Herald Sun - Top 30 Draft Picks since 2000

[theoracle]

Herald Sun article 13/01/24 looks at all clubs' top 30 picks since 2000.

ADELAIDE - 37 picks
BRISBANE - 49 picks
CARLTON - 37 picks
COLLINGWOOD - 38 picks
ESSENDON - 40 picks
FREMANTLE - 34 picks
GEELONG - 30 picks
GOLD COAST - 36 picks
GWS - 51 picks (in 2011 they had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13 & 14!!!)
HAWTHORN - 36 picks
MELBOURNE - 40 picks
NORTH MELBOURNE - 43 picks
PORT ADELAIDE - 36
RICHMOND - 38 picks
SYDNEY - 30 picks
WEST COAST - 39 picks
WESTERN BULLDOGS - 39 picks

ST KILDA - 32 picks
2000
No. 1 Nick Riewoldt 336 games, St Kilda best and fairest 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2014, St Kilda captain 2005, 2007-2015 five All-Australians, Leigh Matthews Trophy 2004, AFL Rising Star 2002, retired in 2017
No. 2 Justin Koschitzke 200 games, retired in 2013
2001
No. 2 Luke Ball 142 games, St Kilda best and fairest 2005, St Kilda captain 2006-2007, All-Australian, left St Kilda in 2009
No. 5 Xavier Clarke 105 games, traded to Brisbane in 2009
No. 13 Nick Dal Santo 260 games, three all-Australians, joined North Melbourne as a free agent in 2013
No. 21 Matt Maguire 99 games, delisted in 2009
2002
No. 1 Brendon Goddard 205 games, two All-Australians, joined Essendon as a free agent in 2012
No. 22 Matthew Ferguson 12 games, delisted in 2008
2003
No. 8 Raphael Clarke 85 games, delisted in 2012
2004
No. 17 Andrew McQualter 89 games, delisted in 2011
2005
None
2006
No. 9 David Armitage 169 games, retired in 2019
No. 27 Brad Howard 2 games, delisted in 2009
2007
No. 9 Ben McEvoy 91 games, traded to Hawthorn in 2013
2008
No. 13 Tom Lynch 6 games, traded to Adelaide in 2011
2009
None
2010
No. 24 Jamie Cripps 16 games, traded to West Coast in 2012
2011
No. 25 Sebastian Ross 198 games, St Kilda best and fairest 2017, 2019
2012
No. 24 Nathan Wright 35 games, delisted in 2018
No. 25 Spencer White 2 games, delisted in 2015
2013
No. 3 Jack Billings 155 games, traded to Melbourne in 2023
No. 18 Luke Dunstan 116 games, joined Melbourne as a free agent in 2021
No. 19 Blake Acres 75 games, traded to Fremantle in 2019
2014
No. 1 Paddy McCartin 35 games, delisted in 2019
No. 21 Hugh Goddard 10 games, delisted in 2018
No. 22 Daniel McKenzie 73 games, delisted in 2023
2015
No. 18 Jade Gresham 136 games, joined Essendon as a free agent in 2023
2016
No. 25 Ben Long 79 games, traded to Gold Coast in 2022
2017
No. 7 Hunter Clark 87 games
No. 8 Nick Coffield 52 games, traded to the Western Bulldogs in 2023
2018
No. 4 Max King 71 games
2019
None
2020
No. 26 Matthew Allison 0 games
2021
No. 11 Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera 41 games
2022
No. 10 Mattaes Phillipou 24 games
Boom - 2000 Draft No. 1 Nick Riewoldt 336 games, St Kilda best and fairest 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2014, St Kilda captain 2005, 2007-2015 five All-Australians, Leigh Matthews Trophy 2004, AFL Rising Star 2002, retired in 2017
Bust - 2014 Draft No. 1 Paddy McCartin 35 games, delisted in 2019

"The Saints got exactly what was advertised with Riewoldt as he became their inspirational captain and one of the best forwards in the competition. It is harsh on McCartin given his Saints career was prematurely ended by concussion issues but with two of the next four players going after him being Christian Petracca and Jordan De Goey it hurt the Saints massively."

[Impatient Sainter]

Far too often we traded out of the first two rounds, which in part was driven by our attrocious drafting record. You only have to look at the sucess rate and games played by 50% of that list, it makes for very ordinary reading.

[B.M]

Not good

List management from 05-19
Worst in the AFL

2009 - beginning of the end
2012 to 2014 - shocking

[saynta]

What a nightmare.

[Yorkeys]

Reminded me of the broken legs to Wright, who looked very promising, McGuire who looked a champ and Benny Paton when he was excellent. Then there is J. Geary's injury in Shanghai. P poor recruiting supplemented by a large dose of Murphy's Law. Thank goodness Nick picked himself.

[Vortex]

It's a reminder of the significant challenge Lyon has to overcome as coach of our club. As good a coach as he is and as strong as the belief is amongst some supporters that he's capable of turning water into wine, he will struggle to make us relevant if the club doesn't dig in for the long route and avoid doing what St Kilda is famous for....and that's being St Kilda.

Sustained successful list management needs a lot of well run parts to come together and it doesn't happen over night.

Hopefully Bassett is in it for the long haul because it starts at the board level.

[cwrcyn]

Not a single elite midfielder drafted in a 20 year period. Surely, we're the only club to have performed that poorly. An awful record.

If you can't make the right selections on draft night, no amount of development and astute coaching can get you where you want to go.

Thankfully, the club has made some decent selections in the past three years, but there's still no obvious superstar midfielder in that group......yet.

[The Fireman]

It's a reminder of the significant challenge Lyon has to overcome as coach of our club. As good a coach as he is and as strong as the belief is amongst some supporters that he's capable of turning water into wine, he will struggle to make us relevant if the club doesn't dig in for the long route and avoid doing what St Kilda is famous for....and that's being St Kilda.

Sustained successful list management needs a lot of well run parts to come together and it doesn't happen over night.

Hopefully Bassett is in it for the long haul because it starts at the board level.

so we need better players and it wont happen overnight ?

[shanegrambeau]

I bet other clubs have fans that tell a tale in similar tones of ‘woe is us’ in their fam forums in regards to their fortunes in the e draft over the years.

On the other hand, can’t help but join in and pile on..

I wonder if Gold Coast and others don’t leverage the Saints history a bit when they ask for draft concessions given our extraordinary treasure trove we harvested in that 2000-2003 period?

It hasn’t been all bad, but after Lyon left the first time, it sure wasn’t good.

What we haven’t cashed in on enough is picking up Gold Coast/GWS take-aways. Those clubs have been ‘Drive-thru’ fast food joints for the likes of Geelong and others.

We didn’t get our share of the loot.

[CQ SAINT]

Thommo set up the TPP from the draft and did a good job developing the talent he and Bevo took.

Lyon inherited some flexible with the retirements of Gehrig, Hamill and Harvey.

He had influence up until Peake. he was clearly set on pushing out two or three flags. Dempster and Dawson were fast tracked and were winning finals and lots of home and away games. The TPP was stacked and if we didn't get a flag we were introuble.

Peake was a bigger mistake than Trout because his strength was his connection to Geelongs recruiters and we were picking off intell for agility and endurance and of course pace.

While the bloke from Essendon was the right player he was the wrong bloke.

Our recent first round picks were being picked off McEvoy was blind-sided but Lynch and Cripps both went early and their initial contracts were both losses for West Coast and Adelaide but they could afford it. They weren't ready to enter our best 22 and didn't want to wait for less money.

Peake slicked of back to Geelong and nothing profesional was done about scouting or recruiting after Bevo had clocked up 30 years and Peak and Trout refined the list and recruiting.

Peake and Lyon argued tooth and nail.

Bains set up Toce and a recruiting strategy in 2014 because Trout was clearly from a different era and the club s*** itself about all the rape charges and well documented carry on and wanted good men from good homes.qq+

The pussy footed crap continued used until the the Queensland hub and it was clear who was leading and who was not.

The work has been done behind the scenes to provide develop pathways for the AFL.

All facets of the football department now have experts in place.

more importantly, most of them have emotional attachment to the fan base.

That's why we get to reflect on how bad it was now and it is easy for me to see the worked being done in development and recruiting, but the blame for the 08 -19 period and it lies with Peake and Trout IMHO.

You need to turn great athletes into intelligent competent footballers who are coachable and great footballers into hardened athletes who lead through injury and disappointment and not drop their biundle's and behave recklessly when the are not being focussed on the game.

This is why Ross is both ruthless and generous to players like Dawson and Mc Qualter.

This is my opinion anyway.

[cwrcyn]

We got Jack Steele and Josh Bruce from GWS. We got Tom Hickey from The Suns, but mismanaged and underutilized him.

I think the key to building a premiership capable team is to have two or three consecutive drafts where you get it absolutely right, picking up at least 8 good quality players. Then it's just a matter of picking up one good player in each of the next few drafts. It gives a strong core group of similar age. From then on filling the gaps through astute trades. Having a good draft evey 5 years or so won't get it done.

[B.M]

I think when Hickey was fit he played

He didn’t play a lot at Sandy unless he was returning from injury

It’s funny
One year Hickey played and Longer was injured
The next Longer played and Hickey was injured
Then Hickey played again while Longer was injured
They rarely played together

But one was always out

To be fair - they both did ok when they played - not Marshall ok - but were serviceable

[Vortex]

Thommo set up the TPP from the draft and did a good job developing the talent he and Bevo took.

Lyon inherited some flexible with the retirements of Gehrig, Hamill and Harvey.

He had influence up until Peake. he was clearly set on pushing out two or three flags. Dempster and Dawson were fast tracked and were winning finals and lots of home and away games. The TPP was stacked and if we didn't get a flag we were introuble.

Peake was a bigger mistake than Trout because his strength was his connection to Geelongs recruiters and we were picking off intell for agility and endurance and of course pace.

While the bloke from Essendon was the right player he was the wrong bloke.

Our recent first round picks were being picked off McEvoy was blind-sided but Lynch and Cripps both went early and their initial contracts were both losses for West Coast and Adelaide but they could afford it. They weren't ready to enter our best 22 and didn't want to wait for less money.

Peake slicked of back to Geelong and nothing profesional was done about scouting or recruiting after Bevo had clocked up 30 years and Peak and Trout refined the list and recruiting.

Peake and Lyon argued tooth and nail.

Bains set up Toce and a recruiting strategy in 2014 because Trout was clearly from a different era and the club s*** itself about all the rape charges and well documented carry on and wanted good men from good homes.qq+

The pussy footed crap continued used until the the Queensland hub and it was clear who was leading and who was not.

The work has been done behind the scenes to provide develop pathways for the AFL.

All facets of the football department now have experts in place.

more importantly, most of them have emotional attachment to the fan base.

That's why we get to reflect on how bad it was now and it is easy for me to see the worked being done in development and recruiting, but the blame for the 08 -19 period and it lies with Peake and Trout IMHO.

You need to turn great athletes into intelligent competent footballers who are coachable and great footballers into hardened athletes who lead through injury and disappointment and not drop their biundle's and behave recklessly when the are not being focussed on the game.

This is why Ross is both ruthless and generous to players like Dawson and Mc Qualter.

This is my opinion anyway.

There was breathtaking instability and incompetence at the board level back then too let's not forget which would have made it impossible for even the best professionals to perform.

Westaway and Butters were rewarded with life membership last year which is just so St Kilda.

Lyon and the recruiting department will need Bassett to not only hang around for the long game, they will also need him to be a sustained engaged and proactive contributor.

Hopefully he's learnt lessons from his failings in his first 4 years and is switched onto the job at hand these days.

And hopefully that means he just hasn't abdicated totall controll to his Captain's pick.

Lethers and Lyon argue tooth N Nail too, Bassett needs to keep his eye on this relationship.