Who did your club draft instead of Brownlow Medal winner Sam Mitchell?
SAM Mitchell’s list of accomplishments is a mile long. But there was a time when he could have been snapped up for next to nothing. Find out who your club took instead.
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HE has played over 300 games, won four premierships, five best and fairest awards and is now a Brownlow Medallist.
And he could have easily been playing for your club.
So desperate was Sam Mitchell to make it to the big time that he wrote letters to all 16 AFL clubs asking if he could come down for pre-season training.
Despite two TAC Cup best and fairest awards with the Eastern Ranges, Mitchell didn’t get one return letter or phone call.
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Helping Mitchell in his quest to reach the top level was Western Bulldogs recruiting boss Simon Dalrymple who was an assistant coach at the Ranges.
At the time clubs were more focused on recruiting supreme athletes in the mould of Shane Crawford and Anthony Koutoufides.
If you were deemed too short or too slow it was just bad luck.
“Sam was getting no love. He won the best and fairest as a bottom ager and then won it as top ager and he just kept on getting the ball,” Dalrymple said.
“He reminded me so much of Greg Williams. (I thought) this guy deserves an opportunity.
“Sam wrote to every AFL club and I was one of his referees.
“Can I come down and do a pre-season? Not one club got back to him.”
The Hawthorn superstar turned West Coast Eagle was first eligible to be drafted in 2000 before eventually being taken at pick 36 in 2001 after playing in the VFL.
Across the two national drafts he was overlooked more than 100 times.
So who did your club take instead of Sam Mitchell? Find out below.
ADELAIDE
2000
7 Laurence Angwin
38 Michael Handby
48 Matthew Smith
53 Hayden Skipworth
67 Graham Johncock
2001
12 Brent Reilly
BRISBANE
2000
13 Ashley McGrath
22 Richard Hadley
29 Jamie Charman
33 Martin Pike
59 Luke Hammond
2001
19 Jason Gram
35 Jarrad Wright
CARLTON
2000
4 Luke Livingston
11 Trent Sporn
15 Simon Wiggins
31 Blake Campbell
46 Sean O’Keeffe
61 Callan Beasy
2001
None
COLLINGWOOD
2000
3 Alan Didak
19 Jason Cloke
34 Ryan Lonie
37 Guy Richards
49 Shane Wakelin
2001
11 Richard Cole
27 Tom Davidson
ESSENDON
2000
17 James Davies
27 Ted Richards
32 Sam Hunt
47 Jordan Bannister
63 Marcus Bullen
74 Michael Davis
2001
18 Shane Harvey
31 Joel Reynolds
34 Simon O’Keefe
FREMANTLE
2000
39 Adam McPhee
51 Dion Woods
66 Scott Thornton
2001
4 Graham Polak
GEELONG
2000
44 Josh Hunt
71 Daniel Lowther
79 Hamish Simpson
2001
8 Jimmy Bartel
17 James Kelly
23 Charlie Gardiner
24 Steve Johnson
HAWTHORN
2000
21 Nick Ries
28 Steven Greene
43 Mark Williams
58 Nathan Lonie
2001
1 Luke Hodge
16 Rick Ladson
20 Daniel Elstone
32 Campbell Brown
MELBOURNE
2000
16 Scott Thompson
62 Daniel Breese
73 Ross Funcke
80 Mitchell Craig
2001
9 Luke Molan
25 Steven Armstrong
26 Aaron Rogers
NORTH MELBOURNE
2000
6 Dylan Smith
8 Daniel Motlop
14 Daniel Harris
23 Drew Petrie
30 Saverio Rocca
42 Daniel Pratt
60 Corey Jones
2001
7 David Hale
14 Ashley Watson
30 Rod Crowe
PORT ADELAIDE
2000
12 Shaun Burgoyne
20 Kane Cornes
35 Allan Murray
50 Domenic Cassisi
2001
15 Barry Brooks
RICHMOND
2000
9 Kayne Pettifer
25 Mark Coughlan
40 Chris Hyde
41 Andrew Krakouer
55 Chris Newman
57 Steven Sziller
2001
33 David Rodan
ST KILDA
2000
1 Nick Riewoldt
2 Justin Koschitzke
64 Mark Gale
75 Robert Powell
82 Daniel Wulf
2001
2 Luke Ball
5 Xavier Clarke
13 Nick Dal Santo
21 Matthew Maguire
SYDNEY
2000
24 Luke Ablett
52 Amon Buchanan
54 Jarrad Sundqvist
2001
28 Mark Powell
29 Lewis Roberts-Thomson
WEST COAST
2000
5 Andrew McDougall
18 Daniel Kerr
36 Jeremy Humm
45 Trent Carroll
2001
3 Chris Judd
6 Ashley Sampi
22 Mark Seaby
WESTERN BULLDOGS
2000
10 Jordan McMahon
26 Shane Birss
56 Daniel Cross
70 Wayde Skipper
2001
10 Sam Power
42 Kieran McGuinness
57 Brent Colbert
71 Brian Lake
83 Aaron James
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