Every Hawthorn first draft selection ranked

The Hawthorn #1 draft pick power list 💪

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From Clayton Lamb to Denver Grainger-Barrass, every first pick taken by the Hawks at the national draft has been cause for intrigue and excitement. But how have they gone?

As we head into the 2021 AFL Draft with arguably our best draft hand in years, Ashley Browne has put together the definitive Hawthorn #1 Draft Pick Power List.

Did he get it right?

Let us know through the usual channels what you think.

Note: ‘for Hawthorn’ after their games total means they subsequently played for another AFL club.

1. LUKE HODGE

Pick one, 2001

305 games for Hawthorn, four premierships (three as captain), 2008 & 2014 Norm Smith Medals

A future legend of the club and quite possibly, the game. Superstar. Should never have played anywhere else. Toss-up between Hodge and Nick Riewoldt for the best No.1 pick ever.

2. SHANE CRAWFORD

Pick 13, 1991

305 games, one premiership, 1999 Brownlow Medal

Running machine, and for too long the club’s one and only champion player. No Hawk was more deserving of a premiership medal.

3. JARRYD ROUGHEAD

Pick two, 2004

283 games, four premierships, 2013 Coleman Medal

Was never the best player at the club when he played, but for culture and ‘playing your role’ there was none better. Would head this list with the career he had if he played for several other clubs.

4. CYRIL RIOLI

Pick 12, 2007

198 games, four premierships, 2015 Norm Smith Medal

The most fun Hawthorn player to watch since … ever. A magician with the ball, brutal without and yet to be adequately replaced. Hawk fans have been truly blessed to have three names ahead of him here.

5. ISAAC SMITH

Pick 19, 2010

210 games for Hawthorn, three premierships

One of the most astute first draft picks made by the club. His run and carry was just what the club needed at the time and so suited to the vast MCG. His goal in the 2013 Grand Final is one of the most important in Hawk history.

6. TRENT CROAD

Pick 3, 1997

188 games for Hawthorn, one premiership

What a career over two stints in brown and gold. Could comfortably play at both ends of the ground but settled in as a key defender when he returned from Freo and like Crawford, a really deserving premiership player.

7. DANIEL HARFORD

Pick 8, 1994

162 games for Hawthorn

The first non-premiership player to feature on this list, he was a terrific midfielder through the dark days of the late 1990s, who had the misfortune to start getting injured just as the team came good under Peter Schwab.

8.     BRADLEY HILL

Pick 33, 2011

95 games for Hawthorn, three premierships

Struggled initially, but his gut-running and ability to hit up leading forward became a critical component of Hawthorn’s three-peat teams. Such great drafting for need to land Smith and Hill in consecutive years.

9.     BEN ALLAN

Pick 14, 1989

98 games for Hawthorn, one premiership

One of the best Hawks to come from Western Australia, he was best and fairest in the 1991 premiership year. One of a number of younger players who freshened up the team that year. Should have played his entire career with the club.

10.  RYAN SCHOENMAKERS

Pick 16, 2008

121 games, one premiership

Probably suffered over his career because the coaches refused to let him settle in one part of the ground. Forward? Back? Who knows? Was a deserving premiership player in 2015, nonetheless.

11.  XAVIER ELLIS

Pick three, 2005

86 games, one premiership

In the end, was let down by his body, but he could seriously play. Quick and a good ball user. One of the best players in the 2008 Grand Final.

12.  JAMES WORPEL

Pick 45, 2017

68 games

It’s all still unfolding for Worpel but winning the Peter Crimmins Medal in his second year was pretty special. Not sure many pick 45’s have done that at any club. Sneaky feeling Sam Mitchell will extract some magic this year and he might rocket up this chart.

13.  LUKE McCABE

Pick 15, 1993

138 games

The South Australian was a loyal and dependable foot soldier through the Ken Judge and Peter Schwab eras, but probably underachieved a bit. Took a hellish bump from David Neitz in 2002.

14.  TIM O’BRIEN

Pick 28, 2012

97 games

A bit like Schoenmakers, his career at Hawthorn suffered because of the need to fill holes at both ends of the ground. Could be electric at his best, but it was all too infrequent.

15.  JONATHAN ROBRAN

Pick 11, 1992

75 games for Hawthorn

This was bizarre. Hawthorn received a pick from Adelaide in exchange for Matthew Robran and then used it to select his younger brother. Given Matthew’s abrupt departure after one season, I often wondered whether they picked Jonathan out of spite.

16.  WILL DAY

Pick 13, 2019

16 games

Is clearly going to be a better player than many of those already listed and will rocket up this chart as soon as he plays close to a full season at the level he has already displayed. Shapes as a future captain.

17.  DANIEL HOWE

Pick 31, 2014

87 matches

Howe has been a bit of a slow-burn for the Hawks, utilised as both an inside and outside midfielder, lockdown midfielder and sweeping half-back. It is hard to pigeonhole him after all this time, but he did play some nice footy towards the end of last season.

18.  NICK RIES

Pick 21, 2000

81 matches

Midfielder who looked the goods at the start, but whose form appeared to plateau once he reached about 50 or so games. Wad adequate at most aspects of his game, but no real x-factor.

19.  BRENDAN KRUMMEL

Pick 5, 1995

64 games for Hawthorn

Fared better at Hawthorn than he did at West Coast and Fremantle before that, but still a head scratching pick. Took Greg Williams to the cleaners one night at Waverley, but best remembered for that sickening shirtfront from Byron Pickett.

20.  RYAN BURTON

Pick 19, 2015

47 games for Hawthorn

Should have won the Rising Star Award in 2017, after which the Hawks plastered his likeness on a billboard near Glenferrie Oval. Yet 12 months later the half-back was traded home to Port Adelaide in exchange for The Chad. Puzzling move then and now.

21.  HARRY MORRISON

Pick 74, 2016

57 games

That’s a reasonable return for a player taken that late in the draft. He’s been an honest midfielder, but if the Hawks are to start their climb back up the ladder, Morrison should be a depth player for the next year or two.

22.  BILLY HARTUNG

Pick 24, 2013

63 games for Hawthorn

Would bring Hawk fans to their feet with his darting runs through the middle of the MCG, only to butcher the ball time and time again. Not surprisingly, the club ran out of patience. Awfully stiff not to be a premiership player in 2015.

23.  ALEX McDONALD

Pick 1, 1988

46 games for Hawthorn

Given that the Hawks traded out premiership player Peter Russo and the hard-won Paul Harding to the Saints to get the pick, it is fair to say that McDonald, now a leading player manager, never lived up to expectations. Played mainly as a half-forward.

24.  JACOB KOSCHITZKE

Pick 52, 2018

20 games

Didn’t play a senior game until his third season after some bright spark at the club declared him a better key forward than defender. Will leapfrog plenty here if he can back up in 2022.

25.  MICHAEL COLLICA

Pick 20, 1998

30 games for Hawthorn

A Ken Judge special, he was a nondescript half-back who returned home to West Coast (following Judge in the process) where had more success.

26.  MATTHEW YOUNG

Pick 30, 1990

21 games for Hawthorn

A wingman who never got much of a look in at the Hawks, but who was a fine player thereafter for St Kilda, the club who traded the pick to Hawthorn in the first place in exchange for Russell Morris.

27.  LUKE BRENNAN

Pick 8, 2002

19 games for Hawthorn

Never really got his body right and struggled at the level from the get-go.

28.  LUKE MCPHARLIN

Pick 10, 1999

12 games for Hawthorn

Left for home just as he was coming good, but the club might not have secured Sam Mitchell if not for that trade with Fremantle, so all’s well that ends well. The Hawks did well to spot him in the first place.

29.  DENVER GRAINGER-BARRAS

Pick six, 2020

Five games

Only rated this low because of how few games he played in his debut season. But he has the makings of a 10-year key defender for the Hawks and might end up as one of the club’s finest ever early draft selections.

30.  HARRY MILLER

Pick 25, 2003

18 games

Hawk fans wanted to fall in love with Miller, an Indigenous small forward with all the tools. He kicked a goal in a practice match at Princes Park one day that had those watching a bit excited. But the magic came when Cyril came along a few years later.

31.  SAM GRIMLEY

Pick 39, 2009

Three games for Hawthorn

An athletic tall from a basketball background, he was a project player who never really made it. Was a popular figure around the club.

32.  NATHAN TURVEY

Pick 29, 1996

10 games

Midfielder from Western Australia during the Ken Judge era, whose career highlight was getting two touches in the famous comeback game against St Kilda in 1999.

33.  MITCH THORP

Pick six, 2006

Two games

Probably the greatest draft bust in club history. Injuries and attitude did him in. The next player picked in that draft was Joel Selwood. Ouch.

34.  GRANT WILLIAMS

Pick 12, 1987

Zero games for Hawthorn

The good news for Grant is that he played four AFL games. The bad news was that they were all for Melbourne in 1992.

35.  CLAYTON LAMB

Pick 13, 1986

Zero games

Hawthorn’s first ever draft pick. That’s it.

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Ashley Browne is a Hawks Insiders contributor, the author of A Season Like No Other: AFL 2020, and a senior writer at the AFL Record and SEN. Follow him on Twitter @hashbrowne.

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