Geelong’s Joel Selwood, one of the toughest, most courageous and inspirational players in VFL/AFL history. Photo: AFL MEDIA

A common theme in the Footyology Redraft series over the years has been teams setting themselves up for future glory with the raiding of elite talent in any given year.

And when it comes to the 2006 edition, multiple clubs, rather than just one, were able to put themselves on course for success, in varying forms, through shrewd recruiting.

The first club to reap the rewards from its 2006 bounty was Geelong, and the Cats didn’t have to wait very long for premiership cups to start arriving at Kardinia Park.

Geelong finished up with two players in the top three of the revised 2006 draft, with Joel Selwood taking out top spot, and Tom Hawkins coming in at No.3.

Incredibly, due to a serious knee injury at underage level, Selwood spooked recruiters and found himself sliding down to pick seven 15 years ago. And what a bungle that proved to be on the part of Carlton, Essendon, North Melbourne, Brisbane, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, who had the first six picks. Although the Power can probably be forgiven considering they selected Travis Boak.

Not only has Selwood never shown ill-effects of that knee injury, proving to be one of the most durable players of his generation, missing just 27 games in 15 years, but he has legitimate claims to be regarded as the Cats’ greatest ever player.

The 33-year-old is the club’s games record holder with 334, and is also the Cats’ longest-serving captain, having led his team out into battle on 224 occasions. In fact, he only needs three more games to surpass Carlton legend Stephen Kernahan’s all-time record of 226 games as skipper.

One of the toughest, most courageous and inspirational players in VFL/AFL history, Selwood, unsurprisingly, is also one of Geelong’s most decorated, with three premierships, six All-Australian jumpers (three as captain), three best-and-fairests, four AFLPA Most Courageous Player Awards and a Rising Star trophy to his credit.

The phrase “hit the ground running” has never been more apt for a player like Selwood. In his first year, he was part of the Cats’ drought-breaking 2007 premiership, and had “future leader” written all over him. After partaking in another two flags in 2009 and 2011, and boasting an outrageous 98-16 win-loss record as a player in his first five years, Selwood fulfilled his destiny and ascended to the Geelong captaincy in 2012.

Hawkins was also a generational player for the Cats, who were fortunate to be able to recruit him with a father-son pick at 41 in an era when rival clubs were unable to bid on such draftees.

While he missed out on the 2007 premiership, he developed rapidly thereafter to feature in the Cats’ next two flags, including a crucial performance in the 2011 grand final against Collingwood.

It proved to be a career-defining game, because the “Tomahawk” proceeded to become one of the league’s most consistent performers up forward over the next decade, earning himself four All-Australians, a best-and-fairest and a Coleman Medal.

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Not only does Hawkins now sit in third spot on Geelong’s all-time goalkicking list behind the great Gary Ablett senior and Doug Wade, with a sensational career accuracy rate of 64.2 per cent, but he’s also ranked fifth for games, and is due to overtake Jimmy Bartel next year in fourth spot.

Richmond was another club that enjoyed wild success courtesy of the 2006 draft, but it had to endure a much bigger lag effect than the Cats did before establishing its dynasty.

The Tigers have three members of their triple treat of premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020 featuring in the 2006 revised top 10 – Jack Riewoldt, Shane Edwards and Bachar Houli, who was originally drafted by Essendon (Shaun Grigg would also become a Richmond premiership player after being snapped up by Carlton with pick 19).

Riewoldt edged Hawkins for second spot in what was a tight call. Not only is Riewoldt third all-time at the Tigers for goals with 715, but he has a spot in the VFL/AFL top 15 in his sights next year, requiring a further 32 majors.

He’s also in third spot at Punt Road for games played (305), behind only the legendary Kevin Bartlett and Jack Dyer, and needs just seven more games to overtake Dyer.

What a recruit Riewoldt has been for the Tigers. A driving force behind their recent premiership run, he also has three All-Australian nods, three Coleman Medals and two best-and-fairests to his credit.

One of the most electrifying, talented and accurate forwards of the modern era (going at a career rate of 62.9 per cent), Riewoldt has been metronomically consistent for Richmond over a very long period of time.

And while Port Adelaide hasn’t been quite able to break through for a premiership since 2006, it certainly collected a few players in that year which helped the Power go deep into finals on more than one occasion, in Robbie Gray, who gets a promotion of 50 spots from pick 55 to five, Boak and Justin Westhoff, who also feature in the revised top 10.

The other member of the 2006 Redraft’s top five is Sydney champion Josh Kennedy, who was originally taken as a father-son selection by the Hawks at pick 40, but due to lack of opportunities joined the Swans, where he has forged a magnificent career in the midfield.

Star North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein is the final piece of the revised top 10’s puzzle, coming in at No.8, which is 29 spots higher than his original spot of 37.

And even though Collingwood didn’t have any players feature in the revised top 10, it too can look back on 2006 as a significant year as the Pies drafted Ben Reid, Nathan Brown, Tyson Goldsack and Chris Dawes, who would all form part of the Magpies’ 2010 premiership team.

Other players who just missed out on membership in the 2006 revised top 10 were Hawthorn premiership backman James Frawley, original No.1 pick Bryce Gibbs, two-time flag-winning Hawk Matt Suckling, Adelaide and Sydney big man Kurt Tippett, as well as premiership defenders Will Schofield and Nick Smith.

Selwood and Boak were the only two players to retain their status as top-10 players.

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