DRAFT night panned exactly as Dayle Garlett hoped it would.

 

And expected it to.

 

Garlett wanted to come to Victoria and expected to be drafted by Hawthorn with the club's second pick and that's how it transpired.

 

The Hawks took Dandenong Stingrays speedster Billy Hartung with their first selection and then with pick no.38, they grabbed Garlett.

 

It was a great selection for player and club. Garlett barracks for the Hawks and proudly posted Instagram pictures of himself displaying his Hawthorn fandom in the lead-up to the Grand Final.

 

He heads to Hawthorn in a far better place than this time a year ago when the Hawks were considering calling his name on draft night, but like 17 other clubs, were scared away by a party lifestyle that was threatening to derail his career before it had even started.

 

He was an under-18 All Australian in 2012 after a great championships series with Western Australia and was a likely top-10 pick, but his rap sheet was long - full of late nights, boozy nights, and missed appointments with key recruiters.

 

Essendon threw him a lifeline after last year's national draft, and brought him across to train with the chance of being picked up in the rookie draft if he performed well and did the right things.

 

One 4am night out with his mates killed all that.

 

"It was a big kick in the guts," said Zach Green, the welfare manager for Indigenous Sports Management, which has been working with Garlett this year.

 

"But he knew what he needed to do. He needed the right support network around him and that's what we gave him."

 

He ditched his old mates, moved in with his girlfriend, got himself fit and as Green noted, "he changed himself."

 

Garlett went back to the WAFL, played for Swan Districts, kicked 45 goals and averaged more than 20 possessions a game as a small forward. He polled 24 Sandover Medal votes, the most of any Swans player.

 

On the other side of the country, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was taking note and would message Garlett every Sunday to see how he was doing.

 

"That was a big confidence booster for Dayle," said Green. "What other kids wouldn't take confidence from something like that?"

 

Garlett is walking into a football club whose welfare and development program is arguably the strongest in the AFL. And he won't be alone.

 

Green will be moving to Victoria with him, not to supplant what he will take on board at Hawthorn, but to be there at the times when there is no football.

 

"I have promised his family that I will help with the transition. Hawthorn has a great system but I'll be there for him outside football, when he needs someone to talk to and to be with."

 

For Hawthorn, there is only upside in drafting Garlett. The club that traded out of the first round to secure St Kilda's Ben McEvoy got itself a player that even the clubs that ran away from him at a million miles an hour, freely admit is a first-round talent.

 

Fresh off a flag and with a deep playing list, Hawthorn could afford to roll the dice on Garlett.

 

In Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell and Jarryd Roughead, he can surround himself with great leaders as he learns the AFL system. The two-week training camp in South Africa next month will be the perfect induction for player and club.

 

And it is not as if the Hawks haven't already punted and succeeded on a brilliant, but flaky talent from Western Australia. Lance Franklin might now be gone from the club, but the lessons learned from drafting and nurturing him won't have been forgotten.

 

The fans' verdict