The unfortunate fact of being the first name read out on draft night is that you will forever be linked to the spot you were picked. You are supposed to be the best player, the most likely to succeed, the absolute ironclad safe pick, and when that fails to be the case, there is often an outcry. What the general footy public fails to factor in, of course, is that drafting is a lottery, and that was especially so in its early days. Additionally, we are looking back, and hindsight is always 20/20. Nonetheless, the following have the dubious distinction of being perhaps the most disappointing choices at the top of the draft.

#3 Travis Johnstone (Melbourne) – Pick 1, 1997 AFL Draft.

184cm 83kg, 209 games (135 goals)

How, you may ask, does a best and fairest-winning 200 gamer who came fourth in 2002 Brownlow Medal make it into a list of disappointments? Ask any Melbourne supporter what frustrated them the most about him and they will tell you the same thing; failure to be what he could have been.

A player of breathtaking poise and sublime skill, Johnstone was the AFL’s equivalent of that kid you went to school with who could do anything on the field or in the classroom, was adored by all and seemingly destined for the most rarefied level of stardom, but ended up in middle management at KFC head office. It is worth noting that his Best and Fairest win in 2005 was one of only two times he finished in the top 10 of the voting. Johnstone seemed to float through games, doing either not much or the simply impossible, but never consistently taking games by the scruff of the neck like the truly great players do, before being traded to the Lions ahead of the 2008 season.

An immensely popular player amongst the Melbourne faithful, his prodigious talent, and his failure to fully realise it puts him here.

#2 (tied ) Stephen Hooper (Geelong) – Pick 1, 1990 VFL Draft.

198cm 98kg, 21 games (0 goals)

When naming a number one pick, the last thing one would expect to hear is “Who?”, and yet here we are. Debuting in Round 2 of the 1991 season Hooper would only play 20 more games, and none at all in 1992, before being delisted at the end of 1993. A sad end for the first number pick of the AFL era.

#2 (tied) John Hutton (Brisbane) – Pick 1, 1991 AFL Draft.

185cm 86kg, 36 games (79 goals)

A burly mature aged full forward from Claremont, it was not that Hutton was a poor footballer, he kicked eight goals in a game twice in his debut season for the Bears, and three times overall, but questions have to be asked when a 25 year-old fresh off a 100-goal season in the WAFL is moved on by his abject club after only one season, and picked up by the only team to finish lower than them that year and then delisted by them as well after one year.

Hutton revived his career with a fledgling Fremantle in 1995, but after kicking 27 goals in 13 games in their inaugural season, the Dockers chose to jettison Hutton as well. Perhaps his lack of height was a hindrance at the top level, but his goalkicking numbers simply do not favour that proposition. Why he did not work out, who knows? But for the first pick in the draft, he has to go down as a miss.

#1 Richard Lounder (Richmond) – Pick 1, 1987 VFL Draft.

203cm 116kg, four games (five goals)

A literal giant of a man, Lounder was (pun intended) ‘The Next Big Thing’ when he arrived at Punt Road from Central District in the SANFL.

It took him until Round 5, 1989 to be picked for the seniors, but he picked a belter of a game to debut in. Lounder started with a bang, kicking four goals from his first four kicks as the Tigers triumphed over North Melbourne, 26.15 (171) to 20.14 (134), in a free flowing game in front of 19,691 people on a Sunday at the MCG. Sadly, he never reached even these heights again, failing to overly trouble the statisticians again as Richmond won the wooden spoon, before returning to Adelaide at the end of the season citing homesickness.

It is fair to say that support structures for new draftees were not as advanced in those days, and notwithstanding his footy commitments, Lounder also worked forty hours a week as a motor trimmer, as he told Tim Lane for the Age in 2003, before ultimately retiring from top flight football in 1991 at only 24.