THE 2001 NAB AFL Draft contained a bumper crop of young talent.

Luke Hodge, Chris Judd and Luke Ball loomed as the likely top three picks, and Hawthorn was desperate to get their hands on one of the first three selections in the draft.

After reaching a preliminary final in 2001, the Hawks’ first selection was at the back end of the first round, meaning they had to trade their way into an early pick.

After winning just two games for the season, the Fremantle Dockers held the first selection.

Peter Schwab, who was the Hawthorn coach at the time, told Fox Footy’s Open Mike program in 2013 securing an early draft pick was the right thing for the Hawks, so the two clubs began talking about a potential trade.

“(That was the) best decision for the club. That year John Turnbull, our recruiting manager, said that we’ve got to get in early in the draft because there’s some outstanding players – they were Judd, Hodge and Ball,” he said.

“I said the only way we’re going to do that is we’re going to have to trade because we’ve gone so well this year.

“In the end you look at your player list and you look at who’s expendable and who will get you the pick.”

After some consideration, the Hawks settled on a player which held enough currency to get the deal done.

“Trent Croad was the player who would get us the pick, so he was the one we wanted to trade,” Schwab said.

“I did (rate him as a player), but I thought he was tradeable to get the number one pick.”

So the deal was transacted – Hawthorn received picks one, 20 and 36 in exchange for Croad and Luke McPharlin, who both went to the Dockers.

Schwab said the trade was in Hawthorn’s best interests.

“As a coach that’s all you operate on – what’s best for the club,” he said.

“(That trade) was and it has been and we got Trent back two years later and he played in a premiership.”

Luke Hodge was taken as the number one selection of the 2001 NAB AFL Draft, with Rick Ladson (pick 16), Campbell Brown (pick 32) and a handy player by the name of Sam Mitchell (pick 36) also acquired by the Hawks.

All of those players played in the 2008 premiership, with Hodge and Mitchell going on to play in Hawthorn’s 2013, 2014 and 2015 flags.

Fremantle also did well from the deal – Croad was the Dockers’ leading goal kicker in 2002 and McPharlin went on to play 244 games and earn All Australian selection in 2012 as a key defender.

It was the arguably the boldest trade in recent memory and established the foundations for Hawthorn to become the powerhouse it is today.