Wayne Campbell was selected with pick 29 by Richmond in the 1989 National Draft.
Campbell would go on to captain the club for four seasons, would play 297 games and win four Jack Dyer Medals throughout his distinguished career.
But it could have been a very different story if the club who had shown the most interest prior had followed up on draft day.
“A strange little story. Greg Williams was at Sydney and he was a Golden Square boy, so there was a bit of a link there,” Campbell explained to SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“Colin Kinnear, who was coaching them, made his way to Bendigo and they said they were going to take me with their first pick.”
The Swans would select ruckman Brad Tunbridge with pick 8, leaving the Tigers to take Campbell with their fourth overall selection behind Anthony Banik (1), Allister Scott (13), Nathan Bower (15) and Robert Wren (18).
The promising midfielder revealed that he waited the entire day, enduring some anxious moments, before learning where his senior career would continue.
“I had a Year 11 English exam that day and that was in the morning and the draft was at around 10am,” he added.
“I remember listening to the radio, because obviously it was not on Fox Footy, because it didn’t exist, and it wasn’t on live radio.
“They gave the top 10 on a news break at midday and then I found out on the Channel 8 Bendigo news at 6:24pm that night.
“There was five blokes from Bendigo drafted, and even though I was the first of those, they named me last. Two of my teammates from Golden Square, who were a bit older - Christian Lister and Paul McConville - got drafted to St Kilda and Fitzroy.
“I finally got the call from Richmond at 11 o’clock that night to say that I’d been drafted.
“So I found out about 12 hours post draft.”
Drafted out of Golden Square, the then-teenager opted to stay at home for one more year before making the move to Punt Road prior to the 1991 season.
As a childhood Tigers fan he was fairly chuffed with the outcome, however, his mum wasn’t quite as optimistic.
“I was drafted in ‘89 and in ‘90 was the Save Our Skins (campaign),” said Campbell, giving context to how the Tigers were travelling at the time."
“They came to Bendigo because they had a Bendigo supporters’ group to raise money to keep the club alive.
“So, if I go back to the phone call I got at 11 o’clock at night, my mum was standing there. I got off the phone and she said, ‘Who did you get drafted by?’
“I said, ‘Oh, Richmond’. And I barracked for Richmond as a youngster. And she looked really disappointed. I said, ‘Mum, it’s going to be ok, I barrack for them’. She said, ‘yeah, but they’re pretty bad’.
“I was thinking, ‘Well they can’t keep being that bad’. She was right and I was wrong, but we live to fight another day.”
Campbell did make two All-Australian teams on top of his four best and fairests, but played in just six finals over the course of his 15-year career.