Aaron Cadman had his name written into the history books when GWS called out his name with pick 1 of the 2022 National Draft.
On Monday night he became GWS’ fourth no.1 selection since the club’s time in the AFL. Cadman had been favoured to head to the Giants in the weeks after the club traded up the draft order to take pick one, which was originally North Melbourne's.
Cadman fills a need for the Giants, who have endured a Jeremy Cameron-sized hole in their forward line since his departure to Geelong at the end of 2020.
The 18-year-old year forward has spent time being mentored by Cameron and is also said to be of strong character and a lesser flight risk for the club.
But ex-AFL recruiter Matt Rendell says the Giants didn’t need to trade up to secure Cadman.
AFL Media’s draft guru Cal Twomey had Cadman as the fifth-best player in the draft, while Rendell also believes North Melbourne didn’t have the Greater Western Victorian Rebel as their top selection.
“They’re desperate for a key forward, he’s clearly the best key forward in it,” Rendell said on Sportsday ahead of the draft, with the Giants already strongly favoured to take Cadman.
“They’ve got a welter of picks, so they don’t really care too much.
“Effectively, they didn’t need to trade (pick) three to one. It's cost them a first rounder (this) year… they didn’t need to do it because North wasn’t picking Cadman. They didn’t have Cadman in the first three.
“They wanted to make sure they got their player, and if they didn’t have so many picks, they probably wouldn’t have done it, they would have backed in that North wasn’t going to take him.
“North ended up with a first round pick they wouldn’t have normally got.”
GWS accrued a strong draft hand after trading out Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper but in order to gain pick one, traded out picks 3, 12 and a 2023 second rounder tied to Collingwood in the four-way mega trade that also saw Jason Horne-Francis land at Port Adelaide.
Meanwhile, GWS refused to reveal their draft plans up until the first pick, telling SEN Breakfast as late as last Friday that plans still weren’t finalised.
But Rendell dismissed that commentary, stating GWS knew exactly who they were taking when going for the first pick.
“The AFL does not want anyone to know who’s taken pick 1,” he added.
The second round and subsequent picks of the 2022 National Draft will be selected on Tuesday night from 7:30pm.