Noel Judkins is renowned as one of the VFL/AFL’s great talent scouts.
Across a career spanning more than 30 years, Judkins worked as a recruiter for both Essendon and Collingwood where he played key roles in forming the base for premiership sides.
His eye for talent is well known and Judkins even uncovered the likes of James Hird who Essendon took at pick 79.
Judkins worked for the Bombers throughout the 80s and 90s and eventually moved to the Magpies where he uncovered another Brownlow Medallist with a late pick, Dane Swan.
Swan was picked up by the Magpies with pick No. 58 in the 2001 Draft but would go on to do it all in black and white.
Judkins was the only recruiter to pay Swan and his family a visit during his draft year and the ex-recruiter believes it was his style of play that scared off other clubs.
“If you can play, but you play ugly, it doesn’t matter, and he played ugly,” Judkins told This Is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.
“I’m pretty sure he got dropped by the Calder Cannons during the year … there was talk that he was a bit lazy, and he didn’t know if he wanted to do it or not.
“But he had good hands, he was quick … I’d been watching him, and he was a kid who knew exactly where the ball was going before it went there. He knew how to take the ball off a pack before it got to eye level, you don’t see that very often … Swanny was doing it at pace.
“I’m pretty sure we were the only people who spoke to him because he had unfashionable traits.
“We got him in at pick 58, he took a while to get going and he got ‘matey’ with the ‘Rat pack’ (laughs).
“He got mates with Benny Johnson, who tried his heart out and trained his heart out and he said to Swanny, ‘Listen, if you train with me, you’ll make it’.
“He went from there and he was unbelievable.”
Swan would go on to play 258 brilliant games for Collingwood and is considered a club legend.
Judkins still works for Essendon in a part-time scouting role where he helps the club identify the best young talent in the nation.
Listen to his full chat with Sam Edmund below.