This was published 7 years ago
Superdraft podcast, episode 4: The Geelong dynasty
By Emma Quayle
Steve Johnson was convinced he would become a Hawthorn player ahead of the 2001 draft, 15 years ago.
While a number of clubs had interviewed the Murray Bushrangers forward, only the Hawks had assured Johnson they would choose him if he was available at a certain spot in the draft.
Premiership Cats: Johnson celebrates the 2007 flag with Jimmy Bartel.Credit: Vince Caligiuri
But before they could nab him with the No.32 pick used to draft Campbell Brown, the Cats called his name with pick 24.
Johnson joined Geelong with Jimmy Bartel (pick 8), James Kelly (pick 17) and father-son selection Gary Ablett (pick 40) as well as Charlie Gardiner, Matthew McCarthy and David Johnson.
The group arrived two years after recruiting manager Stephen Wells used four of his seven picks in the 1999 draft on Joel Corey, Paul Chapman, Cameron Ling and Corey Enright.
Those eight players were key contributors to the team that broke Geelong's 44-year premiership drought in the 1997 grand final, before winning two more flags in 2009 and 2011.
In the final episode of Superdraft 2001 – a four-part podcast series revisiting arguably the best AFL draft ever – Bartel and Johnson discuss what it was like to grow up together at the Cats.
The pair reminisce about how close and competitive the group was, and how spending so much time together as young players helped prepare them for the success they went on to have.
Bartel, speaking before his decision last month to retire, talks about how strange it was to be left behind as Ablett, Johnson, Kelly and other long-standing teammates moved to other clubs.
And Johnson recalls Cats coach Mark Thompson driving to Wangaratta to interview him, but feeling certain on draft day that he was headed for the Hawks.
"I didn't think it was going to be Geelong, even though I knew they were interested," he said.
"I thought it might have been Hawthorn, they seemed to be the one team that sort of guaranteed me I'd be getting drafted out of the whole lot.
"I remember (them) saying to me, we'll look at you at 16 and it will probably be pick 20 that we take you, but if we don't take you at 20 I can pretty much sign on a piece of paper that we'll take you at 32.
"Then the home phone rang and it was a lady from Geelong saying, we've just drafted you to the Cats."
The 2001 draft is arguably the best ever; it produced five club captains, seven Brownlow medallists, six Norm Smith Medal winners, eight MVP awards and multiple All Australians.
The careers of Luke Hodge, Chris Judd, Luke Ball, Sam Mitchell, Dane Swan, Nick Dal Santo, Leigh Montagna, James Kelly, Brian Lake, Adam Schneider and others all began that day.
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