just stuck at it and stayed out there.”
Thompson was rewarded for his dedication and was promoted for nine reserves games during his first season in the U19s.
He played six league games with North Adelaide last season and was invited to train with the Power in the lead up to the NAB AFL and Rookie Drafts.
Thompson - nicknamed ‘Bullet’ by his new teammates - was hopeful of retaining his place in the Port Adelaide line-up after being named in the 29-man squad to take on the Swans in Canberra on Sunday.
The solidly-built forward conceded he had to improve his fitness to be a consistent AFL player, but assistant coach Matthew Primus was confident Thompson could have a long future in the game.
“Wade’s got speed, the ability to read the play and he can play forward,” Primus said.
“We’re hoping he’s got a bit more growing to do and we’ll see the best of him in a couple of years.”
Dream Team watch: Wade Thompson is rated as a $88,300 forward in the Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
