Champion spearhead Barry Hall and games record-holder Brent Harvey. A tough call for the No.2 slot in our 1995 “Redraft”.

Footyology has been performing “Redrafts” for many years now and there have been few sterner tests provided to us than with the talent-laden 1995 AFL national draft.

In the end, only one member of the original top 10 held his spot in the revised top 10, but we can cut the recruiters some slack on this occasion because it features three pre-draft picks.

The most accomplished of those picks, Ben Cousins, claimed the No.1 spot.

Cousins was taken by the Eagles as a father-son selection and back then, clubs didn’t give up picks in the draft proper to secure such players. What an inspired choice it was, too, from an on-field perspective.

The 2005 Brownlow medallist has had well-documented off-field troubles for many years, but purely as a player, he was almost peerless.

At the height of his powers, Cousins was arguably the best midfielder in the AFL, with his exquisite skills, his explosive speed and his impeccable decision-making placing him firmly in the elite bracket.

In addition to his Brownlow, he also claimed an AFLPA MVP, six All-Australians, four best-and-fairests and the 1996 Rising Star.

But most importantly, he was part of the Eagles’ 2006 premiership side and formed one quarter of one of the greatest midfields the VFL/AFL has ever seen, which also featured Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr and Dean Cox.

He also captained the Eagles for five years. Only John Worsfold, Darren Glass and Shannon Hurn have skippered the club for longer.

Despite the sad ending to his career, which finished at Richmond, and the ongoing issues he has endured in the ensuing years, Cousins is unquestionably in the conversation as West Coast’s greatest ever player, along with the likes of Judd, Peter Matera and Dean Kemp.

Top spot in the 1995 Redraft may have been easy to decide, but it got a lot trickier when attempting to determine picks two and three.

It was a real toss-up between champion full-forward Barry Hall and VFL/AFL games record holder Brent Harvey, but in the end Harvey narrowly edged out Hall.

Like Cousins, Harvey was one of the best midfielders of the modern era.

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His durability was unbelievable, as evidenced not only by his record 432 games played across 21 seasons, but also the fact that he could have easily played for an extra year or two had his ambitions not flown in the face of North Melbourne’s focus on rebuilding. In his final season, at the age of 38, Harvey still averaged 22 touches a game and kicked 36 goals!

But perhaps most impressively, he defied his slight frame of 177 centimetres and 75 kilograms to be a dominant force in the AFL for many years with his blistering pace and at-times cheeky skills (he was never shy when it came to taking a running bounce or selling some candy) sustaining him for two decades.

He knew where the goals were too, finishing up with 518 career majors and joining the great Kevin Bartlett as the only two players in the very exclusive “400-500” club.

“Boomer” ended his career with a premiership, four All-Australians, five best-and-fairests and membership in the North Melbourne Team of the Century – not bad for a pick 47.

The reason why it was such a tough decision to put Hall at No.3 was because he was one of the best forwards of his era.

The fiery spearhead ended up becoming the first player in history to kick 100 goals with three different clubs (St Kilda, Sydney and the Bulldogs).

An integral part of the Swans’ successful years under Paul Roos, Hall captained them to their drought-breaking premiership in 2005 and also finished his career with an AFL Coaches Association champion player of the year award, four All-Australians, a best-and-fairest and membership in the Australian football Hall of Fame.

Coming in at No.4 is dual Adelaide premiership superstar and five-time All-Australian Simon Goodwin, who gets a sizeable upgrade of 91 spots after being selected with pick 18 in the pre-season draft.

Dual premiership Geelong defender Darren Milburn rounds out the top five, and he too was a bargain who was selected by the Cats at pick 48, just behind Harvey.

The rest of the top 10 features star Brisbane forward Daniel Bradshaw, brilliant Collingwood utility James Clement (originally taken as a zone selection by Fremantle), Cousins’ premiership teammate Daniel Chick (Hawthorn), dual All-Australian Richmond backman Joel Bowden and former Port Adelaide captain Matthew Primus (Fitzroy), who was the only original member of the 1995 top 10 to retain his status.

But there are a stack of commendations that need to be handed out, such was the quality of the 1995 draft.

West Coast premiership star David Wirrpanda, Sydney premiership midfielder Jared Crouch, Goodwin’s fellow two-time premiership Crow Kane Johnson, Collingwood pair Paul Licuria and Simon Prestigiacomo, three-club full-forward Scott Welsh, Geelong goalsneak Ronnie Burns and Crouch’s flag-winning teammate Ben Mathews can all consider themselves unlucky to miss out on the revised top 10.

*Redrafts only consider the first time a player was drafted.