What have the following players got in common?
- Adam Thompson
- Adrian Burdon
- Alex Fasolo
- Alex McDonald
- Ben Allan
- Brett Burton
- Clayton Lamb
- Clayton Lasscock
- Daniel Menzel
- Drew Banfield
- Evan Hewitt
- Harry Taylor
- James Davies
- Jared Brennan
- Jason Gram
- Jason McCartney
- Lance Picioane
- Llane Spaanderman
- Matthew Laidlaw
- Mitchell Brown
- Peter Bubner
- Robert Stevenson
- Ryan Schoenmakers
- Shane Crawford
- Shane Sikora
All those players were selected with the first draft pick of that season's premier. For instance, Hawthorn won the flag in 1991 and selected Shane Crawford with their first pick in the 1991 (Insert sponsor:__________) National Draft.
Serious question: would a draftee be 98% happy to have been drafted by the flag holder. Would, and I am picking absolutely at random here, Adam Thompson have been chuffed to have been taken by Port with pick 11 in 2004? There is an outside chance he, like me, figured Port might have pinched the cup that year and the only way was down. True, he may have thought Port had the momentum to go further, but as Steve Coogan said in The Trip: "momentum is what you have when you go downhill." Port were good enough to make the grand final in 2007, you say. True. But that was an utter fluke, and in hindsight, Port probably wished they had dodged that bullet... howitzer shell.
Hawthorn in 1991. Like Melbourne in 1964, you could have be forgiven for thinking the Hawks had capped their dynasty with one last flag. And indeed, it took the Hawks another 17 modest years to win a flag. But Shane Crawford was good enough to last those 17 years to finally crown a pretty damn excellent career. If only it had taken the Demons a mere, microscopic 17 years to win their next flag. Sigh.
Or take Llane Spaanderman. To paraphrase Henny Youngman, take Llane Spaanderman, please. Taken by Brisbane with pick 18 in 2003, he have could certainly been forgiven for thinking a flag was a fair way off after the Lions had won the previous three premierships.
Adrian Burdon was taken by Carlton in 1995 at pick 61; presumably Carlton traded away their early picks. Burdon can hardly have expected to set the world on fire in the next couple of years, and in fact played no games for the Blues.
How many draftees, low level draftees in most cases, think they will be good enough to squeeze into a premiership side in their first season?
And yet, Ben Allan, Drew Banfield, Harry Taylor and Shane Crawford all played in premierships. Jason Gram, admittedly at another club, might have played in two. Jason McCartney was a fathead in the 1999 preliminary final, got suspended and missed North's premiership. Daniel Menzel and Alex Fasolo are both a chance to play in flags this year. As usual, I pose the questions, but have no idea what the answer might be. There may not even be an answer, conclusion or #FootyMaths extrapolation. Someone else can compare this list with the same season's wooden-spooner, I've got work to do.
With far too much time on my hands (since early 90's):
John Hutton
Scott Watters (Sydney traded pick 1)
Darren Gaspar
Anfernee Rocca (pick 2, Freo had new team draft concessions)
Matthew Primus (pick 2, Freo got further draft concessions)
Fitzroy got the arse. Nathan Brown picked by 2nd last Dogs, after Port new club draft concessions)
Travis Johnstone
Des Headland
Josh Fraser
Nick Riewoldt
Luke Hodge
2nd last Saints picked Brendon Goddard. Blues stripped of early picks, who picked up Barneby French in a trade with their first pick of 16.
Adam Cooney
Brett Deledio
Marc Murphy
Bryce Gibbs
Matthew Kreuzer
Jack Watts
Tom Scully
Andrew Gaff
Only 2 - Des and Hodge. Scully & Watts will in 2113.
Posted by: RT | 07/27/2011 at 04:49 PM
I would have given Drew Banfield the Norm Smith Medal for the '06 GF, yet most pundits don't even have him in their best players. Davis was threatening in the second half and when Banno shifted onto him half-way through the third quarter, the Swans' charge died.
And yet, even this wasn't his greatest achievement - I once saw him kick on his right foot TWICE IN ROW! Almost as amazing as Fatty Lamb taking on overhead mark.
Posted by: os | 07/29/2011 at 01:13 PM
Good to see MFC reserves superstar Evan Hewitt on the list.
Posted by: Supermercado | 08/01/2011 at 05:04 PM