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Players that didnt live up to their hype?

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Chad Wingard
 

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Richard Lounder 1st came to mind...

www.richmondfc.com.au

Richmond No. 1 draft pick recollections: Richard Lounder

With Richmond having the No.1 pick in the 2024 Telstra AFL Draft, we are taking a look at the three players previously taken by the Tigers as the top draft selection, starting with Richard Lounder in 1987.
www.richmondfc.com.au www.richmondfc.com.au
 
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year of the cat said:
Clint Bizzel. Was going to apparently be the “next Ablett”. Fell a little short. To be fair, I’m not sure he stated he was going to be that good though he did seem to be on quite healthy terms with himself.
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It was actually one comment from Garry Hocking, where he said in some ways he "reminded him" of Ablett. And, at that time around 2000-2001, he wasn't wrong. He'd gone from a promising winger to a really good (and dangerous) half forward flanker who could take a great high mark and could kick goals. Our team was various levels of underwhelming to putrid in those years and he kicked 34 and 29 goals - including 6 against Essendon in 2000. He could play.

Unfortunately though, we traded him at the end of 2001 to get a pick that turned out to be James Kelly. For whatever reason, Melbourne were utterly determined to plonk him in a back pocket and keep him there no matter what. So in 88 games for Melbourne he managed to kick 7 goals. Worse was all his natural athleticism and flair was gone, almost by intention it seemed. Never came close to the player he'd been at Geelong.
 
iameviljez said:
Number 1 pick in 1986 did not mean what it means now
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There was plenty of hype at the time about him being the next big thing.

However, recruitment checks are much more thorough now.
 
Scott Gumbleton
Jono O'Rourke
Josh Schache
Jack Lukosius

Were all pick 2's in the draft.
Slightly harsh on Lukosius, however he went at 2 in a super draft and at one point during the season the media had dubbed games between the bottom clubs as 'the Lukosius cup'. He's turned into an average AFL player.

Jimmy Toumpas was also a pick 4 who had plenty of hype after dominating the SANFL as a 17 year old. Ended up only playing 27 games for Melbourne then 10 for Port Adelaide and his career was over in 5 years.
 
Every club has a shocker ours was Laurence Angwin picked at number 7 played zero games and got sacked for 4 counts of burglary rumour has it one was against a team mate, then went to the blues and got busted for drugs

Not sure how it could get worse than that
 
crowman2 said:
Every club has a shocker ours was Laurence Angwin picked at number 7 played zero games and got sacked for 4 counts of burglary rumour has it one was against a team mate, then went to the blues and got busted for drugs

Not sure how it could get worse than that
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Yeah, he was a real disappointment because a great talent, but unfortunately a complete headcase.

We have had quite a few early pick flops.

#6 McAsey (& we had #4 which we traded to GWS who picked Ash)

#8 Meesen ruckman with big wraps who did little & Maric at #40 in the same draft was actually decent.
 

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Leading into the 1999 National Draft Kevin Sheehan said Josh Fraser was the best junior footballer he had seen since Wayne Carey. He was certainly a decent AFL player, a 200 gamer who played seniors immediately, but it would have been very hard to believe in 1999 that he would never be an All Australian or win a B&F.

David Wirrpanda was having articles written about him when he was with the Eastern Ranges when just 15/16 in 1995 regarding him being a very likely future AFL megastar. Again, like Josh Fraser, he was certainly good but hardly phenomenal, and was an AA just once and never won a B&F.
 
A question to avid watchers of junior football -

Who was the best and worst player since 2000 as a junior to be taken at #1?

What I mean is if all the players taken at #1 since 2000 were born in the same year/in the same draft then who would be first and last picked?

Nothing to do with their subsequent AFL careers. Just how they were perceived as juniors.

I know Luke Hodge was not a consensus #1 pick in 2001. IIRC ten clubs would’ve gone for Hodge, four for Ball and two for Judd. FWIW Bomber Thompson said Geelong would’ve taken Hodge without any hesitation.

Lethal thought Jack Watts was nowhere near good enough to be taken #1.

There was a rumour at the time Marc Murphy wouldn’t have gone top ten if he’d be born a year later but Noel Judkins thought that was hyperbole saying he would probably be taken at 5-8 in 2006. Similar range as Boak and Selwood.

Aaron Cadman didn’t have epic hype IIRC. Unlike Harley Reid.
 
jake stringer owns this thread

a pretty good career all things considered but one can't help but feel we missed out on something special
 
If they held their form over their career Peter Sumich and Alen Jakovich. Both were pretty much finished after 1994 whether through injuries or loss of form. Sumich had 4 stellar seasons with the Eagles from 1990 to 93 but couldn't replicate that form ever again. Still racked up lots of goals but never were the same players.

Good players but could have been all time greats.
 

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Blackhawk42 said:
Ryan Burton.

I was so pissed off at our list management strategy post the 2018 season that I was almost actively barracking against us the following year.
Trading Burton for Wingard drove me up the wall.

In the end, nobody really won that trade. In hindsight, Burton wasn't the second coming I originally thought he was.
I was anticipating a swingman who would eventually become a classy, game breaking midfielder.

In the end he played 150 off games of decent footy off a back flank and was delisted by 28 years of age.
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This is a great pick from outside the standard top 10 draft busts. I remember him tearing a game apart and looking like an absolute star. From memory he was very upset by the trade and felt betrayed? Hawthorn was very short sighted in that time, they were nowhere near a premiership list but wanted to make Clarkson happy. He kept getting injured at Port and never got any continuity, and got stuck in the backline because of the young gun mids they drafted. Wingard was never the same player at the Hawks. This is a genuine loss/loss trade!
 
Jack Darling ended up having a good career, but the hype around him was absurd. He was going to be a top 3 pick if he didn't have off field issues in his draft year. He was "cursed" by being good straight away and maintaing that level for his entire career, which meant he never had a true "breakout" season. He also had Josh Kennedy next to him for basically all of his prime so he never had to be the man up forward either.
 
Jootube said:
This seems like a very "I hate Port" take.
Chad has multiple AAs and was appropriately hyped.
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He peaked at 19, and was only a stand out at the start of his career for 2 seasons. He really fell off for his last 9 seasons. They were hyping him up like he was Dustin Martin at the start of his career.
 

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