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.
Western Bulldogs
Chris Grant (pick 105)
As far as late draft Hail Mary's go, Chris Grant has perhaps proven the best of the lot. Taken at pick 105, he starred for the Bulldogs for over a decade.
A dominant Centre-Half Forward who oozed class and skill, Grant's work for the Doggies in the late 90's propelled them to within a kick of their first Grand Final since the 50's.
A three time All-Australian and dual B&F winner, Grant was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2012 and polled the most Brownlow votes in 1997, sadly being ineligible to win the award. Truly one of the greatest late picks of all time.
Honourable mentions: Daniel Cross (Pick 56), Brian Lake (pick 71), Matthew Boyd (Rookie selection), Dale Morris (Rookie selection), Easton Wood (Pick 43)
