The 2013 draft features perhaps the best top-end talent of any count since 2010.
The top three selections of this re-draft astonishingly hold well over 400 Brownlow votes between them, accompanied by multiple All-Australians and top-tier awards including a Brownlow Medal and premiership medallions.
Hindsight updates to this draft create a plethora of exciting changes and strange fits, and you can decide whether your club benefits or goes backwards.
But first, here is the original first round of picks:
- Tom Boyd (GWS)
- Josh Kelly (GWS)
- Jack Billings (St Kilda)
- Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs)
- Kade Kolodjashnij (Gold Coast)
- Matt Scharenberg (Collingwood)
- James Aish (Brisbane)
- Luke McDonald (North Melbourne)ย f/s
- Christian Salem (Melbourne)
- Nathan Freeman (Collingwood)
- Dom Sheed (West Coast)
- Ben Lennon (Ben Lennon)
- Patrick Cripps (Carlton)
- Cam McCarthy (GWS)
- Zak Jones (Sydney)
- Darcy Lang (Geelong)
- Michael Apeness (Fremantle)
- Luke Dunstan (St Kilda)
- Blake Acres (St Kilda)
- Jack Leslie (Gold Coast)
Note: All matched bids for Academy and Next Generation Academy prospects in this re-draft are based on what we know about how those players' careers have panned out, to date.
8. Matt Crouch - Melbourne (Originally: Pick 23, Adelaide)
Here is another name who few recognise as a star of the competition anymore.
Matt Crouch's prime years at Adelaide were something to behold, bursting into his 2016 breakout year with 27 disposals per game before lifting further with a best & fairest and All-Australian effort in a Grand Final year for the Crows in 2017.
He averaged 33 disposals that season, establishing himself as one of the highest-accumulating midfielders in the league before backing it up with two more 32+ disposal seasons in 2018 and 2019.
His career has since taken a downturn with the Crows undergoing a rebuild under Matthew Nicks.
It seemed he was ostracised from the Adelaide midfield to make room for newcomers Jordan Dawson, Josh Rachele and Jake Soligo, though the seven games he managed in 2023 suggest he still has plenty to give.
For Melbourne, he adds to an already stacked midfield led by Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney, likely winning a flag in the process.
Should he stay at Melbourne for his entire career in this updated world, he maintains the depth that the Demons lost in the recent trade period with James Harmes and James Jordon departing.