FREMANTLE selected Pat Voss instead at the end of the 2024 pre-season supplemental selection period, but Max Beattie will be out there in Hawthorn colours in Thursday night's qualifying final at Optus Stadium. 

Beattie did almost the entire summer with Justin Longmuir's squad, trialling alongside former St Kilda wingman Daniel McKenzie and young Claremont key forward Sam van Rooyen, but returned to the SANFL when the Dockers opted to provide Voss with an AFL lifeline and keep the second spot open. 

The 22-year-old showed enough to Fremantle that summer that he warranted a spot on the list, but Voss has clearly been one of the biggest success stories since the SSP was introduced ahead of the 2019 season. 

Beattie did his syndesmosis in the weeks after returning to Woodville-West Torrens in 2024 and would need another 38 games in the SANFL to convince a club to give him a shot in the AFL. 

That shot arrived at the end of May when Hawthorn selected Beattie at pick No.12 in the 2026 Mid-Season Rookie Draft. 

Now the Wodonga product has played two games under Sam Mitchell and will not just play game No.3 in a final, but play on at the Hawks in 2027 after being rewarded with a one-year extension that was finalised on Tuesday morning. 

"He has been great, hasn't he? When you bring these guys in in the Mid-Season [Rookie Draft], it's really a bit of an unknown," Mitchell said on Tuesday at the Kennedy Community Centre. 

"We've had some great success with Jai Newcombe in particular from the mid-season, but I think with Maxy he's not flustered, he doesn't seem to mind what's happening around him, it doesn't matter the stage, he's just handled everything like a pro. 

"I'm really pleased with how he's gone about it and I think there is a bit of hope when you get these guys in and you see what they do at training and you see them at Box Hill and you think, 'Oh, I think he's going to be able to do this at AFL level'. You're not really sure, but then some guys, when they make the step up, they seem to do it pretty comfortably. He's been one of those so far. 

"But it is very early in his career. But he'll play on Thursday and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in, what is it? Game three?"

So how did Beattie dust himself off after the disappointment of missing out on a spot at Fremantle – where Voss has since played 49 games in three seasons at the Dockers and signed a contract through until 2030 – and earn a shot more than two years later?

Former star ruckman Sam Jacobs, who spent 10 years at Adelaide after starting at Carlton and finishing at Greater Western Sydney, returned to his original club Woodville-West Torrens as senior coach in 2023 and knew it was a matter of time before a club circled back for Beattie after he missed out on a contract with the Dockers.

"He's actually got a quiet confidence about him already, even before the Fremantle stuff. You guys will probably start to see that in his game play, but just watching the West Coast game, that ability for him to snap goals on his left, kick goals on his right, get to the right position, he's actually got a natural confidence about him," Jacobs told AFL.com.au.

"Max has always been a really hard worker. No doubt the Fremantle experience would have been good being an AFL environment, but I couldn't question his commitment to training and all that sort of stuff. He leads all the pre-season trainings and drives the off-season for players and all that. I think he had a lot of AFL traits already, he just needed to play some consistent footy to showcase what he can do, which he did after that syndesmosis injury."

Beattie had spoken to the Hawks, but wasn't expecting them to pick him on the night. Hawthorn list manager Mark McKenzie told his manager, Matt Knight from Helix Group Management, in a brief conversation the day before that ‘He's not for us'.

It was all a charade. 

West Coast and Collingwood also met with him and showed interest. The Eagles had the next pick and selected Marcus Herbert at No.13, while the Magpies added one of Beattie's teammates – Liam Puncher – at No.15. 

McKenzie won five best and fairests at Woodville-West Torrens and is still wired in at that club and across the SANFL. He had done the work on Beattie and hoped he was still there. Another forward wasn't a list priority, but the Hawks' mid-season strategy is to pick the best player available.

Beattie might have played for Hawthorn sooner if he didn't injure his syndesmosis again in his first game for Box Hill. It took him four more games under David Mirra before a debut materialised in round 23. 

Mitchell is a big fan of the 174cm forward, who will now head back across the country this weekend, where he kicked 2.2 in round 24 to show he can handle playing at the highest level.