Okay, so this is an old post I made several years ago, but now updated in light of the curse striking recent first round draft picks.
Warning - the following content is not for the faint of heart (or mind)
Like the Curse of the Great Bambino, or the Curse of Norm Smith, I believe we have our own curse here at Fremantle. It belongs to our No 1 pick in the draft.
Someone stepped on a cat, whilst walking under a ladder on Friday the 13th somewhere in our history.
Just have a look at the sorry history of the first pick:
1994: Pick 1 Jeff White - ran away as soon as he could
1995: Pick 1 Clive Waterhouse - showed promise before ACL/knee imploded ending his career early shortly after breaking out in 1999.
1996: Pick 12 Heath Black - showed promise before being traded. Contracted immobilious fattus syndrome and got depression
1997: Pick 6 James Walker - 151 games but I am sure he has suffered some terrible personal tragedy that we are not aware of.
1998: Pick 2 Justin Longmuir - showed promise before career died due to a chronic knee injury
1999: Pick 2 Paul Haselby - an anomaly. Did we sacrifice someone to the gods this year?
2000: Pick 6 (plus 37 and Sinclair) traded to North for Peter Bell who was cut by Fremantle in 1995. I.e. we paid our first pick for someone who should of been on our list anyway.
2001: Pick 1, 20, 36 for Croad and McPharlin (Luke Hodge/Mitchell taken by Hawks). Mchparlin makes this okay. However this trade makes Freo a laughing stock after Hodge/Mitchell lead the Hawks to premierships. Croad does little at Fremantle. The curse gets to him. Gets homesick. Asks for a trade back. Freo trades him for Pick 10 (Ryley Dunn). With the curse lifted Croad wins All-Australian selection for Hawthorn and wins a premiership.
2002: Pick 3 and 19 for Des Headland. Two first round picks paid for someone who never lived up to being a first round pick.
2003: Pick 10 Ryley Dunn - injury after injury. Played 8 games. 8.
2004: Pick 11, 27, 45 for Josh Carr who left us after a few years for a bag of chips.
2005: Pick 10 Marcus Drum - injuries including a detached retina ended his career. Drum´s career was possibly a side effect of the Haselby anomaly in 1999. Also suffered numerous hamstring, ankle injuries plus an irregular heartbeat (risk of death through playing!) and a smashed nose.
2006: Pick 13, 73 and Polak traded to Richmond for Pick 8 and 42. Pick 8 and Medhurst to Collingwood for Tarrant. Pick 13 ended up being Jack Riewoldt. Pick 8 ended up being Ben Reid (Nathan Brown and James Frawley went between 8 and 13). Polak gets hit by a tram in Melbourne and almost dies. Medhurst becomes AA. Freo saves Tarrant´s career before Tarrant stabs us in the back and demands a trade back to Collingwood, and only Collingwood, in exchange for peanuts. Fremantle end up giving up pick 13, 73, Polak, Medhurst for 4 years of Tarrant.
2007: Pick 7 Rhys Palmer - early hope before he injures his knee. Palmer comes back and runs into a leg on the field. It is Barlow´s leg. It is broken as badly as if Barlow was in a car accident. Palmer loses all form before being traded out. Barlow is never the same player.
2008: Pick 3 Stephen Hill – 202 games. Curse well and truly catches up with him in later years and he becomes a walking health hazard at a time when the guy everyone wanted at Pick 3 (Dan Rich) is still roaring along at Brisbane
2009: Pick 4 Anthony Morabito - knee reconstruction after knee reconstruction, retires prematurely.
2010: Pick 20 Jayden Pitt - retires early due to risk of death if he keeps playing on a dodgy heart. Second No 1 pick from Freo to suffer this (Drum also had an irregular heartbeat).
2011: Pick 16 Tom Sheridan – lived to tell the tale. Consider this a win
2012: Pick 17 Josh Simpson - couldn´t handle being dropped. Refused to travel with the team to Melbourne. Went bush. House burned down. Still making up for the Haselby and Hill anomaly. Gone off the rails.
2013: Pick 17 Michael Apeness - routine not so serious knee injury turns into a season ending injury in early years. Constantly injured. Got the sack after playing a few games.
2014: Pick 13 Lachlan Weller - traded for Pick 2. Gets sent to Gold Coast. Gold Coast become even more of a basket case. See below.
2015: Pick 16 Traded for Harley Bennell - beset by injuries/off field incidents, has to resort to Ballet training to try to get on the field consistently. Reportedly a part of the reason or Lachie Neale leaving. Delisted.
2016: Pick 8 Griffin Logue - foot injuries/now an ankle injury in early years. More injuries in following years. Not looking like the player he promised to be.
2017: Pick 2: Brayshaw - a first round pick that is the result of trading a first round pick (Weller). In year 1 Brayshaw is looking good for his first ROY nomination before the softest guy in the AFL smashes in his jaw, ruling him out for the year in one of the worst hits seen in the AFL in years. Draft gods feel sorry for the guy and spare him the curse (for now).
2018: Pick 17 – Sam Sturt, however Pick 6 was our original first pick. Traded to Port for pick 11, 23, 30, 49 (we also threw in a 2019 3rd rounder). Lachie Neale plus 30 was then traded for pick 6, 19, 55. Pick 6 and 23 then traded to Melbourne for Jesse Hogan and Pick 65. Pick 11 and 19 traded to GWS for Lobb, Pick 14, 43, 47. So roughly Pick 6, Lachie Neale, Pick 11 traded for Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb, Pick 14 (became pick 17).
Lots of ways to look at this:
2019: Pick 9 – Hayden Young – welcome to Freo Hayden Young. Mild hamstring strains are not for Freo first round picks, Hayden gets 3 months for a hammy due to the curse!
2020: Pick 14 – Heath Chapman – welcome to Freo Heath – that’s a season ending injury for you. Curse strikes again.
This curse also begs the question: what will be the impact of a former first round draft pick (Justin Longmuir) coming back to coach the club? What were they thinking!!!
It should also be noted that a former Fremantle first round pick was instrumental in the 2018 trades that netted us a three way kick up the butt by the draft gods intent on making sure the curse still stuck despite Belly trying all he could to befuddle the bejesus out of them.
I count 2 possible A-graders (Haselby, Brayshaw) that have escaped the curse (Brayshaw’s jaw would probably disagree) in 27 years of first round draft picks. And people wonder why we haven’t won a premiership!
How the hell can we build a premiership list with this curse on us!!!
Warning - the following content is not for the faint of heart (or mind)
Like the Curse of the Great Bambino, or the Curse of Norm Smith, I believe we have our own curse here at Fremantle. It belongs to our No 1 pick in the draft.
Someone stepped on a cat, whilst walking under a ladder on Friday the 13th somewhere in our history.
Just have a look at the sorry history of the first pick:
1994: Pick 1 Jeff White - ran away as soon as he could
1995: Pick 1 Clive Waterhouse - showed promise before ACL/knee imploded ending his career early shortly after breaking out in 1999.
1996: Pick 12 Heath Black - showed promise before being traded. Contracted immobilious fattus syndrome and got depression
1997: Pick 6 James Walker - 151 games but I am sure he has suffered some terrible personal tragedy that we are not aware of.
1998: Pick 2 Justin Longmuir - showed promise before career died due to a chronic knee injury
1999: Pick 2 Paul Haselby - an anomaly. Did we sacrifice someone to the gods this year?
2000: Pick 6 (plus 37 and Sinclair) traded to North for Peter Bell who was cut by Fremantle in 1995. I.e. we paid our first pick for someone who should of been on our list anyway.
2001: Pick 1, 20, 36 for Croad and McPharlin (Luke Hodge/Mitchell taken by Hawks). Mchparlin makes this okay. However this trade makes Freo a laughing stock after Hodge/Mitchell lead the Hawks to premierships. Croad does little at Fremantle. The curse gets to him. Gets homesick. Asks for a trade back. Freo trades him for Pick 10 (Ryley Dunn). With the curse lifted Croad wins All-Australian selection for Hawthorn and wins a premiership.
2002: Pick 3 and 19 for Des Headland. Two first round picks paid for someone who never lived up to being a first round pick.
2003: Pick 10 Ryley Dunn - injury after injury. Played 8 games. 8.
2004: Pick 11, 27, 45 for Josh Carr who left us after a few years for a bag of chips.
2005: Pick 10 Marcus Drum - injuries including a detached retina ended his career. Drum´s career was possibly a side effect of the Haselby anomaly in 1999. Also suffered numerous hamstring, ankle injuries plus an irregular heartbeat (risk of death through playing!) and a smashed nose.
2006: Pick 13, 73 and Polak traded to Richmond for Pick 8 and 42. Pick 8 and Medhurst to Collingwood for Tarrant. Pick 13 ended up being Jack Riewoldt. Pick 8 ended up being Ben Reid (Nathan Brown and James Frawley went between 8 and 13). Polak gets hit by a tram in Melbourne and almost dies. Medhurst becomes AA. Freo saves Tarrant´s career before Tarrant stabs us in the back and demands a trade back to Collingwood, and only Collingwood, in exchange for peanuts. Fremantle end up giving up pick 13, 73, Polak, Medhurst for 4 years of Tarrant.
2007: Pick 7 Rhys Palmer - early hope before he injures his knee. Palmer comes back and runs into a leg on the field. It is Barlow´s leg. It is broken as badly as if Barlow was in a car accident. Palmer loses all form before being traded out. Barlow is never the same player.
2008: Pick 3 Stephen Hill – 202 games. Curse well and truly catches up with him in later years and he becomes a walking health hazard at a time when the guy everyone wanted at Pick 3 (Dan Rich) is still roaring along at Brisbane
2009: Pick 4 Anthony Morabito - knee reconstruction after knee reconstruction, retires prematurely.
2010: Pick 20 Jayden Pitt - retires early due to risk of death if he keeps playing on a dodgy heart. Second No 1 pick from Freo to suffer this (Drum also had an irregular heartbeat).
2011: Pick 16 Tom Sheridan – lived to tell the tale. Consider this a win
2012: Pick 17 Josh Simpson - couldn´t handle being dropped. Refused to travel with the team to Melbourne. Went bush. House burned down. Still making up for the Haselby and Hill anomaly. Gone off the rails.
2013: Pick 17 Michael Apeness - routine not so serious knee injury turns into a season ending injury in early years. Constantly injured. Got the sack after playing a few games.
2014: Pick 13 Lachlan Weller - traded for Pick 2. Gets sent to Gold Coast. Gold Coast become even more of a basket case. See below.
2015: Pick 16 Traded for Harley Bennell - beset by injuries/off field incidents, has to resort to Ballet training to try to get on the field consistently. Reportedly a part of the reason or Lachie Neale leaving. Delisted.
2016: Pick 8 Griffin Logue - foot injuries/now an ankle injury in early years. More injuries in following years. Not looking like the player he promised to be.
2017: Pick 2: Brayshaw - a first round pick that is the result of trading a first round pick (Weller). In year 1 Brayshaw is looking good for his first ROY nomination before the softest guy in the AFL smashes in his jaw, ruling him out for the year in one of the worst hits seen in the AFL in years. Draft gods feel sorry for the guy and spare him the curse (for now).
2018: Pick 17 – Sam Sturt, however Pick 6 was our original first pick. Traded to Port for pick 11, 23, 30, 49 (we also threw in a 2019 3rd rounder). Lachie Neale plus 30 was then traded for pick 6, 19, 55. Pick 6 and 23 then traded to Melbourne for Jesse Hogan and Pick 65. Pick 11 and 19 traded to GWS for Lobb, Pick 14, 43, 47. So roughly Pick 6, Lachie Neale, Pick 11 traded for Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb, Pick 14 (became pick 17).
Lots of ways to look at this:
- Sam Sturt perpetually injured now out for the season again, the pick after Sturt was Duursma
- Hogan bombed and later traded for pick 54 to GWS.
- Lachie Neale won a brownlow after being traded
- Pick 6 became Ben King – looks like a possible key forward star in an ordinary Gold Coast Suns side
- Lobb came cheap but the drop in spots cost a shot at Clark (if he was on our radar)
2019: Pick 9 – Hayden Young – welcome to Freo Hayden Young. Mild hamstring strains are not for Freo first round picks, Hayden gets 3 months for a hammy due to the curse!
2020: Pick 14 – Heath Chapman – welcome to Freo Heath – that’s a season ending injury for you. Curse strikes again.
This curse also begs the question: what will be the impact of a former first round draft pick (Justin Longmuir) coming back to coach the club? What were they thinking!!!
It should also be noted that a former Fremantle first round pick was instrumental in the 2018 trades that netted us a three way kick up the butt by the draft gods intent on making sure the curse still stuck despite Belly trying all he could to befuddle the bejesus out of them.
I count 2 possible A-graders (Haselby, Brayshaw) that have escaped the curse (Brayshaw’s jaw would probably disagree) in 27 years of first round draft picks. And people wonder why we haven’t won a premiership!
How the hell can we build a premiership list with this curse on us!!!
