PORT ADELAIDE holds a great hand at the 2018 AFL National Draft with three first round picks.
After a strong trade period, the Power will go into the draft with picks 5,10 and 15 – holding three picks in the first round for just the third time.
In advance of the draft, portadelaidefc.com.au has taken a look at some of the best players to be taken with picks 5, 10 and 15 over the years.
Today we start with pick 5.
Pick 5
Port Adelaide supporters would be particularly familiar with three of the players we included on our list of best number five picks, with Adam Heuskes (1993), Jared Polec (2010) and current skipper Travis Boak (2006) each having played for the club. Boak was the only one taken by the Power directly with pick five with Heuskes and Polec each starting their AFL careers elsewhere before landing at Alberton.
Sydney’s 2012 premiership captain Jarrad McVeigh was taken at pick 5 in 2002. He is a two-time club best and fairest and has played 319 games, booting 200 goals.
Another pick five who rates a mention is fellow Swan Lance Franklin. The 2004 pick 5 is one of the most dynamic forwards ever seen in the competition. With 290 games and 917 goals, the two-time premiership player with Hawthorn is also a four-time Coleman medallist and an eight-time All-Australian.
It’s also hard to go past Collingwood’s 2005 pick 5, Scott Pendlebury. The current club captain was part of the 2010 premiership team and took out the Norm Smith Medal in the Grand Final replay. A five-time club best and fairest, he has played 277 games for 166 goals.
Pick 5 over the years
1993 Adam Heuskes from Norwood to Sydney Swans
1997 Luke Power from Oakleigh U18 to Brisbane
2002 Jarrad McVeigh from NSW-ACT U18 to Sydney
2004 Lance Franklin from Perth to Hawthorn
2005 Scott Pendlebury from Gippsland U18 to Collingwood
2006 Travis Boak from Geelong U18 to Port Adelaide
2008 Michael Hurley from Northern U18 to Essendon
2010 Jared Polec from WWT to Brisbane
2012 Jake Stringer from Bendigo U18 to Western Bulldogs
2014 Jordan De Goey from Oakleigh U18 to Collingwood
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