With the AFL Draft looming, pundits and analysts of every pay grade have their focus set on this year's top-end talent.

Should you spend enough time examining phantom drafts, highlights packages and anything uttered by the guru Kevin Sheehan, it becomes glaringly evident who will be taken with a first-round selection.

But what then of those names that slip? What about those that will miss out altogether?

Since 1997, the league has implemented a secondary Rookie Draft for the project players, sliders and risky names that failed to have their names called.

Although the rookie list now appears to be a haven for ageing champions instead of a home for up and comers, here's hoping that when the competition finally settles post COVID-19, that it can return to its initial purpose.

Across the 23 seasons of the Rookie Draft there have been multiple names that never made the senior grade, but for the multitude of untried delistees, there have been a handful of diamonds excavated from the rubble.

Here are the 10 biggest names that found their way onto AFL lists via the Rookie Draft.

7. Brett Kirk

Despite contemporarily being remembered for his utterly bizarre commentary introduction, anyone that saw Brett Kirk ply his trade for the Swans will recall a warrior rather than a meme.

After falling to Sydney with the 40th pick of the 1998 Rookie Draft, Kirk was made to wait almost the entirety of the '99 season before making his debut against the Kangaroos at the SCG.

From his introduction to league football until the completion of his career, Kirk managed 241 games for the Swans, with the final 200 in a row.

With two Best and Fairests, a pair of Premierships and an All- Australian selection after an incredible 2004 season, Kirk received the accolades he so richly deserved.

As a practicing Buddhist and club captain for five seasons across two stints, the Albury product was instrumental in creating, implementing, and maintaining the much mentioned โ€˜Blood's Culture'.

Now back at the Swans as an assistant coach, you can be sure that Kirk will be drilling this philosophy in the current ballet of cygnets.