St Kilda champion Lenmy Hayes during a Norm Smith Medal-winning performance in the 2010 grand final. Photo: AFL MEDIA
In today’s instalment of Footyology’s “Redraft” series, we go back almost a quarter of a century to put the 1998 draft under the microscope.
And to say the revised top 10 is stacked with talent would be an understatement, especially at the pointy end.
The burning question in this edition is how do you separate Lenny Hayes, Jude Bolton, Brendan Fevola and Brett Kirk? The answer? With much difficulty.
In the end the legendary Saint Hayes got the nod as the new No.1 pick from 1998 upon revision.
Hayes was one of the toughest, most skilful, damaging and relentless midfielders of his generation, and came to embody and personify everything St Kilda.
He bled red, white and black, and would end up one of his club’s greatest players by the time his magnificent 297-game career came to an end in 2014.
A key component of one of St Kilda’s strongest eras, which involved three unsuccessful grand finals across 2009 and 2010, Hayes is the Saints’ only Norm Smith Medal winner.
He finished up with three All-Australians and three best-and-fairests too, before being inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2020.
Coming in just behind Hayes in the revised order is champion Sydney workhorse Jude Bolton who, likes Hayes, goes down as one of the finest players in his club’s history.
He might not have done things pretty, but Bolton was precisely the kind of player every footballer would have loved to go out into battle with.
Uncompromising, resolute, determined and with an insatiable appetite for the contest, Bolton was a coach’s dream, as he powered his way to 325 career games. Only Adam Goodes (372) has played more games for the Swans.
And like Goodes, Bolton is one of just five men in Sydney/South Melbourne history to be a dual premiership player for the club, along with Vic Belcher, Ryan O’Keefe and Lewis Roberts-Thomson.
Rounding out the top three is the flawed genius that is Fevola, who was originally picked up by Carlton with pick 38.
The lovable larrikin was his own worst enemy at times, and in many respects got in his own way of forging one of the great careers.
Capable of the downright spectacular, Fevola was one of the most electrifying forwards in the league for the best part of a decade and routinely lit up the Blues’ forward line.
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The fact that he finished his career at just 29 up in Brisbane with 623 career goals to his name from 204 games illustrates how much greater he could have potentially been. It’s not an understatement to say he might have left another 250 goals on the table.
And while he could never quite crack 10 goals in a game, he did dob eight on eight occasions, and also kicked nine against Richmond in 2009.
He also famously finished agonisingly short of kicking a ton in 2008, in the same game Lance Franklin broke triple figures, but then-Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson played the role of party pooper, and ensured Fevola would be denied the magical milestone by flooding the Hawks’ backline.
The big “Fev” was a two-time Coleman Medal winner, and earned three All-Australian jumpers.
Coming in at No.4 is inspirational Sydney captain Brett Kirk, who receives a massive upgrade of 143 spots after being originally taken at pick 40 in the rookie draft.
He formed one part of a premiership quintet from that draft for the Swans, who also recruited Nic Fosdike with pick No.3, Jude Bolton at eight and eventually acquired Craig Bolton and Nick Davis four years later – not bad going!
Craig Bolton, a dual All-Australian defender for the Swans, originally taken at pick 33 by Brisbane, rounds out the Redraft’s top five.
Another Norm Smith medallist, and premiership midfielder, in West Coast’s Andrew Embley gets a 51-spot promotion from pick 57 to six, triple premiership Cat David Wojcinski comes in at seven, while Port Adelaide and Fremantle hard nut Josh Carr slides from seven to eight.
Davis goes up from 19 to nine and high-flying Adelaide forward Brett Burton grabs the final top-10 spot.
It turned out to be another soul-searching performance from recruiters with just two survivors from the original top 10 retaining their spots in the Redraft’s top bracket – Jude Bolton and Carr.
Apologies go out to Fosdike, star North Melbourne midfielder Brady Rawlings, sturdy Fremantle defender Antoni Grover, Embley’s premiership teammate Tyson Stenglein, reliable defender Heath Scotland and Essendon on-baller/forward Mark McVeigh who were unlucky to be overlooked for the revised top 10.
*Redrafts only consider the first time a player was drafted.
