Looking back at when the No.2 pick was better than the No.1 selection
Chris McDermott searches the AFL Draft archives to pick out when second fiddle was actually the best.
Former Adelaide Crows captain Chris McDermott rates when No.2 was better than No.1
1989 1. Anthony Banik v 2. Matthew Croft
Banik’s days as a No.1 pick began well enough winning 15 possessions on debut the season after being taken by Richmond at the 1989 draft. But it went down hill just as quickly.
These were tough times for the Tigers under Kevin Bartlett and after a bout of chronic fatigue, Banik’s days ended with just 49 games to his name.
Croft took longer to emerge but his career lasted from 1991 until 2004 when injuries ended his days after 186 games and 72 goals.
Well respected and a great club man Croft was often assigned the big jobs on some of the best forwards the game has ever seen in Gary Ablett, Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall and Wayne Carey.
No doubt here who got this selection wrong.
1993 1. Darren Gaspar v 2. Nigel Lappin
Gaspar’s career as a No.1 pick began slowly but finished off nicely.
However, it fell well short of the second pick that year, Nigel Lappin.
Gaspar was taken by the Swans and debuted against the Crows in the first game of the 1994 season but was injured in the third term and made only four more appearances for the year.
Twelve months later he transferred to Richmond and played another 207 games, winning a best and fairest and two All Australian jumpers.
As good as Gaspar’s career was, Lappin’s was better. The No.2 pick also debuted for the Bears in 1994 and never looked back, retiring 279 games later with three premiership medals and four All Australian selections.
He was a club captain, a best and fairest and now an AFL Hall of Famer. The sublime midfielder is arguably best remembered for his courage playing the 2003 grand final with a broken rib.
1995 1. Clive Waterhouse v 2. Matthew Primus
This one might cause some debate especially given both lads spent time at Alberton.
Waterhouse was a late bloomer after growing playing soccer and was drafted by Fremantle with pick one as a 21-year-old after a sensational premiership year for Port Adelaide in the SANFL.
Injuries and inconsistency restricted him to just 106 AFL games in his nine seasons with the Dockers, ironically his best year was in 2000, kicking 50 goals alongside new recruit, Tony Modra.
Primus was good but he should have been a great had injury not robbed him of his rightful premiership medal in 2004.
Primus’s days began at Fitzroy before they folded and he joined the Power.
He was appointed captain in 2001 and won the first of his two All-Australian jumpers the same year. A John Cahill medallist in 2002, but a knee reconstruction early in 2004 cost him a premiership and he never recovered.
Primus was an inspirational leader and the spirit behind the Power for many years.
1997 1. Travis Johnstone v 2. Brad Ottens
Johnstone finished with 209 games and 135 goals but a largely unfulfilled career for the 1997 No.1 pick.
Johnstone took until the 2002 season for his talents to begin to emerge as his performances suffered from negative publicity.
A best and fairest award in 2005 silenced the doubters but his form quickly declined and after 160 games with the Demons he transferred to Brisbane.
Times were tough and he retired just three years later.
Ottens began at Richmond but his days as a Tiger were injury riddled and after 129 games he moved to Geelong with great success.
His 116 games for the Cats brought three premierships, a pre-season premiership and an All Australian jumper.
Ottens was a key piece of the Cats’ premiership puzzle.
He called time on his career after the Cats 2011 flag with 246 games, 261 goals and an All Australian award to compliment his premiership medals.
2004 1. Brett Deledio v 2. Jarryd Roughead
It’s hard to split superstars of the game but there is one clear difference between these two players.
Deledio went at No.1 in the 1994 draft to Richmond but after 243 games, 182 goals, two All Australians and two best and fairests he decided to leave Punt Road for Greater Western Sydney.
Time will tell if it was a good move. His career continues to be critiqued and speculation continues over whether we have seen the best of him.
There is no such debate on Jarryd Roughead. Taken at No.2 and three places ahead of Lance Franklin, Roughead made his debut the next year and within three seasons he was a premiership player kicking 75 goals in 2008.
Illness has interrupted the later part of his career but he currently has 231 games and 491 goals, along with four premiership medals, two All Australian jumpers and a Coleman Medal.
Two of those premierships were in partnership with Lance Franklin, but importantly two others were without him. Roughead all day every day here.
2007 1. Matthew Kreuzer v 2. Trent Cotchin
Another difficult comparison, made easier after the decision this week to award Cotchin the 2012 Brownlow Medal.
Kreuzer went at No.1 in 2007 and made his debut the following season in round three playing 56 consecutive games before injuring his knee and missing the next 11 months.
Football would be challenging from that moment on and he has added just another 84 games in the six interrupted years since.
The Tigers were quick to debut Cotchin in 2008 despite some injury concerns and it took three years for his body to accept the challenges of the AFL.
When his body was finally right his game blossomed.
By 2011 at the age of just 21 he was a club champion and two years later he was an All Australian and a club captain.
He has led his beloved Tigers to three finals campaigns but has come up empty handed each time. The clock for the Tigers and Cotchin is ticking.
2008 1. Jack Watts v 2. Nic Naitanui
Like Travis Johnstone and others before him, Watts has had to carry a heavy burden for being a No.1 pick and underachieving.
There are signs he is turning that around and his best footy may be ahead of him.
Such was the hype around Watts signing by Melbourne he was immediately handed the club’s famous number 4 jumper worn previously by Norm Smith.
It would be another burden for him. Speculation was strong in 2013 he would transfer to another club but he remained at Melbourne and his past two seasons have been his best.
With 137 games and 121 goals in his eight years Watts is still just 25 and could end up a 300 game great.
Naitanui is already a great already playing 146 games in his eight years but he is currently recovering from major knee surgery and will miss much of the 2017 season.
Naitanui was an All Australian in just his fourth year and has a game that cannot be measured by statistics alone.
Few influence a game as much as this man and if he can fully recover he has many great years ahead.
Now these are up for debate
1990 1. Stephen Hooper v 2. James Cook
The early 1990s was a tough era for the early draft picks.
Recruiters are much better equipped to make assessments on young players these days, back then word of mouth. Referrals ruled and mistakes were made.
Hooper went at No.1 in 1990 and at 198cm and 98kg, he quickly made his debut for Geelong the following year.
Two years later with 21 games and 0 goals to his name his AFL career was over.
Sometimes size doesn’t matter. James Cook’s career didn’t fare much better. It took him to three clubs in seven seasons for 77 games and 139 goals before injuries halted his days. Cook was Carlton’s highest draft pick at number 2 until Marc Murphy was taken at No.1 in 2005.
He kicked six goals in the 1997 preliminary final against the Crows, missing his seventh when distracted by an apple thrown at him from the crowd.
The Crows would go on to win by just two points and go on to win their first ever AFL Premiership. Cook would soon be retired.
1991 1. John Hutton v 2. Marcus Seecamp
Another similar story for the No.1 pick of 1991.
John Hutton went through three clubs in his four-year, 36-game AFL career before he was finally delisted by Fremantle after just one season.
His rollercoaster ride included kicking eight goals on three occasions.
Hutton’s highlight reel will have outshone the 91 draft’s second pick but his career fell much shorter.
Seecamp’s nine-season, 140-game journey as a defender began at Fitzroy and ended at Melbourne, culminating in a preliminary final loss to North Melbourne in 1998.
Injuries brought his career to an early close but he did manage three appearances for WA in the grand old days of State of Origin.
One for the ones
1987 1. Richard Lounder v 2. Chris McDermott
I make this comparison after pressure from above and reluctantly after running into “Big Richie” one day at a boundary throw-in at Elizabeth Oval only to bounce off him like an insignificant pest.
I have never to this day run into such an immovable object - touch wood.
Hence I will only say good things about him. Lounder was 203cm and 116kg and in every meaning of the word, a giant.
His career at Richmond began in a blaze of glory, kicking four goals but ended just three games later.
He returned to Central the next year but within two seasons at the age of just 24 he retired.
At the same time I was 180cm and 85kg at best. Lounder was the right pick.
