Gary Ablett jnr. (third from left) with others from Geelong’s 2001 draft class. He, Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson and James Kelly are all in our revised Top 10.
The 2001 AFL draft was called the super draft for a reason, and when you look at how stacked with talent the revised top 10 is, it becomes abundantly clear why that was the case.
Everywhere you look, there are champions of the game and all-time greats. The fact that Chris Judd can’t even take out top spot says a lot about the calibre of this crop of players. But when you realise Gary Ablett junior edges him out at the summit, Judd’s silver medal becomes quite understandable.
The players who occupy the top 10 spots in the revised order have 25 premierships, seven Brownlow Medals, 23 best-and-fairests, 34 All-Australians, six Norm Smith Medals and eight AFLPA MVPs between them. Some catalogue of honours, that.
And when you look at the calibre of the players from that year’s national and rookie drafts who couldn’t crack the top 10, some of whom are very decorated in their own right, it further illustrates just how fruitful 2001 was.
Aaron Sandilands, Nick Dal Santo, Leigh Montagna, David Hale, Matthew Boyd, Jarrad Waite, Ben Rutten, Matt Maguire, Campbell Brown, Andrew Carrazzo, Jason Gram, Nathan Bock, Brent Reilly, Paul Medhurst and Marty Mattner all missed out on making it into the revised top 10.
So how exactly do you split Ablett, Judd, Sam Mitchell, Jimmy Bartel, Luke Hodge, Dane Swan and Steve Johnson? Well it’s not easy, but we got there in the end.
As good as the last six players mentioned in that group are, and they are seriously good, Ablett takes the cake. His original pick of No.40 was incredibly inflated because he was a father-son pick, and back in those days clubs only had to give up a third-round pick to secure such players.
A guaranteed future Hall of Famer, and probably a future Legend, Ablett is simply one of the greatest players to ever pull on a boot.
The fact that people aren’t sure if his legendary dad Gary senior, who many regard as the greatest of all time, is better than him or not, speaks volumes for the sheer brilliance and genius that Gary junior displayed over 19 seasons.
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At his prime he was an absolutely unstoppable ball magnet and the driving force behind the midfields at both Geelong and Gold Coast. Even in the twilight of his career, in 2018 and 2019 when he was 34 and 35 respectively, he was a very good contributor for the Cats, after putting four injury-ravaged seasons behind him.
“The Little Master” retired at the end of 2020, falling just short of adding to his two premierships, as his Cats lost the grand final to Richmond. Ablett also has two Brownlows, five AFLPA MVPs, three AFLCA champion player of the year awards, eight All-Australians (once as captain) and six best-and-fairests. He’s also a member of the very exclusive 300-game-400-goal club, of which there are only 27 players.
Judd, too, will go down as one of the game’s greatest-ever players. The damaging, explosive, dynamic and incredibly strong midfielder was untaggable. He could do it all, both on the inside and the outside, and regularly tore rival teams apart. Opposition coaches pretty much had to hope he would just have an off day, because any tactics they tried to implement to curtail his influence would invariably be rendered ineffective.
Also a two-time Brownlow medallist, Judd gets an upgrade from pick No.3 to No.2. The West Coast and Carlton legend also finished up with a premiership (which he captained), two AFLPA MVPs, six All-Australian jumpers and five best-and-fairests.
How do you follow up the dream one-two punch of Ablett-Judd, I hear you ask? With a four-time premiership Brownlow Medallist of course! Sam Mitchell will, too, be remembered as a midfield genius and zooms up the rankings from No.36 to three.
What he lacked in pace he more than made up for with exquisitely precise skills. So talented was Mitchell that by the end of his career, the quick-thinking onballer’s “non-preferred” foot became his preferred one! The 2008 premiership captain was also a five-time best-and-fairest and three-time All-Australian.
That brings us to Mitchell’s illustrious teammate Luke Hodge who slides from No.1 to No.4. Regarded as one of the greatest on-field leaders of the modern era, the three-time premiership captain, four-time premiership player and two-time Norm Smith Medallist was the general of the Hawks’ most recent golden era. Tough as nails, a brilliant decision maker and a superb user of the footy, the three-time All-Australian and two-time best-and-fairest’s place in Hawthorn folkore is assured for generations to come.
Dane Swan gets a huge upgrade from pick No.58 to five in the star-studded revised top 10 and he is followed by fellow superstars Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson, Luke Ball, James Kelly and Brian Lake who originally went at pick No.71.
Judd, Hodge, Bartel and Ball are the only ones who retain their spots in the revised top 10 of not just the draft order of one particular year, but a catalogue of football greatness.
