AFL Talent Ambassador Kevin Sheehan has named former Swan Brett Kirk as the best ever rookie selection.
Kirk played 241 games at Sydney and co-captained the side between 2005-2010, also winning a premiership in that time.
Despite being one of the club’s greatest of all time, Sheehan revealed how the tough midfielder almost didn’t get to the Swans.
“My best ever rookie, I reckon it’s Brett Kirk,” he told SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“What a ripper he was with the Sydney Swans.
“Every club had a chance at Brett Kirk, I remember a year later chatting to him, he was down at our combine being tested, in those days the endurance test was the beep test.
“He said to me, ‘I did a 14.7, I was in the best half a dozen and not one club spoke to me, I went home shattered.’”
Kirk was often regarded for his resolve and toughness as a midfielder, and Sheehan believes if clubs had talked to the youngster at the time they would have been compelled to pick him.
“That changed the game a bit, from then on in we made sure that every club that nominated someone to come had to talk to the players they nominated, so no one ever got no interviews,” Sheehan said.
“If they had have interviewed him, they would have learned a bit about the makeup of the individual, not just his endurance but the steely resolve about this guy, and that’s so important in identifying talent.
“But back then in the late 1990’s it didn’t occur, he went home without a friend basically.
“He was then taken at pick 40 or so in the rookie draft, the back end, by the Sydney Swans.”
AFL greats Dean Cox, Matt Priddis and Nick Maxwell are just a selection of others who have been picked up through the rookie draft.
However, Kirk’s form in the Swans’ 2005 premiership year gives him the nod as the best of the group.
“The thing that makes it for me is he’s a best and fairest winner in a premiership year, coming in as a rookie, that’s value isn’t it,” Sheehan continued.
“Only 4 per cent of rookies will play 200 games, he played 240, dual premiership player and a dual Bob Skilton medallist as well, what a star he was.”
Kirk is still at the Swans in an off-field role involved with high performance and development.