Former Richmond coach Danny Frawley reveals the inside story behind why the Tigers didn’t pick Matthew Pavlich

He’d been Richmond coach five minutes before wheeling and dealing his way up the draft order to snatch Matthew Pavlich and give the Tigers the best forward line in the AFL. So why didn’t Danny Frawley get his man? SAM EDMUND reveals all.

Danny Frawley’s rollercoaster reign as Richmond coach started late in 1999.

Frawley was a Collingwood assistant coach when he got the senior gig at Punt Road and the intel gathered at the Pies was handy given the draft was rapidly approaching.

“Spud” had been mentored by recruiter Noel Judkins, who is now the godfather of his youngest daughter.

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Frawley and Judkins had made a couple of trips to South Australia that year to watch a kid named Matthew Pavlich dominate SANFL games as a 17-year-old.

“Noel goes: ‘This is the guy. He’s a gun, he’s gonna be right up there,” Frawley recalled.

The Pies would finish with the wooden spoon and took picks 1 and 3 into the draft. But while they’d earmarked Josh Fraser with the first selection, Frawley knew they needed an established ruckman after trading veteran Damian Monkorst to St Kilda.

A day after taking the Tigers job, Frawley called Judkins looking to do a deal.

Matthew Pavlich could have easily been in the yellow and black.

The Tigers had pick 7, but “Spud” wanted pick 3 and Pavlich with it.

“We had talls (Ray) Hall, (Ben) Holland, (Brendon) Gale, (Brad) Ottens and (Steve) McKee. I said: ‘Noel, take your pick. You can have any one of them apart from Ottens’,” Frawley said.

“He got back to me and said: ‘You bastard, Mick needs one (a ruckman).

“I said: ‘Well, you know I want pick 3 and you know the player I want. “I thought, ‘Geez, imagine having a forward line with Ottens, (Matthew) Richardson and Pavlich’.”

Frawley would get his way, with the Pies giving up pick 3 and Clinton King in exchange for the McKee and the Tigers’ pick 7.

“I thought ‘How good is this?’ Frawley said.

His joy was short-lived, however, when his recruiting team told him they were instead set on Aaron Fiora with pick 3 to help solve a well-known list weakness — speed and ball use.

“I said, ‘Look, Fiora is gonna be a good player and I know we need speed, but I just can’t get my head around why you wouldn’t get a guy who is 6’6 and going to dominate,” Frawley said.

Danny Frawley had his heart set on drafting Matthew Pavlich.

“The day after I got the job Leon Daphne resigned because he said he didn’t want to be president with another coach. So he appointed me and quit.

“Then about four weeks later the CEO, Jim Malone, resigned. So I thought, ‘What if the coach overruled the recruiting department?’

“Even on the way to the tennis centre, which is where the draft was in those days, I had this sh**y feeling in my mouth.

“I looked at Pavlich’s number and I thought, ‘Sh*t, I’m just gonna read it out’. But then I thought ‘Nah, better not, I’m paid to coach and not recruit’ and that’s the way it was.”

Sacked five years later, Frawley got a call from Fremantle coach Chris Connolly asking if he’d be interested in becoming an assistant coach at the Dockers.

Frawley flew in for a tour.

The Tigers ended up taking Aaron Fiora.

“I was with the recruiter Phil Smart when Pavlich went past. I said: ‘Oh geez, I probably wouldn’t be here if I’d taken Pavlich instead of Fiora’,” Frawley said.

“Phil said: ‘Danny, we wanted Fiora. I’m not saying we didn’t want Pav, but when you took Fiora it simplified our options to get Pavlich’.

“Talk about sliding doors.”