The AFL Draft is one of the most important events in the AFL calendar.
Discussions surrounding a draft prospect can start right from their days as a junior, lasting until their eventual selection. With that comes plenty of pressure, and we've seen many players taken with a high draft pick that have not had the projected careers we may have pegged them to have.
That being said, a re-draft allows us to look at some of the higher picks that have had stellar careers, while also allowing us to delve lower down the draft order and find the players that have gone above and beyond what their draft selection would suggest.
Here are the original 23 picks that made up the first round in 2012:
- Lachie Whitfield (GWS)
- Jonathan O'Rourke (GWS)
- Lachie Plowman (GWS)
- Jimmy Toumpas (Melbourne)
- Jake Stringer (Western Bulldogs)
- Jack Macrae (Western Bulldogs)
- Ollie Wines (Port Adelaide)
- Sam Mayes (Brisbane)
- Nick Vlastuin (Richmond)
- Joe Daniher (Essendon)
- Troy Menzel (Carlton)
- Kristian Jaksch (GWS)
- Jesse Lonergan (Gold Coast)
- Aidan Corr (GWS)
- Taylor Garner (North Melbourne)
- Jackson Thurlow (Geelong)
- Josh Simpson (Fremantle)
- Brodie Grundy (Collingwood)
- Ben Kennedy (Collingwood)
- Tim Broomhead (Collingwood)
- Nathan Hrovat (Western Bulldogs)
- Dean Towers (Sydney)
- Marco Paparone (Brisbane)
With the power of hindsight at hand, here's the first round of the 2012 AFL Draft re-selected.
1. GWS: Jack Macrae (Originally: Pick 6, Western Bulldogs)
It's hard to top a Brownlow winner but Jack Macrae has been taken with the first pick and is headed to the Giants.
His resume is far greater than any other player in this draft, the only thing he's missing is a Brownlow. A premiership player in 2016, three-time All-Australian from 2019-2021, a Gary Ayres medallist in 2021 and the second most Brownlow votes in the 2012 draft, only behind winner Ollie Wines.
Macrae has been one of the most dominant ball winners in the AFL for the better part of a decade. Alongside Wines and Viney, we can only imagine a Giants midfield that included these three along with all the talent they already have.
