How Jordan McMahon pick is still delivering for Western Bulldogs more than two decades later

When Scott Clayton drafted Jordan McMahon at No. 10 in 2000 who would have thought that 23 years later that pick would have eventuated into a Bulldog premiership hero.

AFL trade special: Western Bulldogs.

When Scott Clayton drafted Jordan McMahon at No. 10 in 2000 who would have thought that 23 years later that pick would still be producing AFL games for the Western Bulldogs?

They are on track to extract close to 500 games stemming from that single selection. It has become football’s magical draft pick, one that will not stick.

The Dogs turned McMahon (114 games for the Dogs) into Callan Ward (60) and then Ward into Jack Macrae (227 and counting) in clean transactions.

Macrae made it 400 games against Essendon this month, then 401 against Ward’s Giants on Saturday and it will become 402 when he runs out against Richmond on Friday night, the club McMahon was traded to.

Macrae was signed until 2027 because he has proven unbreakable and by then the durable ball magnet might have made it 500 games played for the Bulldogs by this talented trifecta.

By the end of 2027 Macrae will be 33 and the Bulldogs would have been supplied a staggering 26 AFL seasons of service from that single pick.

The Bulldogs are still reaping the rewards from a 2000 draft pick. Picture: Getty Images

It was the neat evolution from McMahon to Ward to Macrae that made this such a boom. The Dogs did not give away additional picks or players to make the moves — it was one player in, one player out.

Before the sequence started McMahon suspected he might be the man for Carlton at pick No. 11.

When McMahon and Alan Didak were hot draft prospects they were invited to play for the Blues in a practice match against Collingwood spending a week of pre-season training with the club.

Didak (three goals) dominated future teammate Andrew Dimattina and the Magpies told McMahon later in the year that they would be “extremely interested” in drafting Didak if he was available.

True to their word, the Pies picked him at No. 3. McMahon came on in the second quarter of the practice match — he was such a skinny teenager there were fears over his safety if he started the match — and lit up a wing.

“We didn’t realise at the time, but we’d set a high bar that showed we were capable of playing that level,” McMahon said.

The Blues and Pies got a first-hand look at the South Australians, but Clayton also swooned at McMahon’s blistering speed and booming left foot.

Clayton leaned towards McMahon’s skills over his lack of size and grabbed the gun from Glenelg at No. 10 … leaving Trent Sporn for Carlton at No.11.

Jordan McMahon steps through Chris Judd and Beau Waters while playing at the Dogs.

McMahon – who was also a junior athletics star (his best event was the 110m hurdles) – made halfback his AFL position by the start of his second season.

The ball carrier secured top-10 finishes in the 2005-06 best-and-fairests under Rodney Eade.

McMahon’s world changed between those breakout seasons with the arrival of daughter Lila.

Suddenly he was juggling football and fatherhood as a 22-year-old living with a host family.

“I still look back now and I don’t know how I did it,” McMahon said.

“I was by myself playing AFL full-time and having a child by myself.

“I had my daughter month-on, month-off. I would leave training straight away, jump on the plane to Adelaide, get her that night and fly straight back.

“This was midweek or after games, so I was doing extra flights – but you do what’s needed.

“It’s only in hindsight when you look back and go, ‘Wow, how did I manage to keep training at a high level?’

“It probably did have an impact – but I have no regrets.”

In 2007 Eade dropped McMahon to the VFL and Lindsay Gilbee’s form in the same role foreshadowed a selection squeeze.

Rodney Eade with Jordan McMahon and Lindsay Gilbee, the player that would eventually keep McMahon out of the team.

So when Richmond and Port Adelaide offered McMahon three-year contracts – the Dogs had only offered two years – a fresh start loomed.

“When somebody shows more interest and a desire to have you and wants you, you’ve got to weigh it up,” McMahon said.

“Financially it was a little bit better as well.”

Five players pulled on a Bulldogs jumper for the final time in round 22 – Chris Grant, Luke Darcy, Sam Power, Matthew Robbins and McMahon.

It was a sour end to 2007 as North Melbourne smashed the Dogs by 64 points.

But on the same day a 17-year-old Callan Ward literally torpedoed himself further north on the Dogs’ wish list.

Playing in Seymour, Ward had a set-shot from inside the centre square after the halftime siren.

He let rip with a torp and watched it sail through for a goal above the posts.

That torp was one of Ward’s 21 kicks and four goals for the day and Clayton drove home desperate to draft him.

When Richmond coughed up pick 19 for McMahon the Dogs only had eyes for one player with that pick.

It quickly looked an inspired selection.

Ward placed fourth in the 2011 best-and-fairest as a 21-year-old, and the night of his 21st birthday he was nursing a sore head.

It wasn’t from a hangover – but from Campbell Brown elbowing him in the face off the ball.

While the Gold Coast hard nut was suspended for two matches and labelled a thug, Ward’s bravery to bounce back up was respected.

Callan Ward looked like he would become a star for the Dogs for many years.

“I’m not sure if I’ve played league footy with a more physically courageous player,” teammate Bob Murphy once said.

“He is one of the best people I’ve met in footy.”

Ward was fearless, touted as a future captain and focused on recommitting to the Dogs.

He wanted to sign for $1 million over three years. Bizarrely, the club – led by football boss James Fantasia at the time – lowballed Ward in what proved a regrettable mistake.

The young warrior was offered about $285,000 per season (only $50,000 short of what he had wanted) – and the consequential delay invited the Giants to blow the Dogs out of the water

They dangled an irresistible $4 million, five-year contract.

The Bulldogs panicked and upped their offer to $400,000, But by then it was too late — Ward had committed to the Giants.

On Saturday it was Ward who went to Marcus Bontempelli after quarter-time as the Giants scored another spirited victory off the beaten track.

Ward will play on in 2024 as he approaches 300 terrific games.

Ward in his Giants colours. Picture: Getty Images

But while the AFL gifted Melbourne two first-round compensation picks when Tom Scully defected to the Giants, the Dogs’ disappointment deepened again when they received only one for Ward.

They were allowed to take their pick in any draft from 2011-15.

As they searched for Ward’s replacement, the man who Ward initially replaced lost his love for the game.

McMahon was delisted by the Tigers in 2010 after he became the only senior-listed player overlooked for selection by first-year coach Damien Hardwick.

“It left a sour taste, 2010,” McMahon said.

“It took a lot of time for me to fall back in love with the game – I’m talking five years before you enjoy sitting back and watching.

“You don’t follow it, you don’t watch it, you just have no interest in it.”

McMahon after kicking the winning goal after the siren for the Tigers against Melbourne in 2009.

The Bulldogs invited McMahon to their president’s function on Friday night before the clash against the Tigers and it was the club that drafted him that won him back.

“I had seven years at the Bulldogs … my heart is there. It’s where I grew up and became an adult,” he said.

By the time McMahon had switched the TV back on he would have noticed another left footer lighting up Bulldog games ... Macrae.

It was over to new recruiter Simon Dalrymple, who was previously Clayton’s understudy, to nail the Ward pick after Clayton joined Gold Coast in 2009.

Dalrymple activated the compensation selection in 2012. After a five-win season under coach Brendan McCartney he was left with pick No. 6 and a choice between Macrae and Ollie Wines.

Th Dogs could not lose. While Wines has a Brownlow Medal it was Macrae who kicked the final go-ahead goal in that epic 2016 preliminary final.

Jack Macrae celebrates a clutch goal in the 2016 prelim. Picture: Michael Klein

Macrae has a premiership and three All-Australian blazers, and can count himself unlucky not to have four after selectors oddly picked the 2018 team before his 43-disposal, three-vote Brownlow Medal game in round 23.

Macrae’s 32 disposals against the Giants on Saturday claimed another record. That made it 69 consecutive matches where Macrae has had 20 touches, surpassing retired champion Josh Kennedy.

McMahon marvelled at Macrae’s footy IQ.

“He's not quicker than his teammates and he can’t get into space quicker than others – but he knows where to go,” McMahon said

“He knows how to read his own players, and once you read your players you know where they’re going to be looking first. But I can’t understand how he gets so much of it.

“For somebody who looks like he doesn’t move across the ground as well as others, he’s at every contest and he’s got the ball in his hands.”

What does McMahon make of the other bloke in their chain?

“Daniel Cross made the most of not having a huge amount of natural talent – he was just a workhorse. His work ethic was second to none,” McMahon said.

“Well, Callan Ward to me is like Daniel Cross – but with the talent as well.”