Worst ever no. 1 draft pick??

[quotemokc]

Pulled together a summary to aid comparisons...

I always felt that the Riewoldt/Koschitzke combo in 2000 was the genesis of the "rebuild your team through the draft" movement. The point in which execution of these picks became one of the top few things in the game, in terms of team off-field importance. So I was going to start the summary there. But if 2000 is the genesis, then there would've been a bit of a build up, so fu** it, let's start at 1995 for shits and grins.

Obvs player rating is subjective & my bias.

Pick 1's

Year	Player	Games	LB Rating	Accolades	Status
1995	Clive Waterhouse	106	OK Player		Retired
1996	Michael Gardiner	181	Good Player	1xAA	Retired
1997	Travis Johnstone	209	Good Player		Retired
1998	Des Headland	166	OK Player		Retired
1999	Josh Fraser	218	Good Player		Retired
2000	Nick Riewoldt	336	Great Player	5xAA, 1xMVP, Skipper	Retired
2001	Luke Hodge	346	Great Player	3xAA, 2xNSM, Skipper	Retired
2002	Brendon Goddard	334	Good Player	2xAA, Skipper*	Retired
2003	Adam Cooney	250	Good Player	1xAA, 1xBM	Retired
2004	Brett Deledio	275	Good Player	2xAA	Retired
2005	Marc Murphy	290*	Good Player	1xAA, Skipper	Playing
2006	Bryce Gibbs	268	Good Player		Retired
2007	Matthew Kreuzer	189	OK Player		Retired
2008	Jack Watts	174	OK Player		Retired
2009	Tom Scully	187	OK Player		Retired
2010	David Swallow	159*	OK Player	Skipper	Playing
2011	Jonathon Patton	95	Meh Player		Retired
2012	Lachie Whitfield	150*	Good Player &	1xAA	Playing
2013	Tom Boyd	61	OK Player		Retired
2014	Paddy McCartin	35	Meh Player		Retired
2015	Jacob Weitering	98*	OK Player &		Playing
2016	Andrew McGrath	83*	Good Player &		Playing
2017	Cameron Rayner	63*	OK Player &		Playing
2018	Sam Welsh	44*	Good Player &		Playing
2019	Matt Rowell	6*	Good Player &		Playing
2020	Jamarra Ugle-Hagan	0*	? &		Playing

So quickly scanning that and we have a bit of a cohort to consider for the OP title.

Cohort for me is Patton, McCartin with Boyd as an interesting one. I don't think it's relevant to include players with upward potential, so dismissing all of those. Some may go up a level, some may not (due to injury, application or skill ceiling). But today we don't know.

The issue with Boyd is he was still developing, played so few games and early retirement was not due to physical injury. But he played one great game. And it was a very important game to be great in. So that elevates him slightly for me. Had he played on, I would've expected him to get to at least Kreuzer levels. But he didn't, so isn't. However I think that is still enough to have Patton and McCartin covered (Did either of these play a more anonymous "great" game?). Definitely not the sort of numbers you're after for a #1 pick, but IMHO definitely not "worst ever #1 pick" either.

So Patton or McCartin

Patton had injury and off field issues
McCartin had injury and medical issues.

With better telephone etiquette, Patton may have been able to carve out a Watts level career - ie a long time based upon potential without ever really delivering consistently? Maybe. Or maybe injury will have finished him sooner rather than later anyway. Who knows.

However, his mediocre (by #1 pick standards) career nearly tripled McCartin's in terms of games played, and McCartin always looked to have a lower potential ceiling (IMHO) compared to Boyd and Patton.

So he's my pick. Sorry Paddy and Saints recruiters.

Goddard is easily a great player

 

[HairyO]

Tu quoque fallacy.

Tom Boyd is a dead set bust. No grand final performance changes that.

That is ridiculous. Boyd dominated in a Grand Final. I cannot imagine a single Dogs fan saying he wasnt worth every penny.

For GWS he was a bust maybe. As is any player who leaves a club within a couple of years of being drafted.

 

[Drummond]

That is ridiculous. Boyd dominated in a Grand Final. I cannot imagine a single Dogs fan saying he wasnt worth every penny.

For GWS he was a bust maybe. As is any player who leaves a club within a couple of years of being drafted.

Outside the GF (yes I realise what that statement means) he was an absolute bust.

 

[outabounds]

Pulled together a summary to aid comparisons...

I always felt that the Riewoldt/Koschitzke combo in 2000 was the genesis of the "rebuild your team through the draft" movement. The point in which execution of these picks became one of the top few things in the game, in terms of team off-field importance. So I was going to start the summary there. But if 2000 is the genesis, then there would've been a bit of a build up, so fu** it, let's start at 1995 for shits and grins.

Obvs player rating is subjective & my bias.

Pick 1's

Year	Player	Games	LB Rating	Accolades	Status
1995	Clive Waterhouse	106	OK Player		Retired
1996	Michael Gardiner	181	Good Player	1xAA	Retired
1997	Travis Johnstone	209	Good Player		Retired
1998	Des Headland	166	OK Player		Retired
1999	Josh Fraser	218	Good Player		Retired
2000	Nick Riewoldt	336	Great Player	5xAA, 1xMVP, Skipper	Retired
2001	Luke Hodge	346	Great Player	3xAA, 2xNSM, Skipper	Retired
2002	Brendon Goddard	334	Good Player	2xAA, Skipper*	Retired
2003	Adam Cooney	250	Good Player	1xAA, 1xBM	Retired
2004	Brett Deledio	275	Good Player	2xAA	Retired
2005	Marc Murphy	290*	Good Player	1xAA, Skipper	Playing
2006	Bryce Gibbs	268	Good Player		Retired
2007	Matthew Kreuzer	189	OK Player		Retired
2008	Jack Watts	174	OK Player		Retired
2009	Tom Scully	187	OK Player		Retired
2010	David Swallow	159*	OK Player	Skipper	Playing
2011	Jonathon Patton	95	Meh Player		Retired
2012	Lachie Whitfield	150*	Good Player &	1xAA	Playing
2013	Tom Boyd	61	OK Player		Retired
2014	Paddy McCartin	35	Meh Player		Retired
2015	Jacob Weitering	98*	OK Player &		Playing
2016	Andrew McGrath	83*	Good Player &		Playing
2017	Cameron Rayner	63*	OK Player &		Playing
2018	Sam Welsh	44*	Good Player &		Playing
2019	Matt Rowell	6*	Good Player &		Playing
2020	Jamarra Ugle-Hagan	0*	? &		Playing

So quickly scanning that and we have a bit of a cohort to consider for the OP title.

Cohort for me is Patton, McCartin with Boyd as an interesting one. I don't think it's relevant to include players with upward potential, so dismissing all of those. Some may go up a level, some may not (due to injury, application or skill ceiling). But today we don't know.

The issue with Boyd is he was still developing, played so few games and early retirement was not due to physical injury. But he played one great game. And it was a very important game to be great in. So that elevates him slightly for me. Had he played on, I would've expected him to get to at least Kreuzer levels. But he didn't, so isn't. However I think that is still enough to have Patton and McCartin covered (Did either of these play a more anonymous "great" game?). Definitely not the sort of numbers you're after for a #1 pick, but IMHO definitely not "worst ever #1 pick" either.

So Patton or McCartin

Patton had injury and off field issues
McCartin had injury and medical issues.

With better telephone etiquette, Patton may have been able to carve out a Watts level career - ie a long time based upon potential without ever really delivering consistently? Maybe. Or maybe injury will have finished him sooner rather than later anyway. Who knows.

However, his mediocre (by #1 pick standards) career nearly tripled McCartin's in terms of games played, and McCartin always looked to have a lower potential ceiling (IMHO) compared to Boyd and Patton.

So he's my pick. Sorry Paddy and Saints recruiters.

A good summary but Weitering is better than OK.

 

[PT Bar None]

Goddard is easily a great player

Excellent. Feel free to rate him as such in your own list.

 

[PT Bar None]

A good summary but Weitering is better than OK.

Excellent. Feel free to rate him as such in your own list.

 

[nineteen eighty]

We drafted Stephen Hooper at #1 in 1990, he played 21 games. Was Lounder worse?

I don't like to talk disparagingly of players who have played at the highest level. It also wasn't Lounder's fault he was taken at 1. Hooper was a gun in comparison to Lounder.

But in short...YES!!!

 

[dean33]

Funnier that the player Carlton picked that year is still playing 16 years later and yet some numpty tries to claim this post as relevant.

Well when you have as many first rd draft picks as Carlton eventually some have to be serviceable. Should we go through all your terrible top 20 picks since 2005?

 

[BG32]

McCartin over Petracca. Oof.

Saints fans will still say it was the right call

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Saints fans will still say it was the right call

In theory it was, We did lose Kozi the year before and the only key forwards on the list were Riewoldt and Beau Maister.

In Reality we should have just gone **** it, Take Pertacca and then rookie list some state league player to hold down a KPF spot short term.

At least the people responsible for drafting paddy are gone.

 

[Monkey King]

Well when you have as many first rd draft picks as Carlton eventually some have to be serviceable.

Blah blah blah ... the pick that year was also the first ever time Carlton's took pick one to the draft.

Try digging up.

 

[Haduken]

has to be Patton

 

[JHF1870]

I'm more inclined to look at the top 5 and ask whether recruiters got it right

2010 - Poor draft
2011 - GWS needed balance, but Greene, D Smith could have been snapped up earlier by Brisbane
2012 (Most critical of the recruiters here) O'roarke, Plowman, Toumpas, Stringer, Macrae, Wines. I still can't get my head around Macrae and Wines dropping that low. I followed that draft closely and didn't think we were going to get either.
2013 GWS needed a forward anyway, and Boyd would have gone to Brisbane for sure. Interesting draft (Cripps, Crouch, Merrett and Fantasia) Recruiters missed those.
2014 Mccartin No, but that draft was very weak
2015 Hopper for Schacke
2016 Yes
2017 Stevenson for Dow
2018 Yes

 

[Roobs321]

McCartin. All the others looked likely types at certain times in their career. I literally can’t remember a think about McCartin other than his health issues. He was overtaken by his brother very swiftly.

 

[sabre_ac]

The same poster started a thread at the time saying our recruiters made a mistake picking Chris Judd.

To be fair I’ve been on the site for over 20 years and those particularly bad calls were made in my youth. I’m happy to admit they were wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tulip]

McCartin. Not only because of his career but Petracca was just such a gimme.

Watts is up there too, most of these guys have injuries to blame as to why we never saw the finished product. Watts had the chance and was just so underwhelming.

Watts just didn’t care. Wouldn’t go near #1 these days with the psych testing. He played his best footy behind the ball but the Dees under Neeld were insistent that this wasn’t a good enough spot for him.

 

[00Stinger]

McCheeseburgers over Petracca

Sent from my SM-G981B using Tapatalk

 

[Scotland]

To be fair I’ve been on the site for over 20 years and those particularly bad calls were made in my youth. I’m happy to admit they were wrong.

Ah 2001. What a time to be alive.

 

[Scotland]

Watts just didn’t care. Wouldn’t go near #1 these days with the psych testing. He played his best footy behind the ball but the Dees under Neeld were insistent that this wasn’t a good enough spot for him.

Watts was a bit of a nothing player in the end. Was key position size but had no physicality and ended up an OK half forward, which is not really #1 pick worthy. Then he went into defence for a bit but didn't really have a big impact. I got flamed for comparing him to Brent Staker, but that is the sort of player he was. Tall, mobile, good hands, used the ball well but floated in and out of games. You could argue Jack Gunston is a similar type of player but he has put together multiple seasons of 50+ goals and performed well in finals.

 

[gfhawthorn]

McCartin at 1 I thought wasn’t a good idea at the time because he was taking all these marks against other 18 year olds, but he was huge, how was he going to handle the AFL where the KPDs are always as big as you? Plus the diabetes affecting his training. The saints knew all this and were desperate to get a Riewoldt replacement (hard to do, he was phenomenal)

 

[Plugger35]

McCartin was a good player but he had problems like diabetes and needed injections to play which should have been a red flag.

Then you had the concussion issues which St Kilda didn't know about beforehand but became obvious as time went on.

We were looking for a key forward to replace Riewoldt so went with McCartin who was rated in the top few picks.

In hindsight Petracca may have been a better option but it's easy to be wise in hindsight.

 

[AFLOnline]

Boyd and Rayner worse than McCartin?

Cam has been serviceable and stood up in moments during the last two finals series.

Boyd delivered the Dogs a flag.

Can anybody remember a McCartin highlight? Or great performance?

Mate he played 35 games. You act like he had 150 to prove himself... cut him a little slack, his health held him back more than his ability

8 concussions in his AFL career including 3 within 10 games. Put that upon any player and see how they go.

 

[AFLOnline]

McCartin played enough to show he was a spud before retiring

Make no mistake, if he was not dating Billy Brownless daughter the media wouldn't have gone so soft on him

Sent from my SM-G981B using Tapatalk

Lol wtfff

why the **** would the media care if he’s dating brownless daughter

 

[Blackhawk42]

Mate he played 35 games. You act like he had 150 to prove himself... cut him a little slack, his health held him back more than his ability

8 concussions in his AFL career including 3 within 10 games. Put that upon any player and see how they go.

Point being that Boyd didn't play many more games but showed far more. I was only comparing the two because somebody tried to argue that Boyd was worse. His mental health can easily be classed as an injury.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Outside the GF (yes I realise what that statement means) he was an absolute bust.

And the prelim where he had to ruck solo and was huge? The fallacy is that he only performed well on the big day.