With Richmond having the No. 1 pick in the upcoming AFL national draft, we are taking a look at the three players previously taken by the Tigers as the top draft selections. We complete this special three-part series today focusing on star utility Brett Deledio, the 2004 No. 1 draft pick, in a Herald Sun feature article by Rebecca Williams.
Brett Deledio got the phone call from the Tigers the night before.
Like most draft hopefuls, he had been reading the papers for weeks, seeing where all the experts thought he would go.
He’d had interviews with Richmond, Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs, but wasn’t sure if he would go pick one, two or three.
But Deledio’s pre-draft nerves were eased when he was told he would be “going No.1”.
Better still, he thought he’d end up at Punt Rd with his good mate from the Vic Country rep team, Jarryd Roughead.
“The Tigers had rung me the night before and I thought a good friend of mine, Jarryd Roughead, was going (to go) pick two (for Richmond at No. 4 overall),” Deledio said.
“We spoke on the phone the night before and said ‘How good is this? We’ll sit together, with training it will be so good’. We had known each other for quite a few years and played in the rep sides together.
“And then pick two comes around and Hawthorn selected Jarryd Roughead and wrecked all of our plans.
“But it was a massive relief to have that call the night before and be told that you were going No. 1 . . . I was very relieved at the end of it and rapt to be a Tiger.”
A handshake from the “old man” – who had the young Deledio in the car at 6.30am for the drive from Kyabram to Melbourne for the draft – and a kiss from mum sealed the deal.
Deledio’s opening engagement as the No.1 draft pick was a visit to Punt Rd – and his first impressions of his new teammates were ingrained.
“We went to the club first and the boys were doing a rehab session,” Deledio said.
“I saw a few guys there and I was impressed and thought ‘Geez, I can’t wait to try and look like those boys’.”
Iconic, muscle-bound training images of Deledio wrestling with battle ropes later in his career attest that he did.
But the biggest shock for the kid from country Victoria was still to come.
“Then we went around to (then Richmond president) Clinton Casey’s house,” Deledio said.
“And, oh my goodness, was that an eye opener for a country kid going around to Shakespeare Grove in Hawthorn and seeing a $20m house. That was a real eye-opener.”
Deledio’s first training session with his new teammates was equally eye-opening.
“My first session was out at the Box Hill running track and I remember just watching the boys get flogged doing their boxing sessions,” Deledio said.
“I didn’t get a taste of that until my second week I don’t reckon and then I paired up with Troy Simmonds and I remember him picking me up and throwing me out of the ring.
“I was like ‘Jeepers, I’ve got a fair way to go here’. I’m 80kg wringing wet and he’s a big ruckman at 105kg.”
Deledio stayed with Mark Coughlan when he first arrived in Melbourne and he “fed off” the older players as much as he could.
But even though he was the top pick in the draft, he soon learned his place in the pecking order.
“Wayne Campbell and I shared a room in my first away game and I was in the room with him and stood up to make sure my towel was drying and he said ‘While you’re up mate, I suppose you can make me a coffee’,” Deledio said.
“I said ‘Ah, good one Wayne’. He goes ‘Nah, seriously, white with one, thank you’. I went ‘Righto, that’s how it goes. OK, righto, I know my place. I’ve got to earn my stripes’.
“But he’s someone who I call a close mate now, so I obviously earned his respect.”
Deledio said at the time he had set himself the goal of playing 10 games in his first season but played 22.
He said having other players – like fellow top draftee Richard Tambling – make their debut had helped take the spotlight off him as the No. 1 pick.
“We were a couple of young guys playing in our first season together and it was really good to share that, that made it a bit easier,” Deledio said.
“If I had been one-out by myself you probably feel it a bit more. But having other guys to share the spotlight with and having other guys make their debut regularly throughout the year took a lot of pressure off myself.”
Deledio was rewarded for an excellent debut season in 2005 with the AFL’s Rising Star award.
Initially, Deledio was used in the Richmond line-up through the midfield and up forward, before subsequently establishing himself as one of the competition’s elite rebounding defenders.
He shone across half-back, generating substantial drive for the team through his damaging run-and-carry.
Back-to-back Jack Dyer Medals in 2008-09 were just reward for Deledio’s first-rate work across half-back.
He followed that up with a third placing in the Best and Fairest count the following season (2010) and was runner-up in 2011.
Along the way, Deledio became the youngest player in Richmond’s history to reach the 150-game milestone, and he accomplished the feat quicker than any other Tiger as well.
In 2012, Deledio made an excellent return to the midfield, winning All-Australian selection for the first time, after being named three times previously in the extended squad for AA selection, and again finishing runner-up in the Jack Dyer Medal.
Deledio was appointed Richmond’s vice-captain at the end of 2012, with Trent Cotchin taking over as skipper.
He produced some outstanding performances throughout the 2013 season, although probably not quite as consistent as in previous years, to finish fourth in the Jack Dyer Medal.
The now valuable Tiger veteran entered unchartered territory in 2014.
After playing 197 of a possible 201 games since making his AFL debut in Round 1, 2005 and being regarded as the most durable performer in the competition, Deledio was stricken with a nagging Achilles injury early in the season.
He missed four games and then, when he returned, was still restricted in his movements.
To Deledio’s great credit, however, he managed to work his way through the injury problem and go on to play top-class football for the Tigers during the second half of season 2014.
And it was another change of on-field role that was to be the catalyst for Deledio’s fine form.
Deledio used his extensive range of football skills and vast experience to full advantage for the team as a permanent half-forward.
From Round 12 onwards, Deledio averaged just under 26 disposals, 9.4 contested possessions, and he kicked 17 goals – many of them team-lifting ones at crucial times for the Tigers, as they boldly charged towards the finals.
The boost that Deledio provided the forward line, due to his blistering pace, aerial ability, ball-winning prowess and football ‘smarts’, was a significant part of Richmond’s resurrection, with the team winning the last nine games of the home-and-away season to sensationally clinch a place in the final eight.
Deledio was hampered by injury at the start of the following season, but he ended up having one of the best years of his time at Tigerland, kicking 27 goals, averaging 21.6 disposals per game, gaining All-Australian selection for the second time, and finishing third in the Jack Dyer Medal.
In season 2016, a quad injury initially, followed later on by a calf problem, restricted Deledio to just 11 games, however he remained a productive member of the Richmond line-up when fit to play, averaging 23.1 disposals per match.
At the end of that year, Deledio was traded to Greater Western Sydney, having provided the Tigers with top-class value over the course of 243 games in a dozen seasons.
Brett Deledio Richmond playing profile
Draft history: No. 1 pick in the 2004 AFL national draft
Recruited from: Kyabram/Murray Bushrangers
Height: 189cm
Weight: 89kg
Guernsey number: No. 3
AFL debut: Round 1, 2005 v Geelong, MCG
Games (2005-16): 243
Goals: 182
Playing honours: 2005 AFL Rising Star winner; dual Jack Dyer Medallist 2008, 2009; two-time All Australian 2012, 2015; Club life member
