Lance Franklin finished his career in 2023 as one of the greatest players of all time. Photo: WAYNE LUDBEY

This edition of Footyology’s “Redraft” series proves one thing – the 2004 AFL draft was all about the Hawthorn Football Club.

In the 38-year history of the draft, there probably hasn’t been a more pivotal or fateful draft in shaping the destiny of a football club than what 2004 did for the Hawks.

It provided them with some of the most important building blocks for their last golden era which, in many ways, was also responsible for regenerating the club into a powerhouse.

The revised order of the draft sees four Hawthorn legends occupy the top five spots – Lance “Buddy” Franklin, Jarryd Roughead, Jordan Lewis and Josh Gibson, who was originally taken by North Melbourne with the seventh pick of the rookie draft. The Hawks also picked up Clinton Young with the 18th pick of the rookie draft.

Whichever way you look at it, Hawthorn hit this draft out of the park. Roughead and Lewis featured in four flags, Gibson in three, Franklin in two and Young in one.

Franklin takes top spot easily upon revision. He is one of the greatest players of all time, is a future Hall of Famer, and is guaranteed to earn Legend status further down the track after becoming just the sixth player in league history to crack 1000 goals.

Given he achieved that incredible feat in the modern era which, on the whole, moved largely away from stay-at-home forwards and required players to be fitness freaks capable of running all day, there’s a sound argument that Franklin is in the top handful of players to grace a VFL/AFL ground.

He finished his career in fourth spot on the all-time goal tally with 1066, ahead of fellow champion forwards Doug Wade (1057) and Gary Ablett senior (1031).

There have been few players, if any, in the competition’s 128-year history quite like Franklin. Tall, athletic, skilful and quick – the key forward was a devastating force to be reckoned with for the majority of his 19-year career.

Spent his final nine years at the Swans, and came close to adding to his two flags, but instead featured in three more grand final losses to go with his 2012 heartbreak at the Hawks.

However, that doesn’t take the gloss away from Franklin’s monumental 354-game career which featured eight All-Australian gongs, four Coleman Medals, a best-and-fairest and 13 club leading goalkicker awards.

Franklin is the only player since the great Tony Lockett to boot 100 goals during the home-and-away season. When one considers how notoriously inaccurate he was capable of being (he also kicked 742 behinds), he could easily have reached four figures earlier than Round 2, 2022 had he kicked a little straighter.

Roughead stays put at No.2 on the list, and to produce the career he did after enduring so many hardships, most notably a cancer battle, is a true testament to what a champion he is.

At his absolute prime, Roughead was undoubtedly one of the most dangerous and dominant big men in the league. He started life in defence, but it quickly became apparent how effective he was not only up forward but also in the ruck.

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He retired in 2019 with 578 goals from 283 games and cracked 70 goals on three occasions – unsurprisingly, the Hawks won flags in each of those years (2008, 2013 and 2014).

On top of his four premierships, Roughead left the game with a Coleman Medal and two All-Australian jumpers, while he also led the Hawks’ goalkicking on three occasions. He captained his beloved club for two seasons as well.

Coming in at No.3 is one of the greatest small forwards the game has ever seen – Eddie Betts. The little superstar was originally selected by Carlton with pick three in the pre-season draft, which means he gets a huge upgrade of 77 picks.

The human highlight reel started out his career in impressive fashion with the Blues, but he went ballistic when he crossed over to the Crows – so much so that he had a pocket named after him at Adelaide Oval by the fans.

Few players in modern history had better goal sense than Betts, whose freakish abilities saw him boot countless miraculous goals from seemingly impossible angles, including no fewer than four Goals of the Year. The three-time All-Australian kicked 640 goals from 350 games and sits in 31st spot on the all-time goalkickers list after ending his career where it started at Carlton.

Lewis gets a slight upgrade from seven to four as one of the toughest and most damaging on-ballers of the modern era. He also earned All-Australian honours and won his club’s best-and-fairest in a premiership year (2014), one of the great honours in footy. After a stint with Melbourne, he finished his career with 319 games and an average of 24 disposals.

Gibson rounds out the top five as one of the best key defenders of the past 25 years. After 60 games at the Kangaroos, he really flourished at the Hawks. Almost every week he gave inches up to his opponent, but that didn’t stop him from routinely executing effective nullifying roles on some of the game’s best forwards.

Not only did he earn All-Australian honours in 2015, but so highly regarded was he by the Hawks that he won best-and-fairests in two premiership years (2013 and 2015).

Completing the top 10 are Bulldogs legend Dale Morris, who moves up 98 spots from pick 19 in the rookie draft to No.6, Richmond and GWS star Brett Deledio, who slides from one to seven, Collingwood premiership hero Travis Cloke, brilliant West Coast forward Mark LeCras and former Bulldogs captain Ryan Griffen.

Only five members of the original top 10 slipped out – Richard Tambling, Tom Williams, John Meesen, Jordan Russell and Chris Egan.

Special mentions should also go to a handful of other bargains who just missed out on earning a spot in the revised top 10 – Heritier Lumumba (pick 20 – rookie draft), Heath Grundy (42 – rookie draft), Nathan van Berlo (24), Matt Rosa (29) and Young.