Lance Franklin has been a devastating force to be reckoned with for most of his 15-year career. 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 33-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 recent golden era which, in many ways, were also responsible for regenerating the club into the powerhouse that it remains is to this day.
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’s already one of the greatest players of all time, is a future Hall of Famer, and would be in serious contention for official Legend status further down the track.
There have been few players, if any, in the 123 seasons of the VFL/AFL quite like Franklin. Tall, athletic, skilful and quick – the 32-year-old has been a devastating force to be reckoned with for the majority of his 15-year career.
Now at the Swans, he has come close to adding to his two flags, but instead featured in another couple of grand final losses to go with his 2012 heartbreak at the Hawks.
But that doesn’t take the gloss away from Franklin’s monumental career which, according to his lucrative contract, still has at least three seasons left in it.
To date, Franklin has eight All-Australian gongs, four Coleman Medals, a best-and-fairest and 11 club leading goalkicker awards to his credit.
With 944 goals, he sits seventh on the all-time list, and is on track to become just the sixth player in history to crack the magical 1000 mark, a remarkable feat given the last 20 years have seen the game shift away from traditional stay-at-home forwards.
Franklin is the only player since the great Tony Lockett to boot 100 goals during the home-and-away season. When you consider how notoriously inaccurate he is capable of being (he’s also kicked 677 behinds), it’s amazing to think how quickly he might have reached four figures 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.
He finished his career this year 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. Incredibly, after fighting back from his most recent cancer scare, Roughead 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 the competition have better goal sense than Betts, whose freakish abilities have seen him boot countless miraculous goals from seemingly impossible angles, including no fewer than four Goals of the Year. The three-time All-Australian has 600 goals to his credit from 316 games and could enter the all-time top 30 goalkickers in his homecoming season with 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 modern era. 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.
