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There is every chance members of the Port Adelaide brains trust at the 2012 AFL National Draft didn’t take a lot of immediate notice of pick 8. Not after the club had landed Ollie Wines with pick 7.

They knew full well Wines was a fantastic pick-up, and could not have been more pleased to grab the blockbusting Bendigo bull after expansion club GWS had dominated the early picks for the second year in a row.

Six years on, the Port recruiting team have been proven absolutely right after Wines has confirmed his standing as the early dux of the AFL Class of 2012.

Now widely regarded as captain in waiting, he has played more AFL games than any other 2012 draftee after being first of this group to 25, 50, 75 and 100 games, and has polled most Brownlow Medal votes among them.

But the player who was taken immediately after Wines at #8, who might have been lost in the immediate euphoria, was another good pick. Like Wines, he is one of nine 100-game draftees from 2012. And he is now Wines’ teammate at Alberton.

Sam Mayes is a Port Pirie-born product of North Adelaide who was traded to Port this week after six years and 104 games with the Brisbane Lions.

Although contracted to the Lions for 2019 the 188cm 24-year-old utility player has headed home for family reasons and a fresh start to a career which after a bright beginning has plateaued over the past 12 months.

Thank you to the @brisbanelions for the past 6 years and to my team mates, coaches and the fans over the years! I’m really excited to start a new chapter with the @PAFC #weareportadelaide pic.twitter.com/aUSLKf7prc

— Sam Mayes (@sammayes7) October 17, 2018

Mayes played 95 of a possible 110 games for the Lions from 2013-17 and three times finished top 10 in the best & fairest. He was equal 10^th in his first season, 10^th in his second season and fifth as recently in 2017, when he was beaten only by Dayne Zorko, Dayne Beams, 2017 Port recruit Tom Rockliff and Stefan Martin.

In June 2016, when set to fall out of contract at the end of that season, he signed an extension that bound him to Brisbane until the end of 2019.

After playing forward in his early years and kicking some handy goals, he moved back and following the retirement of Dan Merrett and the forced retirement of Justin Clarke he had taken on a leadership role in a young Brisbane defensive group.

He was lauded for his loyalty to the club after the so-called ‘Go Home Five’ episode in which Elliot Yeo, Sam Docherty, Jared Polec, Billy Longer and Patrick Karnezis, all drafted inside the top 30, quit the club at the end of 2013.

Interestingly, among the Class of 2012, Mayes ranked third for AFL games at the end of 2017 with 95, behind only Wines (107) and the Bulldogs’ Jack Macrae (99).

But he played only six games in 2018, and only two after the first four rounds.

Wearing jumper number 32 at the Lions that was best known for the exploits of 2011 Norm Smith Medallist Shaun Hart, who spent three years on Ken Hinkley’s coaching staff from 2014, Mayes played 21 games under Fagan in 2017.

He was dropped in Round 5 when scheduled to play his 100^th game and had to wait until Round 12 to reach his milestone. Then, after a Round 13 bye, he was dropped again following Round 14 and never played again.

So, he will arrive at Alberton eighth on the games list of 2012 draftees:

 If Hinkley is looking for a strong advocate of the strong Mayes character he needs only to go outside his office and walk a few metres to see his senior assistant coach Michael Voss.

Mayes began his AFL career at the Lions under Voss, who was always a big fan.

Mayes and Wines were part of a 2012 Draft that has proved to be very much hit and miss.

For each 100 gamer in the top 25 picks there were almost as many who didn’t make it.

Like pick #2 Jono O’Rourke, recently de-listed after 21 games with GWS and Hawthorn, and pick #4 Jimmy Toumpas, who was released this year by Port after 37 games at Melbourne and the Power.

Kristian Jaksch, pick #12 to GWS, played 14 games. Troy Menzel, pick #11 to Carlton, played 44 games. Josh Simpson, pick #17 to Fremantle, played two games, and Spencer White, pick #25 to St.Kilda, played two games.

But there were never any questions over Mayes’ draft credentials. At 17 he was chosen at centre half forward in a 2011 All-Australian U18 side alongside Chad Wingard and fellow South Australians Alex Forster, Ben Kennedy and Mitch Grigg.

Twelve months later he was again a standout for South Australia at the national carnival and was considered an unlucky omission from the corresponding 2012 side which included Wines in the centre and six South Australian teammates – Port draftee Sam Colquhoun, Toumpas, second-timer Kennedy, Matt Scharenberg, Heath Grundy and Matt McDonough.

Used more in the midfield as a top-ager at the U18 carnival, he also broke into the North Adelaide SANFL side in 2012.

Rob Kerr, Lions National Talent Manager at the time, said: “He's a very clever player, spreads well, reads the game very well. We hope he can be one of those players who can play forward and mid."

In his best season in 2017 Mayes had 440 possessions at 21.0 possessions per game to rank fifth at the Lions behind only Zorko, Beams, Rockliff and Daniel Rich, including a career-best 29 against Fremantle in Round 12.

And while he will be looking for a fresh start, he will be pleased that at least now he will not have to play against Port Adelaide – in seven meetings he is 0-7. He’s also 0-6 at Adelaide Oval after going 0-1 at Football Park.

His first home win in Power colours will be a milestone in itself.

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