Dermott Brereton has revealed he was part of one of the ultimate sliding doors moments audacious bid that attempted to lure Chris Judd to the Hawthorn Football Club.
However, it would have come at the cost of either Jarryd Roughead or Lance Franklin.
Brereton was a director on the club’s board between 1998 and 2005 following a distinguished playing career at the club where he won five premierships and played 189 games.
Speaking on SEN’s Crunch Time, Brereton disclosed that he asked the question of getting Judd to the Eagles back in 2004.
“When I was on the board at Hawthorn… I went to the West Coast Eagles and said, ‘we are going to get two picks in the top five or six, would you like one to swap for Chris Judd’,” Brereton divulged.
“And they said, ‘no’. We got a bloke called Jarryd Roughead and another one called Lance Franklin.”
Brereton added with a laugh: “That worked out alright, but Chris Judd was pretty good!”
Judd was coming off just his third season at the top level after being drafted with pick 3 in 2001. He claimed the Eagles’ best and fairest that year while also earning All-Australian honours for the first time.
However, considering he also won the Brownlow Medal by a runaway seven votes in 2004, perhaps its unsurprising Brereton’s offer was knocked back.
Roughead played 283 games for Hawthorn and finished with 578 goals after being taken with pick 3 in 2004, while Franklin kicked 580 majors from his 182 games in the brown and gold before requesting a trade north.
Both are undoubtedly all-time greats of Hawthorn, as is Judd of the Eagles and Carlton.
When Judd did depart West Coast in 2007, he left with pick 46, while Carlton was forced to give up Josh Kennedy, pick 3 and pick 20.