Since the very first National Draft held on November 26, 1986, some of the game's greatest names have earned their starts following the abolishment of the VFL's zoning system and the capping of unfettered player purchases.
With the AFL Draft rewarding lesser teams with greater talents, the league is no longer seen as a two or three-horse race, as clubs of every level are able to obtain future stars without having to break the bank.
While this time of the year usually sees mock lists and re-drafts flooding social media feeds right up until the first selection is made, we here at Zero Hanger have decided to take a different tack.
Rather than ponder how each of the league's 18-sides will be using their current hands this month, we have attempted to create the Ultimate Draft of names selected across the past 35-years.
Counting down from the 30th choice until the opening selection, we have cross-referenced, counted back and come to a conclusion on each of the best names that were ever plucked with each pick.
Given a fixed metric wasn't employed to weigh the achievements of this litany of legends, many of you are likely to disagree with many of our choices, but then again, where is the fun in total agreeance?
So, without further ado, here are the players we view to have been the best to have ever been chosen with every top-30 selection.
While pick 30 has predictably thrown up more ‘misses’ than it has ‘hits’, an array of unbelievable footballers have been plucked with the second-round selection.
Premiership players like Elliot Yeo and Dan Hannebery must be mentioned as options for this slot, but as only one name can be taken, neither of these two-team midfielders ranked as realistic options.
Having slotted 594-majors across his 256-games in maroon, blue and gold, Jonathan Brown is the obvious choice for any side selecting in this Ultimate Draft.
If the fearsome Lion’s brute force isn’t enough to sway you, the Victorian’s three flags, two All-Australian blazers, five leading goalkicker awards, three best and fairests, as well his Coleman Medal should be enough to cease any debate.
Given Brown is the only player selected with the 30th pick of any draft to have earned a place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, this preference has become almost irrefutable.
Although another series of quality names have been taken at this point across multiple draft nights, it is a former Crow and current Hawk that has earned selection here.
While arguments could be made for the selection of several midfielders such as Wayne Campbell, Dayne Beams and Touk Miller, triple premiership-winning forward, Jack Gunston, has earned a guernsey from us.
Despite Adelaide selecting the Victorian in 2009, it has been the club from Waverley Park that has reaped what Gunston has sewn since returning home ahead of the 2012 season.
Along with his three-successive flags, the Sandringham Dragons product has also claimed the club’s goalkicking title on a trio of occasions, as well as winning a Peter Crimmins Medal and earning All-Australian honours in 2018.
Despite the fact that Jason Johnson flew under the radar during his 12-seasons at Windy Hill, the hard-nosed midfielder’s pair of Crichton Medals and All Australian blazer was proof that he was no slouch.
Still, even though Johnson was far more incandescent than many were willing to give him credit for, the Calder Cannons product has managed to be outshone again in this mega draft.
Although AA and B&F honours have eluded Mitch Duncan over the course of his stint at Kardinia Park, the football he has managed to produce has seen him shade the more decorated Bomber.
While Johnson’s career averages for disposals, goals and tackles are of sound quality, the Victorian still sits off the Western Australian’s pace in all three of these categories.
Duncan’s lone career achievement may have come in just his 29th game, but even if the midfielder’s 2011 premiership medallion remains the only award that currently resides on his mantel, he still remains the best player ever selected at pick 28.
Despite Kane Johnson skippering the Tigers with aplomb during some dark days and Brendan Gale leading his former club back to glory from the boardroom, neither of these Richmond leaders has earned the 27th pick’s top gong.
Although Johnson did end his career with a pair of premierships from his days as a Crow, we’ve selected a decorated bird of a different feather.
While Essendon were the club that gave Ted Richards his first chance at AFL level, the defender hit his straps after trading Melbourne for the Harbour City.
Backmen quite often fail to earn their fair share of praise, but over the course of his 228-games in a red and white guernsey, it would take a tough judge to deny Richards his dues.
Irrespective of the fact that the Don-come-Swan’s premiership haul is only half of Johnson’s, Richards is the only player selected at this point of any draft to have earned All-Australian selection.
As we start to slowly make our way towards the pointy end of this all-inclusive re-draft, the bandying for selection in each slot has naturally become a touch fiercer.
While pick 26 sees a trifecta of players available who have produced a combined five premierships, four All-Australians and a best and fairest, none of Jack Viney, Liam Ryan or Shane Edwards has reigned supreme at this rank.
Although a premiership has remained out of reach for Zach Merrett since his debut in 2014, the midfielder has managed to make hay across his next 164-games by claiming three Crichton Medals and a pair of All-Australian blazers in 2017 and 2021.
Despite already producing a career average of nigh on 27 disposals per week over the course of his eight seasons in a red sash, the country Victorian still has plenty to provide the Bombers as they continue striving for a drought-breaking finals victory.
While the 25th pick of any draft is yet to yield any insurmountable gold nuggets; a plethora of noteworthy contributors have seen their careers commence at this point.
Despite five players taken at the position having won premierships, only Daniel Chick has climbed the dais whilst also having won a club best and fairest.
Calls could be made to include contemporary names such as Jack Redden, Seb Ross and Josh Dunkley, but when their current career highs are placed next to Chick’s, the 1995 draftee still comes up trumps.
Although the Western Australian’s 252-game career never saw him routinely haul in high marks or regularly contend on Brownlow night, the now 45-year-old's style of committed and unselfish play can best be summed up by his famous shepherd to help West Coast win their third premiership.
As no player selected at this point in any draft has earned All-Australian honours, the ex-Eagle and Hawk with nine fingers currently holds sway at this point of our mega draft.
Although some of these selections require number crunching and thorough examinations, others can simply be passed by an eye test.
While David Wojcinski managed to claim a premiership medallion for every 68-games he played in blue and white hoops, and Jack Steele has enjoyed a seismic rise since trading the Harbour City for Linton Street, both men’s efforts pale in comparison to an offensive savant who requested to be called ‘Norm’.
Averaging more than 1.7 goals per game across the course of his 16-season career, Steve Johnson stands in rare company among modern-day forwards.
Add in the fact that the Murray Bushrangers product won three flags, earned a trifecta of All-Australian blazers and claimed a Norm Smith Medal, and the former Cat and Giant is also one of the most decorated dead-eyes of the recent past.
Johnson’s lead in the 24th position in this ultimate draft currently appears unassailable, but if Steele is able to skipper the Saints to a drought-breaking premiership, the gorge between him and 'Stevie J' is sure to shrink.
Pick 23 – Michael Long
While the individual outputs of Drew Petrie, Cameron Guthrie and Matt Crouch have been nothing to sneeze at, the collective of decorated pick 23s have run a distant second to a pioneer of the game.
Across the past fortnight, I wrote that the act of merely listing Michael Long’s on-field achievements could never do justice to his standing as a footballer and as an Australian.
RELATED: Where would the AFL be today without Michael Long?
Still, when done, it’s clear that the proud Anmatyerre, Maranunggu and Tiwi Aboriginal man still sits head and shoulders above the chasing pack.
As the only player selected with this particular pick to have won multiple flags, an All-Australian selection, a Norm Smith and a place in his club’s Team of the 20th Century, Crouch and Guthrie will need to fill their boots for the remainder of their careers to catch Long on the trail he blazed for himself.
Although some slots in this re-draft have wildly obvious clubhouse leaders, others sit on the flip side of the coin.
Take the 22nd pick of our Ultimate Draft for example.
While there have been a pair of premiership players taken with this second-round choice, and another trio of best and fairest winners, none have gone on to claim any honours that separate themselves from their counterparts.
Winston Abraham, Richard Hadley and Mark Seaby may have won flags in 1999, 2003 and 2006 respectively, but given the lack of individual honours on their CVs, the trifecta of Western Australians have supplied little else that elevates them above their peers.
Adam Selwood, Jackson Trengove and Jordan Ridley may have had respective career years between 2011 and 2020, but as team success and an ability to repeat their efforts have eluded them, it’s challenging to place any one of them ahead of anyone else.
Given this stalemate, I’m willing to go out on a limb by suggesting that if Jordan Ridley can maintain, at a minimum, his form of the past two seasons, then it won’t be long before he is being measured for a representative blazer.
And should that be the case, he will be the first player plucked at this position of any draft to have earned the honour.
Call it misguided or call it a future’s bet that I’m unlikely to be held to, but I’m banking on the 2020 Crichton Medallist to eventually create a gulf between himself and those whose runs have already ended.
The 21st selection in any of the past 35 drafts may have yielded a pair of premiership players (Jake Bowey and Shane Bond), as well as a one-time All-Australian (Hayden Ballantyne), but with a trio of best and fairest awards, a pair of AA blazers, a league MVP and a Brownlow Medal, Tom Mitchell has passed the post for this prize before the others have even jumped from the gates.
Given the number of statistical records he has broken across his time at both Moore and Waverley Parks, even if Mitchell had never claimed his 'Charlie', the Hawk would have very little opposition for this particular selection.
With averages of 29.68 disposals and 4.82 across the course of his 150-game career, hindsight shows us that Sydney got a bargain when they picked up the father-son gun in the second-round of the 2011 National Draft.
While a Coleman Medallist and a 300-game champion earned their starts in the AFL after being selected with the 20th pick of their respective drafts, the efforts of Scott Cummings and Kane Cornes pale in comparison to a dynamic Docker.
Since trading Lake Grace for Perth’s port city, Nat Fyfe has gone from a skinny kid with a routine haircut to a man-bunned superstar with a pair of Brownlows to his name.
Although Fremantle’s errant kicking in the 2013 grand final saw Fyfe’s singular shot at premiership glory fall short, the 30-year-old has stacked his mantel with other honours, including two league MVPs, a trifecta of All Australian blazers, three best and fairests and a quintet of oft-forgotten Geoff Christian Medals.
Despite a down year punctuated by injury and inaccuracy in front of goal, the Dockers’ skipper has a CV that remains unparalleled throughout most of the league.
As we inch closer to the commencement point of every draft, the quality of competition for spots on our list has continued to heat up again.
While lists compiled by other folks may have Isaac Smith, Callan Ward or David Mundy earning the crown at this point of the exercise, we've selected a Saint-come-Swan-come-Dog instead.
After being plucked by St Kilda ahead of the 1996 season, Barry Hall hit more than just the weight room and the scoreboard across his 16-season career between the west of Melbourne and Sydney’s east.
The former boxer from Broadford may have drawn ire as much as he drew the opposition’s best defender, but with a premiership Medal, an AFLCA Champion Player of the Year Award, four All Australians, a best and fairest and 11 leading goalkicker awards, the shaven-headed spearhead also gained our eye at pick 19.
Given pick 18 has always been a first-round selection, it should surprise nobody that there are many options to choose any number of dangerous players to fill this opening.
Even though an array of sterling stoppage time champions in Daniel Kerr, Anthony Stevens, Luke Shuey, Isaac Heeney and Brodie Grundy are on the board, our selection has been spent on a name that played his game behind the ball.
Despite the profile of defenders often falling short of star status, the same cannot be said for Richmond’s former stopper Alex Rance.
Irrespective of the fact that the Western Australian missed out on the final two of the Tigers’ most recent triumphs, Rance’s 2017 premiership medallion still sits alongside his pair of B&F victories and his wardrobe full of All Australian jackets.
We’ve continued the trend of selecting stoppers with the 17th pick by choosing Harry Taylor over one of his Geelong teammates.
While a sound case could be made to pick Cat-come-Bomber James Kelly with this selection, the kooky Western Australian’s list of achievements has him pipping ‘Pops’ as our pick.
Although Kelly is the proud owner of three premiership wins in comparison to the East Fremantle product's two, Taylor’s pair of All Australian honours have him edging the Calder Cannon who was selected by the same club with the same pick six years earlier.
Even though the pair of mogs may not agree with our contention, at least they will have something to debate when they meet up for a beer or twelve at their next premiership reunion.
While Melbourne managed to select talented duo Adem Yze and Scott Thompson across their history with the draft’s 16th pick, we have landed on a dual Coleman winning cult hero for our choice.
Although Fraser Gehrig is best remembered for his muscle, his menace and his mullet during his days in the goal square as a Saint, the Murray Bushrangers product actually started his AFL life between the forward pocket and the wing out west.
Despite initially playing as a full-back after trading Perth for Moorabbin, Gehrig’s star was at its most incandescent after heading to the other end of the ground.
Between 2003 and his second retirement in 2008, the ‘G-Train’ earned five leading goalkicker titles, a second All Australian blazer and became the second last player to ever top the tonne in 2004.
Given the fan favourite averaged more than 3.3 goals per game across this six-season stretch, one wonders just how damaging Gehrig could have been had he spent more time as a key forward.
With a plethora of premiership medals and best and fairest wins to their names, Travis Varcoe, Brady Rawlings and Daniel Rioli were in contention for selection here.
But as the only player plucked with the 15th pick to win All Australian honours, it’s a Blue-come-Bomber that gets the nod.
While only 20-years of age when Carlton last tasted premiership success, Scott Camporeale managed to end his 24th game of senior football with a premiership medallion.
Although the heights of his debut season remained out of reach across his next 12 campaigns, the South Australian strung together a consistent career that peaked in 2000.
Having found the Sherrin at a rate of 27.8 times per game, as well as averaging a mean of 3.4 clearances from his 25-appearances, it was little wonder why Camporeale was adjudged as both the Blues’ best and fairest player and as an All Australian winger.
Despite defecting to the Dons for a pair of seasons before retirement, the second youngest member of Carlton’s 1995 premiership team has always been remembered fondly by his first club’s faithful.
Despite having names like Jake Lever, Adam Simpson, Lewis Jetta and Ben Allan at our disposal with the 14th selection, we’ve instead chosen an under the radar Hawk that ended his days in boots as Lion.
While Grant Birchall is not one of the four players drafted at this position to have earned club best and fairest honours, his swathe of premiership medals and his All Australian nod in 2012 was more than enough to see his name called.
Irrespective of the fact that his profile remains below that of Rioli, Lewis, Roughead, Mitchell and Hodge, the Tasmanian is the sixth member of Hawthorn’s dominant era to have played in all four of their flags between 2008 and 2015.
Birchall’s badge may not have been a best seller at the Hawks’ club shop, but given his almost innate ability to repel opposition attacks and simultaneously launch them back the other way, the defender’s name will forever be etched into the storied side’s history books.
Having worked backwards throughout this catalogue, the lack of a weighted scale for career achievements has sometimes made it tough to make each selection.
However, in the case of the 13th pick, our choice landed away from a name with a league MVP and another with a resounding Brownlow Medal win.
While many readers will have been happy to pluck Patrick Cripps or select Shane Crawford at this point, we’ve instead jumped at the chance to take Jack Riewoldt in this hypothetical exercise.
Given his key forward status, the likelihood of the Tasmanian Tiger claiming a ‘Charlie’ or Leigh Matthews Trophy like his cousin has always remained slim, but with 715-goals from 305-games, Riewoldt’s offensive efforts haven’t gone without honouring.
With this rate of 2.3 majors per game across 15-seasons, it is little wonder why the talisman has earned three Colemans, a trifecta of All Australians, two best and fairests, a trio of flags and an incredible 11 leading goalkicker titles at Tigerland.
Despite sitting seven games in arrears of the legendary Jack Dyer and another 98 behind Kevin Bartlett on the Punt Road honour roll, should Riewoldt’s footballing journey continue beyond 2022, there’s no telling just how many more awards will make their way into his jam-packed trophy cabinet.
While we snubbed a Brownlow Medallist with our previous pick, we won’t be making the same move with our 12th choice.
Despite a 400-gamer, a 300-gamer, a Norm Smith winner and a courageous captain having been taken at this point on draft night, our pick has gone to the superstar selected by Essendon in 1989.
Although Gavin Wanganeen wouldn’t make the move to Windy Hill until 12-months after being drafted, by the time he departed the Hangar at the cessation of the 1996 season, his legendary status was cemented.
Having claimed three AA awards, a premiership medallion, a Brownlow and a place in the Bombers’ Team of the 20th Century, the South Australian made the move back to Alberton to become the Power’s inaugural captain.
And by the time he had hung his boots up following eight seasons in teal, Wanganeen had added a best and fairest, two more AA blazers and another flag to his swag of honours
As a monumental contributor in both Essendon’s 1993 success and Port’s debut flag in ’04, the Australian Football Hall of Famer remains a beloved figure on either side of the MacCabe corner.
While the ultimate goal in the game eluded him across his 17-seasons at the Kennel, selection in our ultimate draft hasn't passed Brad Johnson by.
Although a bevvy of premiership players, a Norm Smith Medallist and a controversial Giant earned their births at pick 11, the ‘Smiling Assassin’s six All Australian selections between 1999 and 2007 were enough to see him rise above Lenny Hayes, Darren Glass, Steele Sidebottom, Tom Lynch and Toby Greene.
The Boyhood Bulldog’s trifecta of best and fairests honours are also tied with Hayes for the most for any player selected at this spot.
And given the fact that Johnson shared a locker room with names like Chris Grant and Scott West, as well as Brownlow Medallists in Scott Wynd and Tony Liberatore, this stretch of personal success remains no mean feat.
Should you still need more to see our reasoning, Johnson’s career average of a goal-and-a-half across a club-record 364-games and his Team of the Century status should help eliminate any lingering aspersions.
With a Brownlow Medal, a league MVP, five best and fairests and a stocked rack of All Australian jackets, we were always going to mimic the Crows in 2007 by selecting Patrick Dangerfield.
Like Johnson in the slot before him, the Moggs Creek man has been denied a celebratory drink from the premiership challis, but with a career mean of 23.9 disposals across 14-campaigns, it hasn’t been through a lack of effort.
While the Crow-come-Cat failed to register a single vote from the umpires in his first two seasons, Dangerfield went on to register a nine-season stretch between 2012 and 2020 in which he recorded double digits on Brownlow night.
At 31, time is well and truly ticking on the AFLPA president to finally get his claws on the cup, but while Chris Scott and the Cats continue to opt for experience over youth, the window of opportunity is set to stay ajar.
Should the local product ever receive the chance to climb the dais on the last Saturday in September, his career record will likely be seen as one of the most complete in the game’s history.
For the record, Dangerfield’s trifecta of grand final sprint wins is pretty impressive too.
While former captains and winners of multiple premierships were in contention to earn the right to call themselves the greatest pick 9, the honour has gone to a man with a 50 per cent record on grand final day.
Though a four-time flag winner in Martin Pike and contemporary names such as Dion Prestia, Christian Salem, Darcy Moore and Jack Ziebell had minor rights to this prize, it is Chad Cornes that sits above his counterparts.
After commencing his stint at Alberton ahead of the 1998 season, the son of a Glenelg legend began blazing a trail that led to a premiership medallion, dual All Australian honours and a podium finish in the 2004 Brownlow count.
With seasonal averages of 20.8 disposals, 4.9 marks and 4.6 rebound 50s off half-back, it’s little surprise to find that the vast majority of these awards came during Cornes’ zenith in 2004.
Though many of the names previously listed have time up their sleeves to chase the Power hardman down, ‘The Chad’ still leads the way at the present.
As one of only two players in the history of the league to win a Brownlow, a Norm Smith, a premiership medallion and play 300-games, picking Geelong champion Jimmy Bartel at this point of our hypothetical draft was as straightforward as a Route 66.
After making the 13-minute drive from Bell Park to Kardinia Park prior to the 2002 season, Bartel only put the quill down on his sublime career after 15-seasons in a hooped guernsey that saw him land him three flags.
With a premiership medallion, an AA blazer and Brownlow honours, the Geelong Falcon’s 2007 campaign was, without doubt, his magnum opus.
And having finished with an average stat line of 27.5 touches, 5.3 tackles, 3.9 inside 50s and 3.7 clearances, it was little wonder why nobody could catch Bartel in that year’s count.
It's also why names like Dyson Heppell, Jude Bolton and another bearded Cat in Joel Corey all fell short of running him down in this catalogue.
With the seventh pick on our list, we have our sixth, and final, Cat.
And while hoop heavy so far, omitting Geelong’s longest-serving skipper on just these grounds would make less sense than the plot of ‘Inception’ to someone with a concussion.
Over the course of Joel Selwood’s early years at Kardinia Park, everything the Bendigo Pioneers product touched seemed to turn to gold.
As his arrival in the Pivot City coincided with a starter cord being pulled on the Cats’ most recent run of contemporary success, Selwood tasted defeat on just six occasions throughout his first three seasons, whilst managing to play a roll in two flags in the process.
While this success rate has inched closer towards normality over the past 12-seasons, the third of four brothers to play AFL football has managed to sing the club’s bastardised version of ‘Toreador’ after 72.6 per cent of his 334-games.
Add in the fact that Selwood stashed a third flag to his bag in 2011 to go with his Rising Star Award, three best and fairests and six All Australian nods, and fellow candidates Jordan Lewis and Ollie Wines never really stood a chance here.
While the sixth selection at every draft has always been used to secure a highly touted talent, the success rate of the spate of names to earn starts here has been widely dismal.
Should you look at the average games played by players plucked at any other selection in the top 10, you will find that each sits above the 90-game mark.
However, when this same metric is applied to pick 6, this mean falls to just 64.
Although names such as Chad Wingard, Jaidyn Stephenson and Gary Rohan were taken at this point in their respective draft years, they are surrounded by busts like Beau Dowler, Mitch Thorp and Murray Vance.
Still, should you search for the needle in the haystack, you will eventually find a premiership pup that seems content to live life perennially poisoned by leather.
Since being drafted by the Western Bulldogs in 2012, Jack Macrae has risen from a kid with potential to a prize-winning midfielder who is nigh-on untaggable.
Despite averaging just shy of 18-disposals throughout his debut season, the Oakleigh Charger continued to raise the bar throughout his next eight campaigns, with his efforts culminating in 2021 with a mean of nearly 34 per game.
Given this meteoric figure, it was little surprise that the 27-year-old finished the year with his third straight All Australian selection and the honour of winning the Gary Ayres Award for the best player across the course of September.
While the outside runner is, without doubt, the forerunner for this post at the present, with fledgling stars like Ben King and Denver Grainger-Barass also selected at pick 6, there remains the potential for a baton handover at some point down the path.
When starting a team from scratch, any selector would be over the moon to have names like Scott Pendlebury, Travis Boak, Luke Power, Jarryd McVeigh, Jake Stringer or Ben Cunnington as prospective recruits.
However, if a Hawk turned Swan on the precipice of history was also available, this aforementioned sextet would be left fighting it out to see whose hands would play the second fiddle.
Given ‘Buddy’ has been a walking, talking human highlight reel for the entirety of his 17-season career, little needs to be said about the spearheads acts, athleticism and achievements, as the vast majority of us have borne witness to them.
Still, if you need the cliff notes on the spearhead’s dominant AFL stint, you’ll find that Franklin is a dual premiership player and a best and fairest winner, as well as being the owner of four Colemans, 12 leading goalkicker awards, eight All Australian blazers and a pair of Goal of the Year gongs.
While 2022 will see the Perth product sit just five goals shy of joining Ablett, Wade, Dunstall, Coventry and Lockett in the ‘1000 Club’, next season may also be the last that we see the 34-year-old at the level.
Should a contract renewal fail to arise at the cessation of next year and Franklin’s career be drawn to close, fans of all denominations are sure to be tipping their hats to a forward who is just about the most freakishly talented anyone has ever laid eyes on.
Although several of these most recent picks have proved relatively simple, the task of selecting the greatest player ever plucked at pick 4 proved to be a much stiffer challenge.
While names like Peter Matera, Justin Lepptisch, Josh Kennedy, Clayton Oliver and Andrew Gaff were amongst the field of runners in this race, there are also two short-priced favourites that are tipped for a photo finish.
Despite holding stronger claims than most runners-up found throughout this exercise, the consensus pick of many in Marcus Bontempelli has missed out on selection here.
With a flag, four best and fairests, four All Australian selections, a league MVP and an AFLCA Champion Player of the Year Award to his name, many are likely to be vexed by ‘The Bont’s exclusion, but with a dead-eyed Docker also in contention, the Dogs’ skipper is just a yard off the pace at the minute.
RELATED: Ranking the top 10 number 4 draft picks since 2000
Having played in each of the first 16-seasons of the millennium, the mere presence of Matthew Pavlich in an anchored guernsey gave the Fremantle Football Club weight across the competition.
Though a premiership remained out of the South Australian’s grasp over this stretch, little else did as evidenced by his set of six AA nods and Doig Medals.
While many will remember Pavlich as one of the game’s eminent centre-half forwards, the first of his sextet of representative blazers was won when playing as the Dockers’ full-back at the age of just 20.
Irrespective of the fact that Pavlich’s nose is currently leading this sprint to the post, should Bontempelli and Oliver continue to dominate over the remainder of their days in boots, the result is in line for alteration when all three’s races are finally run.
While we are unlikely to receive many nods of approval from fanatics whose hearts lie at the Punt Road end of the MCG, tattooed terminator Dustin Martin will have to be content with silver in this survey.
Although his stretch of Septembers between 2017 and 2020 are unparalleled throughout the league’s history, the fact that ‘Dusty’ is vying for selection with a dual Brownlow Medallist means that the ‘Tiger King’ was always facing an uphill battle.
Despite Chris Judd’s career ending in inauspicious circumstances due to injury, the Victorians start to his AFL life out west was decidedly white-hot.
RELATED: Ranking the top 10 number 3 draft picks since 2000
Across his six seasons as an Eagle, Judd swept the field with a premiership medallion, two best and fairests, a pair of AA selections, a Goal of the Year win, a league MVP, a Norm Smith and the 2004 Brownlow Medal.
Though this haul was enough to have him seen as arguably the greatest name amongst his guernsied peers, the Sandringham Dragon’s foot remained on the pedal after trading Subiaco for Princes Park ahead of the 2008 season.
With another four All Australian blazers to his name as a Blues, as well as a trifecta of B&Fs, another Leigh Matthews Trophy and the 2010 Brownlow, it is hard to know which side of the Nullarbor Judd’s peak came at.
Having thatched together two careers that children dream about achieving once, it was little wonder why the astute Eagle-come-Blue became a first-ballot Hall of Famer earlier this year.
There is little doubting the fact that we are spoilt for choice when trying to fill our penultimate position.
Should we look to the west, we will find a dreadlocked ruckman who has raised the bar on what is expected of a ruckman.
Rotating our eyes to the northeast, we then find a ‘Big Four’ midfielder that tasted the ultimate success as a Lion on three occasions.
In Victoria, our eyes are drawn to a selfless leader who has led Richmond’s rise from the canvas and a dynamic Demon who well and truly hit his straps this season.
Still, while each of Nic Naitanui, Nigel Lappin, Trent Cotchin and Christian Petracca would make fine choices for our pick 2, we’ve instead read out the name of a country kid who called Hawthorn home for 15-seasons.
RELATED: Ranking the top 10 number 2 draft picks since 2000
While Jarryd Roughead may not have been the star of Hawks' forward line for the first nine years of his days in brown and gold, the Leongatha spearhead’s consistency and selflessness saw him end his career as both a wildly decorated and much beloved name.
Though each of ‘Roughy’s trifecta of leading goalkicker titles came after ‘Buddy’ flew north to the Harbour City, the fact that the former won a Coleman Medal in a premiership year goes to show that he always had the capabilities to lead the line.
Irrespective of the fact that there have been more vaunted forward’s in the Hawks’ rich history, Roughead’s four flags and pair of All Australian honours have him within touching distance of names like Dunstall, Brereton and Hudson.
With this in mind, you can take it to the bank that the redhead will be voted in the Hall of Fame at the first time of asking in 2024.
And here we are, folks. The first pick of the draft.
This is the place where the most talented kid in the country each year sees their dreams achieved and their AFL lives begin.
However, it is also the point where nightmares can often commence too.
While selection at this slot has seen some names crumble under the burden of expectation, others like Marc Murphy, Adam Cooney, Brett Deledio, Brendon Goddard and Nick Riewoldt have well and truly flourished.
Still, none of these superstars has earned a place on our roster, as yet another four-time premiership Hawk has been plucked instead.
RELATED: Ranking the top 10 number 1 draft picks since 2000
As the consensus pick 1 in the 2001 ‘Super Draft’, a formerly podgy Luke Hodge went on to shed the puppy fat and repaid the price Hawthorn coughed up to secure him in spades.
Across the course of his 16-seasons at Glenferrie and Waverley, the Geelong Falcon grew from a reliable contributor to a fearsome competitor with ease, earning the club’s captaincy in 2011.
While this elevation came in the wake of Hawthorn’s 2008 premiership, Hodge became the leader on the dais alongside Alastair Clarkson as the Hawks toasted September success in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Although a two-time Peter Crimmins Medallist, as well as a triple All Australian, Hodge’s twin peaks came in the 2008 and 2014 deciders, having won Norm Smith Medals after averaging 30.5 disposals and 1.5 goals across these respective clashes.
Not content to bow out as possibly Hawthorn’s greatest ever skipper, Hodge then flew north to Brisbane for a pair of seasons in which he imparted his wisdom and work rate on a youthful Lions squad.
Despite falling short of a fifth flag in the River City between 2018 and 2019, should Chris Fagan’s side salute within their current premiership window, their victory will be covered in the Colac product’s fingerprints.