The superstars your club could have taken in the draft ... but didn’t

RICHMOND has copped it for years for taking Richard Tambling one pick ahead of Lance Franklin, but every club has a skeleton in the draft closet. Who did your club pass on?

PICK 4: Richard Tambling. Pick 5: Lance Franklin.

Pick 3: Aaron Fiora. Pick 4: Matthew Pavlich.

Richmond fans have been copping it for years about deciding not to pick two modern superstars on draft day, only for rivals to pounce with the very next selection.

But every club has a Buddy-sized skeleton in the draft closet. Most have more than one.

St Kilda could have picked Patrick Dangerfield, Essendon could have selected Todd Goldstein and everyone could have picked Dane Swan — but the Bulldogs drew what now looks like the short straw of the pick before Collingwood, highlighting the miss.

BARGAINS: BIGGEST THIRD-ROUND DRAFT STEALS

CRYSTAL BALL: BUCKENARA’S TOP 50 DRAFT PICKS

MARK WILLIAMS: MY BIGGEST DRAFT REGRET

Everything looks very different in hindsight. At draft time, who’s to say Trent Sporn wouldn’t have a better AFL career than Shaun Burgoyne, who went with the very next pick in 2000.

A history of knee injuries scared other clubs away from Joel Selwood at the 2006 draft.

Going even further back we could point out that Essendon chose Stephen Carter instead of Michael O’Loughlin, Geelong drafted David Ugrinic the pick before Adam Simpson went to North Melbourne, Hawthorn punted on Matthew Dennis over Adam Goodes and St Kilda picked Rob Malone when it could have had Shane Crawford.

But our focus is on more recent drafts.

As recruiters prepare to call out the names of their club’s next big thing on Friday night, here’s a reminder of why they might be paying particular attention to who is selected with the next pick.