One of the great exercises when talking footy is to debate your club's best draft steals. Sure, high draft picks are great, but everyone knows it's much easier to hit a winner with a top 10 selection than it is with a pick in the 50's. Or in the Rookie Draft for that matter.
So we've decided to put together something for you to refer to next time the debate springs up over a couple of beers.
For the purposes of this exercise, anyone drafted before pick 40 is ineligible and we've decided to keep it in the AFL era. This is by no means a complete list, every year tosses up several gems and sadly, we can't include them all.
So without further distraction, here are our biggest draft steals for every club in the competition.
West Coast
Dean Cox (Rookie selection)
The Eagles have found some incredible bargains across the years, notably in the rookie draft. Dean Cox stands above all both literally and figuratively.
Widely considered the best ruckman of the modern era, if not of all time, Cox proved to be invaluable to the Eagles across his career. A dominant tap ruckman who's work at the contests was only bettered by his work around the ground.
During his career, West Coast essentially had an extra midfielder, with Cox's engine allowing him to collect possessions at will. A 290 game star who won an astonishing six All-Australian selections, Cox was also a premiership player and club B&F winner.
Honourable mentions: Dean Kemp (Pick 119), Andrew Embley (pick 57), Matt Priddis (Rookie selection), Jeremy McGovern (Rookie selection)
