They are the picks that continue to haunt AFL recruiters and fans alike
THEY are the picks that haunt recruiters and fans alike. Glenn McFarlane looks at some of the most famous drafting errors.
Glenn McFarlane
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THIS week’s Rising Star nominee Josh Kelly gave Melbourne a not-too-subtle reminder of what they passed up last Sunday when he showed flashes of brilliant in Greater Western Sydney’s win.
The Demons could have had Kelly at pick 2, but opted to couple that selection up with No. 20 in exchange for Dom Tyson and pick No.9.
Of course, it is way too early to conclude who will be the winners in this pre-draft horse trading, but it’s fair to say Kelly is going to be some player.
Likewise, too, Melbourne fans are nervous about the decision made 12 months earlier when they bypassed Jack Viney’s good mate Ollie Wines in favour of Jimmy Toumpas.
Again, it is early days, but Wines exudes class and leadership, and has all the hallmarks of being a gun for a decade or more to come.
In that situation, Toumpas went to the Demons at pick 4, and the Bulldogs chose Jake Stringer and Jack Macrae next before Port slotted in with Wines.
It made us think about a few draft/trade near misses that still haunt clubs.
1. RICHMOND — MATTHEW PAVLICH
Probably the doozy of them all. Richmond had pick three and chose to select a wingman from South Australia. Fremantle had pick four and went for a big centre-half forward. But if you believed then Dockers coach Damian Drum, his team wanted the wingman but were nutted by the Tigers. The wingman was Aaron Fiora — who ended up playing for two clubs. The power forward was Matthew Pavlich — six-time club best-and-fairest winner; six-time All-Australian and still the Dockers’ captain. Drum said on the day of the draft: “We’re pretty happy. We were very eager to get Aaron Fiora, but we missed out.” Freo fans would be glad they did.
2. RICHMOND — LANCE FRANKLIN
Sorry Tiger fans, but you can’t escape this one. Richmond infamously went for flashy midfielder Richard Tambling (as plenty of others would have) with pick four in the 2004 draft and gave up the chance of taking a kid called Lance Franklin. Tambling’s AFL career was deeply affected by the comparisons, while Franklin is now the highest paid footballer in the country, albeit at a new club.
3. MELBOURNE — NIC NAITANUI
The Demons feared the “go-home” factor with the untapped Nic Naitanui, but also legitimately rated Jack Watts slightly above him. Some within the club, though, including then president Jim Stynes could see the benefits of potentially taking the West Australian Naitanui. The decision still bites at Demons fans now with the West Coast ruckman among the most exciting footballers in the AFL.
4. ELEVEN CLUBS — NAT FYFE
It’s one of the mysteries of modern drafting that Fyfe slipped through to pick 20 (yes, pick 20) in the 2009 draft. He was well regarded but more so as a forward with potential rather than a big-bodied midfielder waiting to happen. He wasn’t even Freo’s first pick — Anthony Morabito was. The clubs who passed on him were Melbourne, Richmond, North Melbourne, Sydney, West Coast, Port Adelaide, Essendon, Carlton, Adelaide, Western Bulldogs and Geelong.
5. GWS — CHAD WINGARD
The Giants had the first five picks in the 2011 national draft and still couldn’t find Chad Wingard. Instead, they chose Jonathon Patton, Stephen Coniglio, Dom Tyson (now at Melbourne), Will Hoskin-Elliott and Matt Buntine. The scuttlebutt had it that the Giants didn’t even seriously interview Wingard, as they saw him as a kid likely to be affected by the “go-home” factor. Port Adelaide generously accepted him.
6. COLLINGWOOD — STEVE JOHNSON
This one wasn’t a drafting nightmare, but more a trade that could have happened, yet didn’t. At the end of the 2006 season, Johnson and the Cats looked as if they would part ways. He had some off-field disciplinary issues and the Cats were looking to make a tough stand for the future. Collingwood was a likely suitor. The folklore has it that Johnson did a medical with the Pies and it was deemed to be unfavourable. The trade never happened — and the rest is history.
7. HAWTHORN — JOEL SELWOOD
The Hawks have the best list management in the business, but if they could have that pick six again from the 2006 national draft, they would love it. They went for young Tasmanian Mitch Thorp. He would only manage two games for a grand total of nine touches. Joel Selwood, whom Geelong took with the next pick, has had 4136. A number of clubs were unwilling to take the punt on Selwood as there were concerns about his body. Not any more, there isn’t. He’s almost indestructible.
8. GOLD COAST — DYSON HEPPELL
The Suns had four of the first eight picks in the 2010 national draft. The one that would frustrate them the most would be pick seven, which they used on Josh Caddy, who is now at Geelong. Pick eight was Dyson Heppell at Essendon, who has become a star and potential leader of the club one day. There were some doubts on Heppell’s body, but he has dispelled them without a shadow of a doubt.
9. CARLTON — TRENT COTCHIN
This one might be a bit harsh, but for most of the clubs heading into the 2007 national draft, it would have been a toss of the coin between the best midfielder in the crop Trent Cotchin and the best ruckman Matthew Kreuzer. The Blues went Kreuzer because they had already claimed Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs in the previous two drafts. But some frustrating injuries have curtailed the big man’s influence while Cotchin remains one of the AFL’s best players.
10. EVERY CLUB — BRENT HARVEY
Forty-six picks were taken in the 1995 national draft before North Melbourne called Brent Harvey’s name at 47. His coach Denis Pagan thought he had recruited a jockey. Standing at 168cm and weighing less than 70kg, the kid from Preston RSL has become one of the great success stories in the AFL. And the way he is still playing — at almost 36 — suggests he could well make it to 400 games.
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