Former AFL recruiter Matt Rendell has lifted the lid on why St Kilda may have opted to pass on Christian Petracca with pick one in the 2014 National Draft, suggesting every other club had the Melbourne gun midfielder as the top player in that year’s draft pool.
The Saints opted to pass on Petracca in favour of taking forward Paddy McCartin, who departed the club at the end of 2019 after a bad run of concussions.
Rendell, who was working at Collingwood in 2014, said internally McCartin was rated around pick eight, insisting that everyone else he spoke to at club-land had Petracca as the best player in the draft.
“My information is the coach of St Kilda (at the time in Alan Richardson) might have strongly influenced the recruitment manager Tony Elshaug to take Paddy McCartin at pick one,” he said on AFL Trade Radio’s The Late Trade.
“17 other clubs in the competition had (Christian) Petracca as a clear number one in that draft, so he accidently fell to Melbourne.
“The irony is St Kilda’s coach at the time in Alan Richardson is now the football manager of Melbourne.
“At Collingwood we had him at about pick eight, he was a fantastic mark and a great kick, but he was going to be a stay-at-home full forward. We just thought there were 25 players in the league who can play on a 193-centimetre full forward.
“We were still happy to take him in the draft, but not at (pick one).”
Petracca was named this year’ Norm Smith medallist after his 39-disposal and two-goal game in Melbourne’s 74-point win over Western Bulldogs in the Grand Final.