Jarryd Roughead played key role in Hawthorn’s genius 2004 draft plan

Should Jarryd Roughead have been a Tiger? The retiring Hawthorn champ was the central figure in a brilliant draft strategy that blindsided rivals and set the course for a premiership dynasty.

Jarryd Roughead will retire a Hawthorn great, but should he have been playing for a different club?

Roughie’s farewell is another reminder of one of the draft’s great sliding doors moments. The star forward and fan favourite was central to a brilliant recruiting strategy that set up a premiership dynasty and left rivals — Richmond, in particular — scratching their heads.

The Hawks appointed new coach Alastair Clarkson in September 2004, and the genius got straight to work.

Richmond had pick 1 in the draft after finishing last that season, and with three priority picks at the top of the order the Tigers also held pick 4, plus three more selections in the top 20 after trading Brad Ottens to Geelong.

The Hawks held picks 2 and 4, plus pick 7 after a swap with Collingwood to move up the order (the Pies received pick 10 in the deal, which they used on Chris Egan). The Western Bulldogs had picks 3 and 6.

Hawthorn coach Alistair Clarkson with his first two draft picks, Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin.

“At the time, 16 AFL clubs would have agreed and picked Brett Deledio first. He virtually chose himself,” Hawks great Dermott Brereton wrote years later.

“Thereafter the plot thickened because most judges believed (NT midfielder Richard) Tambling would go at No.2.”

Brereton said the Hawks rated Tambling good enough to go that high, and the fact he had stayed at recruiter Gary Buckenara’s house in the lead-up to the draft added to the feeling among rivals that Hawthorn had made up its mind.

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But Clarkson had a clear charter with the football department and Buckenara’s recruiting team to create a spine of key-position stars.

The Hawks knew Richmond would take Deledio at pick 1 and the Dogs were keen on Griffen at selection 3.

They also knew that if they took their first-choice tall in exciting WA colt Lance Franklin with their first pick, Richmond would snare Roughead at pick 4.

“Hawthorn was at an advantage because it believed it knew the first eight selections that were going to be made. The only question mark was over Richmond’s choice at No. 4,” Brereton wrote.

Vic Country’s Jarryd Roughead contests a boundary throw in against Vic Metro’s Ivan Maric at the 2004 under-18 championships.

“The Hawks knew that Richmond believed them to be keen on Tambling (which was true but outside Clarkson’s plan), so the Tigers put a lot of work into Leongatha lad Jarryd Roughead, who they probably assumed they would get at pick No.4.”

But history records that isn’t how draft day panned out. Hawthorn they threw a huge curve ball by reading out Roughead’s name earlier than everyone expected at pick 2. Even Roughie was surprised.

Listen to Gary Buckenara recount the full story of the 2004 draft in this week’s SuperFooty Podcast

That scrambled Richmond’s carefully laid plans to get a small-tall combo. They had to take Tambling at pick 4. The Hawks were then able to snaffle Franklin with pick 5.

“We took the calculated punt with Roughead to short-circuit Richmond,’’ one Hawk insider told the Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph in 2015.

“It was the only way we would get them both.”

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Hawthorn’s 2004 draft class (from left) Jordan Lewis, Tom Murphy, Simon Taylor, Jarryd Roughead, Tom Murphy and Lance Franklin.

Brereton said the icing on the cake for the Hawks was when the Bulldogs selected Queenslander Tom Williams with pick 6. The Hawks couldn’t read out the name of Jordan Lewis, a Buckenara favourite, fast enough at pick 7.

The trio went on to play in a combined 10 premierships and 728 games for the Hawks, with Roughead the last to play in brown and gold.

As a post-script, then Richmond coach Terry Wallace has debunked a long-held rumour that Richmond was so confident it would recruit Roughead that he was invited to a post-draft function at the club — but the story wasn’t miles from the truth.

Wallace said on Reddit in 2017 that he personally phoned every top-10 prospect.

“I said to all of them, if they become a Tiger player then I would look forward to seeing them at our post-draft barbecue,” he said. “It has been taken out of context over the years that we were guaranteeing anyone a spot on our list”.