The 2019 AFL Draft has turned out to be one of the strongest drafts of the last decade, headlined by elite midfield talent, with five players earning All-Australian selections and four players being key pieces in premiership sides.
It's clear now that several teams got their selection wrong, but they didn't have the hindsight that we have today, six years later.
So here is a re-draft of the top 15 of the 2019 AFL Draft, factoring in their career to date, team success, personal awards, and also their future potential.
For context, this was the original order of the top 15 picks in the 2019 AFL Draft
- Matt Rowell (Gold Coast)
- Noah Anderson (Gold Coast)
- Luke Jackson (Melbourne)
- Lachlan Ash (GWS)
- Dylan Stephens (Sydney)
- Fischer McAsey (Adelaide)
- Hayden Young (Fremantle)
- Caleb Serong (Fremantle)
- Liam Henry (Fremantle)
- Tom Green (GWS)
- Sam Flanders (Gold Coast)
- Kysaiah Pickett (Melbourne)
- Will Day (Hawthorn)
- Miles Bergman (Port Adelaide)
- Cody Weightman (Western Bulldogs)
7Adelaide select: Will Day (+6)
Adelaide's biggest issue today is their lack of midfield talent, but it wasn't as big an issue at the time; they elected to add more talent to their backline, but that unfortunately didn't pan out.
It's hard to see at the time that they would be lacking midfield talent six years in the future, but Will Day would address that issue today; he and Jordan Dawson would be one of the best midfield pairings in the league.
Being from Adelaide, Day just makes perfect sense for the Crows right now, but he has had his injury concerns, dealing with back issues across the last two seasons. It looked like he was about to take another leap last season before his latest injury.
This is hilarious. Matt Rowell won a Brownlow and you have dropped him down below Serong.