Brownlow Medalist Jimmy Bartel takes us back to when his name was called out at number eight in the 2001 national draft.

Luckily for Bartel his nerves were partly settled come draft day, after receiving a house visit from Geelong’s recruiting and list manager hours before the big day.   

“The night before the draft Stephen Wells came over to my house and said ‘with our first pick we’ll take you’, so that sort of eased a lot of the pressure,” Bartel told Cats TV.

However, the excitement and hype of the draft still meant Bartel had a restless night's sleep and by the time the day arrived he was exhausted, so much so that he didn’t even hear his name being called out.

“I actually went up to the draft - it was one of the very few times where it wasn’t televised or on radio. So Mick Turner the General Manager of the Falcons drove myself and Luke Hodge up, because we all knew that Luke Hodge was going to be the number one pick,” Bartel said.

“The only problem was I was pretty tired from the night before after being a bit nervous about it all.”

“After they called Luke Hodge's name at pick one they just belted through the first 10 and I actually missed my name even being called out, so I looked up on the board and there was already 20 picks there. I had to scroll through it and I found I was lucky enough to be pick eight for the Cats.”

Geelong drafted eight players that year, including:
James Kelly
Charlie Gardiner
Steve Johnson
Gary Ablett jr
Henry Playfair
Matthew McCarthy
David Johnson