Part Two

When the pre-draft trading period began in November, the Bulldogs got busy, swapping Ben Sexton, who had never quite grasped his chances at full-back and full-forward, for James Cook, who had lived in Steven Kernahan's shadow at Carlton. Recruiting another full-forward seemed a strange move but Cook had already expressed interest in trying centre half-forward or centre half-back, and there was no guarantees that Jakovich would be drafted.

The Bulldogs, however, were doing their best to ensure that he would. On-baller Kym Koster had returned to Adelaide and wanted to be traded to the Crows. Footscray suspected that it would not get Jakovich with its 13th pick. Adelaide had the ninth pick, maybe just good enough.
Footscray did not want to lose the talented Koster, but with Jakovich in mind the deal was done.

Having addressed its goalkicking problems, the Bulldogs next priority was defence. Already it had decided that Grant would be tried at centre half-back in the pre-season. But the Bulldogs wanted options.

The 13th pick was traded to Fremantle for Hugh Reimers, an athletic South Australian who had been listed by Fremantle the previous season and Brad Wira, a rover from Claremont. But Reimers was untried. So when O'Sullivan took another call, this time from lawyer Stephen Peak, Manager and business partner of former Bulldog full-back Tony Campbell, he again showed interest.

Campbell the would be entrepreneur who helped pioneer gloves in Australian football, had left the Bulldogs in 1993 to try his luck as a punter with an American football team.

This year he had injured his achilles tendon playing for Perth and at 28 was a forgotten man. After two years out of of the AFL, Footscray needed to be convinced of Campbell's fitness. Again the club ran physical tests. Like Jakovich, Campbell passed.

According to O'Sullivan, the Bulldogs meeting on the Thursday afternoon the day before the draft was a tense affair. Footscray's priority had been decided - Jakovich - but would he be there for them to take?
Of the teams ahead of them in the order, the Bulldogs were fairly certain Hawthorn, West Coast, Fremantle and Sydney would not take Jakovich, but had no idea what Fitzroy or StKilda would do.

"If someone took Jakovich, we had plan B" said O'Sullivan. "That was to sit there stony faced show no emotion and get on with it"
Plan B was never enacted. When his turn finally came, Kleiman called Jakovich's name, to the surprise of some including it seemed, the Collingwood contingent that had the next pick, and who fell into an immediate huddle.
Brisbane might have also been thrown by the Bulldogs choice. Footscray had been correct in assuming it would not have got Jakovich with its original 13th selection.

With the rest of their picks they stuck to their plan to draft ready-mades. After short debate they took 22yo former Collingwood draftee Todd Curley ahead of a robust 17yo Luke Godden, eventually picked by the Magpies. With their 3rd they went for Mark West, a 22yo on-baller from Cairns via South Australia.
As planned, Campbell was the 4th and final selection. Given the shortage of experienced key defenders the Bulldogs were unwilling to risk having Campbell train with them all summer and be drafted by someone else in February.

While Jakovich was to be the subject of the most post-draft speculation, Campbell was another big gamble. The Bulldogs were unfazed by the inevitable criticism about their choice of older players.

If they were uncertain before, by Saturday morning, the Bulldogs were well aware of the impact of Jakovich would have at the Whitten Oval. Already their new full-forward had appeared on the front and back pages of Melbourne's two daily newspapers. Maybe the Bulldogs hope that Jakovich would keep a low profile was optimistic, but when they called his name they knew they were not drafting a shrinking violet.

"We needed firepower, we needed someone who was going to to ignite a bit of passion, someone to get the terraces jumping a bit - just someone who would make a difference" said O'Sullivan. "Allen Jakovich has all those qualities wrapped up in one"

Now it remains to be seen if he can still kick goals.

(GVG's notes)

There is a picture of a white board that listed all the names for each selection

9 - A.Jakovich, C.Groom, D.Healy, B.Williams, L.Godden
29 - T.Curley, N.Credlin, A.Lamb, N.Carter, L.Trew
43 - M.West, K.Fraser, A.Thompson, B.Cassidy
51 - T.Campbell

We would have selected Chris Groom if Jakovich wasn't still available.