Young skipper, Joel Selwood, remembers the feeling he had when he was drafted to Geelong in the 2006 national draft.

After finishing exams, Selwood visited Perth with a few schoolmates before flying back home on the eve of the draft to be with family and friends.

His two brothers Troy and Adam, who were already playing AFL football for Brisbane and West Coast, also flew home to be there for when the news came through.

“I got home on the Friday and the draft was on the Saturday. I had family and close friends around that day and the boys got back from West Coast and Brisbane, where they had already been drafted, so it was just a nice family affair and pretty quiet,” Selwood explained.  

The year of the draft, Selwood was hampered with a long-term knee injury, which inevitably put some doubt in Selwood’s mind.

However, the Geelong Cats didn’t let his dubious thoughts hang over him for long, after calling his name in the first 10 picks at number seven.

“I was pretty relieved, as I obviously had the year off with a knee injury that I had leading into the year - and to get to Geelong, the club that I had always supported and loved from a young kid, it was just a dream come true,” Selwood recalls.  

“Leading up to the draft I had a couple of club (interests), I had Brisbane, which was where my brother (Troy) was so that wouldn’t have been too bad but then Port Adelaide were scoping around and that was probably not ideal for Mum and Dad to get a third state involved.”

Since the 2006 draft the 25-year-old has played 160 games with the Cats, including three premierships. This year he was awarded as the All-Australian Captain, Carji Greeves Medalist in Geelong’s Best and Fairest, plus he came runner up in the 2013 Brownlow Medal vote count.  

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