IN THE lead-up to the 1996 National Draft, Saints recruiter John Beveridge was convinced he was set to unearth a gem in an enthusiastic tall defender from the northern states.

With Port Adelaide set to join the AFL, clubs were compensated for losing players to the Power by way of the first round draft picks.

The Saints had finished the season in 10th position, which normally would have handed them the seventh overall pick. But the new club and the compensation picks meant they had to wait until selection 15 to enter the draft.

Still, Beveridge was confident he would be able to select 20-year-old Max Hudghton who had shown plenty of promise in the QAFL after moving from Melbourne to Brisbane in his teens.

“(Former Saint) Danny Craven was coaching him at West Brisbane and I went up to watch him two or three times. They won the Grand Final and Max was playing at Centre Half Back and showed his pace,” Beveridge told saints.com.au.

“I’d spoken to him a couple of times and then lo and behold he was invited to the draft camp. We hadn’t put his name on the list so I said to him we wouldn’t speak to him at the draft camp.”

Beveridge suspected that another club was keen on securing Hudghton and started to fear that he might not be available at pick 15.

It soon emerged that Essendon had been in deep discussions with Hudghton and was well placed in the draft when the defections of Gavin Wanganeen and Scott Cummings to the Power brought them two of the first five picks.

“Essendon had invited him down and they had picks two, five and 19 while we had pick 15,” Beveridge said.

“I didn’t speak to him for a month or more so he thought we’d lost interest and at that stage he had become a bit beholden to the Bombers.”

Essendon went on to use its first two picks on midfielders Chris Heffernan and Daniel McAlister, allowing Hudghton to slide through to St Kilda where he played in a Grand Final in his first year.

Hudghton went on to play 234 games and established himself as one of the AFL’s best key defenders.

“He ended up getting to us at pick 15. They also went on to draft Andrew Bomford. We had an idea they were interested in him so I’d rung him the night before the draft and said we had an interest in him.”

It was A-grade detective work from Beveridge who says that level of deliberate deception and feigned disinterest isn’t as common in the modern day.

“Nowadays I reckon everybody interviews everybody so this cloak and dagger stuff doesn’t happen so much anymore.”