Adelaide’s pick No.9 will be third-highest selection the Club has taken into a National Draft.
The Crows currently hold picks 9 and 13 for this year’s National Draft at the Adelaide Convention Centre. While these picks could change on draft night under the new points bidding system, the Crows will still have the 9th and 13th selections in the main Draft pool.
Adelaide has never previously held pick No.9 at a National Draft. It will be the Club’s highest draft selection in over a decade and just the third occasion that the Crows have used a single-digit draft pick.
Martin Pike is the most successful player drafted No.9 in terms of premiership wins.
The South Australian utility was initially picked up by Melbourne in 1992 but was traded to Fitzroy where he won the club’s final best and fairest in 1996. Following Fitzroy’s merger with the Brisbane Bears, Pike was re-drafted by North Melbourne and played in the club’s 1999 premiership. He then won three consecutive flags with the Brisbane Lions between 2001-2003.
Chad Cornes was another South Australian premiership player picked at No.9 back in 1997.
The son of Crows inaugural coach Graham, Cornes featured in Port Adelaide’s only premiership triumph in 2004 and played 255 games with the Power and GWS Giants over 14 seasons. He was a two-time All Australian and also won a Showdown Medal in Round 21, 2006.
Essendon’s Mark McVeigh was drafted the year after Cornes with pick No.9.
The former Bombers vice-captain played 232 games and kicked over 100 goals for the club. McVeigh was also part of Essendon’s 2001 Grand Final side, retiring from the sport in 2012 due to ongoing injury concerns.
Current Crows Board member Andrew Payze was the first-ever No.9 at the AFL’s inaugural National Draft in 1986.
Payze was picked up by Essendon, but made his way to West Lakes when Adelaide entered the competition in 1991. Payze played 14 games in two seasons wearing the tri-colours.
Pick No.9 has also yielded some of the competition’s current stars.
North Melbourne midfielder Jack Ziebell made his AFL debut in his first year at Arden Street after being snapped up by the Kangaroos with pick No.9 in 2008. The tough ball-winner has played 124 games with North Melbourne and is tipped to be a potential future captain of the club.
St Kilda left-footer David Armitage is of a similar ilk to Ziebell and was another product of pick No.9 in 2006. The Queenslander has played 128 AFL games in nine seasons and finished runner-up in St Kilda’s 2015 best and fairest count.
Two-time Hawthorn premiership ruckman Ben McEvoy was initially drafted by the Saints at pick No.9 in 2007 before switching clubs in the 2013 Trade Period. He’s notched 123 games in eight years at senior level.
Gold Coast ball-magnet Dion Prestia (2010), current Cat Mitch Clark (2005), and Tigers midfielder Nick Vlastuin (2012) are other No.9s currently in the AFL system.
Father/son selection Darcy Moore was secured by Collingwood with the pick in last year’s National Draft.
