2001 draft - monumental disaster for us

[konstas_87]

Just lookin at the 01 draft in another thread, and it came to my attention how poorly our recruiting staff did in that year:


obviously i cant remember all the father sons (except G Ablett), but look at the players we could have taken (in bold and italics) but failed to and the players we took instead (bold).

what a shocker.

1 Luke Hodge Hawthorn Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
2 Luke Ball St Kilda Sandringham U18 U18 VMFL
3 Chris Judd WC Eagles Sandringham U18 U18 VMFL
4 Graham Polak Fremantle East Fremantle WAFL
5 Xavier Clarke St Kilda St Marys NT
6 Ashley Sampi WC Eagles South Fremantle WAFL
7 David Hale Kangaroos Broadbeach Qld
8 James Bartel Geelong Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
9 Luke Molan Melbourne Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
10 Sam Power W Bulldogs Oakleigh U18 U18 VMFL
11 Richard Cole Collingwood Eastern U18 U18 VMFL
12 Brent Reilly Adelaide Calder U18 U18 VMFL
13 Nick Del Santo St Kilda Bendigo U18 U18 VCFL
14 Ashley Watson Kangaroos Bendigo U18 U18 VCFL
15 Barry Brooks Port Adelaide Tasmania U18 U18 Tas
16 Rick Ladson Hawthorn Bendigo U18 U18 VCFL
17 James Kelly Geelong Calder U18 U18 VMFL
18 Shane Harvey Essendon Northern U18 U18 VMFL

19 Jason Gram Brisbane Gippsland U18 U18 VCFL

20 Daniel Elstone Hawthorn Bendigo U18 U18 VCFL
21 Matt Maguire St Kilda Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
22 Mark Seaby WC Eagles West Perth WAFL
23 Charlie Gardiner Geelong Sandringham U18 U18 VMFL
24 Steve Johnson Geelong Murray U18 U18 VCFL
25 Steven Armstrong Melbourne Perth WAFL
26 Aaron Rogers Melbourne NSW-ACT U18 U18 NSW-ACT
27 Tom Davidson Collingwood Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
28 Mark Powell Sydney Murray U18 U18 VCFL
29 Lewis Roberts-Thomson Sydney NSW-ACT U18 U18 NSW-ACT
30 Rod Crowe Kangaroos Sandringham U18 U18 VMFL
31 Joel Reynolds Essendon Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
32 Campbell Brown Hawthorn Oakleigh U18 U18 VMFL
33 David Rodan Richmond Calder U18 U18 VMFL
34 Simon OÕKeefe Essendon Murray U18 U18 VCFL
35 Jarrad Wright Brisbane Woodville-West Torrens SANFL
36 Sam Mitchell Hawthorn Box Hill Hawks VFA
37 Leigh Montagna St Kilda Northern U18 U18 VMFL
38 Ashley Hansen WC Eagles Oakleigh U18 U18 VMFL
39 Justin Davies Carlton Murray U18 U18 VCFL
40 Gary Ablett junior Geelong Geelong U18 U18 VCFL
41 Henry Playfair Geelong NSW-ACT U18 U18 NSW-ACT
42 Kieran McGuinness W Bulldogs Eastern U18 U18 VMFL
43 Mark McGough Collingwood Murray U18 U18 VCFL
44 Ben Finnin Adelaide Northern U18 U18 VMFL

45 Nathan Clarke Brisbane Brisbane AFL

46 Jarrad Waite Carlton Murray U18 U18 VCFL
47 Andrew Welsh Essendon Calder U18 U18 VMFL
48 Simon Cox Hawthorn W Bulldogs AFL
49 Josh Houlihan St Kilda Murray U18 U18 VCFL
50 Paul Salmon Essendon Hawthorn AFL
51 Not utilised Brisbane n/a n/a
52 Andrew Browne Fremantle Claremont WAFL
53 Daniel Hunt Sydney South Fremantle WAFL
54 Ben Robbins Kangaroos Brisbane AFL
55 Brad Miller Melbourne Mt Gravatt Qld
56 Paul Medhurst Fremantle Claremont WAFL
57 Brent Colbert W Bulldogs Northern U18 U18 VMFL
58 Dane Swan Collingwood Calder U18 U18 VMFL
59 Jacob Schuback Adelaide Gippsland U18 U18 VCFL
60 Adam Schneider Sydney NSW-ACT U18 U18 NSW-ACT
61 Mick Martyn Kangaroos Kangaroos AFL
62 Damon White Port Adelaide Perth WAFL
63 Adam L. Houlihan Richmond Geelong AFL
64 Daniel McAlister Essendon Essendon AFL
65 Not utilised Brisbane n/a n/a
66 Not utilised Fremantle n/a n/a
67 Not utilised St Kilda n/a n/a
68 Chris Hyde Richmond Richmond AFL
69 Matthew McCarthy Geelong Old Xaverians VAFA
70 Not utilised Melbourne n/a n/a
71 Brian Harris W Bulldogs Woodville-West Torrens SANFL
72 Tristen Walker Collingwood Claremont WAFL
73 Not utilised Adelaide n/a n/a
74 Ricky Mott Sydney South Fremantle WAFL
75 Sam Cranage Carlton Carlton AFL
76 Jared Poulton Port Adelaide Port Adelaide AFL
77 Martin McGrath Richmond South Fremantle WAFL
78 Not utilised Essendon n/a n/a
79 Not utilised St Kilda n/a n/a
80 Hugh Foott Kangaroos Bendigo U18 U18 VCFL
81 David Johnson Geelong Essendon Reserves AFL RES
82 Not utilised Melbourne n/a n/a
83 Aaron James W Bulldogs Richmond AFL

[brenjay]

ahhh such is the benefit of hindsight!

[Warwick]

Yep. A stinker.

Luckily there haven't been too many over the years.

[Sherminator.]

If only we had McGuire and Mitchell right now. :o

[The-Spanner]

A disappointment, yes, to look at it in hindsight. But a monumental disaster? Not really. We've managed.

[dlanod]

A strike of 50% isn't bad for two picks. It's just a pity that the good one got squeezed out and revealed himself for a different club.

[Warwick]

Pick 51 was probably our best.

[Grimreepah]

A grand total of 2 games in Lions colours:

Gram - 2
Wright - 0
Clarke - 0

Good work:thumbsu:

Admittedly though, it was a tough side to break into.

[brenjay]

Pick 51 was probably our best.

lol :D

[Dylan12]

The one I am most upset about - not sure what year - maybe 2003 or quite possibly one of the years we took Mills or Garner in the 20's - and 15 other clubs would be in the same boat - but Matthew Egan of Geelong was taken at pick 63 or 68; what a steal - he is a top CHB basically gotten for nothing - as good as our backs are, he would have been the perfect replacement for Leppa.

I am real skeptical on both Mills and Garner - i haven't seen Garner, but Millsy has alot of work to do with his skills - his marking is solid and he certainly gives 100%, no doubt about that but gee Egan would have been a good score.

[Grimreepah]

The one I am most upset about - not sure what year - maybe 2003 or quite possibly one of the years we took Mills or Garner in the 20's - and 15 other clubs would be in the same boat - but Matthew Egan of Geelong was taken at pick 63 or 68; what a steal - he is a top CHB basically gotten for nothing - as good as our backs are, he would have been the perfect replacement for Leppa.

I am real skeptical on both Mills and Garner - i haven't seen Garner, but Millsy has alot of work to do with his skills - his marking is solid and he certainly gives 100%, no doubt about that but gee Egan would have been a good score.

Yeah, pick 62 in 2004. How did he slip that low?

I would love to have him at Brisbane. Would be one of my favourite non-Lions players.

[Dylan12]

Yeah, pick 62 in 2004. How did he slip that low?

I would love to have him at Brisbane. Would be one of my favourite non-Lions players.

Mine too - was disappointed for him missing the GF.

[The Flying Belgian]

You missed Jarrad Wright (pick 35) in there konstas.

Yep, pretty poor. But I think the quality of that so-called "superdraft" has been overstated. You only have to look at the number of player in bold to realise there weren't many success stories from later on. Clarke was a re-draft too so there was obviously a dearth of players we'd prefer to pick over a known quantity. I can't classify gram as a poor pick though. It turned out to be quite an astute pick, just a shame he went home.

[POBT]

I can't classify gram as a poor pick though. It turned out to be quite an astute pick, just a shame he went home.

Agree entirely. We enter the "superdraft" at 19 and pick up a player who ends up being the equal or better of most of those picked before him. Gram has arguably achieved as much, if not more, than Polak, Clarke, Sampi, Hale, Molan, S. Power, Cole, Reilly, Watson, Brookes, Ladson, Kelly and Harvey. Of the top 20 picks, Gram probably rates at about 6th.

If we still had Gram running around for us, then this draft would not have been a disaster. But it is unfair for the recruiters in 2001 to be heavily criticised when they picked a good un with #19 who left the club a couple of years down the track.

One could equally argue that 2000 was a poor year, at least in terms of the first pick. We took McGrath when Daniel Harris, Scott Thompson, Daniel Kerr and Kane Cornes were drafted with the following few picks. In that year, Ash is probably ranked somewhere between 10th and 12th in terms of the first 20 players selected. So, in my mind, we did far better in 2001 with our first selection, even if Ash has ended up contributing more to our club than Gram did.

[carmi99]

You missed Jarrad Wright (pick 35) in there konstas.

Yep, pretty poor. But I think the quality of that so-called "superdraft" has been overstated. You only have to look at the number of player in bold to realise there weren't many success stories from later on. Clarke was a re-draft too so there was obviously a dearth of players we'd prefer to pick over a known quantity. I can't classify gram as a poor pick though. It turned out to be quite an astute pick, just a shame he went home.

I Aggree with you there. That draft was top heavy but certainly did not have huge depth. I think that now more resources go into it and there is more of an even spread in terms of depth.

As an Essendon supporter this is the period in which our club has indentified as a major factor in our recent performances. 2000, 2001 and 2002 we drafted very poorly but atleast the club has accepted responsibility for this. I would have to look into the stats a little more but im pretty sure that Brisbane did a far better job in recruiting around this time and it is interesting as both clubs were successful around this time...

[notting18]

I think our ability to utilise the Rookie system has really helped cover for this draft of relatively poor selections....

[POBT]

as good as our backs are, he would have been the perfect replacement for Leppa.
I think our planning was totally screwed up by Leppa's retirement. The guy only turned 32 a couple of weeks ago. No-one would have predicted that he would be long retired at this point. I think we were entitled to rely on him playing for longer than he did. Bad luck.

Egan was drafted in 2004 as a 21 year old. Fast forward 12 months and, on the back of Leppa's injury concerns, we draft 21 year old Joel Patfull and rookie list 21 year old Jason Roe. Had Leppa's frailty been evident in 2004, we might have been in the market for Egan.

However, I don't regret that we didn't draft Egan. 16 clubs failed to pick up the current AA CHB over a number of drafts so we were are hardly alone. Moreover, we probably didn't think we needed to be in the market for a ready to go KP defender at that point.

[Warwick]

You could go through every single draft and find a Matthew Egan.

This was hardly a one-off.

[Dylan12]

purely making the point that he was available - i thought club policy was take best available, Leppa injured or not - regardless in market or not - and yes Warwick there is always one that 15 clubs miss (Blacky the obvious one) - i don't mind our defenders but Egan is a much better key position tall defender to match Riewoldt's, Franklins etc than Roey or Patfull IMO

[The Flying Belgian]

purely making the point that he was available - i thought club policy was take best available, Leppa injured or not - regardless in market or not - and yes Warwick there is always one that 15 clubs miss (Blacky the obvious one) - i don't mind our defenders but Egan is a much better key position tall defender to match Riewoldt's, Franklins etc than Roey or Patfull IMO


Dylan, I think the point was that Egan was passed over in multiple drafts, so in a lot of clubs eyes he wasn't the best available. In fact he was a speculative pick by the Cats as a 21yo. Clubs may be saying the same about Patfull in a few years time, you never know. The reality is he wasn't really on the radar.

Personally I hate playing the "we could have drafted player X instead" game. It's pointless.

[Ryder Is God]

I feel your pain.

[weevil]

A bunch of clubs did not do brilliantly that year. Don’t think you will hear Essendon, Melbourne, Bulldogs, Collingwood, Adelaide or Kangaroos fans remembering it with a lot of fondness.

Geelong on the other hand had a blinder...Not that anyone was saying that at the time.

[LuckyLuke]

A bunch of clubs did not do brilliantly that year. Don’t think you will hear Essendon, Melbourne, Bulldogs, Collingwood, Adelaide or Kangaroos fans remembering it with a lot of fondness.

Geelong on the other hand had a blinder...Not that anyone was saying that at the time.

Or even saying that in 2006 for that matter. Kelly was probably the best performing out of the lot, the rest were just alright.

On a side note, that's why you shouldn't expect too much from your draftees in the first 5 years or AFL. Until they start to turn 22-23, the hype surrounding a 19yo is mainly on their potential.

[Warwick]

And to prove there is an Egan in most drafts:

1986: Alastair Lynch (50), Darren Jarman (55)
1988: Chris Grant (105)
1990: James Hird (79)
1991: Andrew Dunkley (56)
1992: Damien Hardwick (87), Scott Burns (90)
1994: Michael O'Loughlin (40), Aaron Hamill (79)
1995: Brent Harvey (46), Darren Milburn (47), Dan Bradshaw (55)
1996: Russell Robertson (68), Brad Scott (85)
1997: Nathan Thompson (82)
1998: Andrew Embley (57)
1999: Ryan O'Keefe (56), Cameron Bruce (64)
2000: Graham Johncock (67)
2001: Dane Swan (58), Adam Schieder (60)
2002: Nick Malceski (64), Brad Fisher (72)
2003: Sam Fisher (55), Michael Rischitelli (61)
2004: Chris Knights (56)
2005: Joel Patfull (56)
2006: Justin Westoff (71)

And that's not including all the PSD and rookie draft steals.

[BigCat2]

Warwick, I would include Matthew Egan in the above list as well. A steal. ;)

[Unwritten_Law]

Egan never played junior football, as a teenager he was a top ranked Vic tennis player and tried his luck on the satellite circuit for a short period.

When he came home he started playing football with friends in the suburban league out Essendon way. He was noticed by scouts for our VFL side and was invited to come down and try out for a spot as a top up player. He played a few VFL games in 03, cemented his spot as a top up player in 2004 and was named the full back in the VFL team of the year. When Ben Graham left for the states we needed a mature bodied player as insurance in case Scarlett or Harley went down so we took the punt on Egan late in the 04 draft.

Tennis player to All Australian CHB in the space of 5 years :thumbsu:

You can't blame teams for overlooking him and who is to say that if he went to another team he would have turned out like he has? Scarlett, Harley and Milburn are three pretty handy defenders to learn the trade from and Ron Watt - our VFL coach at the time and now player development manager - played a huge role in turning him into an AA CHB.

[carmi99]

And to prove there is an Egan in most drafts:

1986: Alastair Lynch (50), Darren Jarman (55)
1988: Chris Grant (105)
1990: James Hird (79)
1991: Andrew Dunkley (56)
1992: Damien Hardwick (87), Scott Burns (90)
1994: Michael O'Loughlin (40), Aaron Hamill (79)
1995: Brent Harvey (46), Darren Milburn (47), Dan Bradshaw (55)
1996: Russell Robertson (68), Brad Scott (85)
1997: Nathan Thompson (82)
1998: Andrew Embley (57)
1999: Ryan O'Keefe (56), Cameron Bruce (64)
2000: Graham Johncock (67)
2001: Dane Swan (58), Adam Schieder (60)
2002: Nick Malceski (64), Brad Fisher (72)
2003: Sam Fisher (55), Michael Rischitelli (61)
2004: Chris Knights (56)
2005: Joel Patfull (56)
2006: Justin Westoff (71)

And that's not including all the PSD and rookie draft steals.

Dont forget Michael Long Im pretty sure he was 40+ also :thumbsu:

[Warwick]

Dont forget Michael Long Im pretty sure he was 40+ also :thumbsu:
There were plenty of good players who went 30-40+.

I was just mainly picking out the 50+ players from each draft.

[konstas_87]

although gram has improved out of sight i still dont really rate him as a massive loss. while its a necessary part of the team, i dont really rate the lose man in defence as a great player (e.g. jason cloke 2003, looked great but give him an opponent and he's buggered).