Plenty of attention has been directed the way of Victoria's Jack Watts and Western Australia's Nick Naitanui, however, AFL high performance co-ordinator Jason McCartney believes contention for the top spot stretches beyond two.
And that's ruckmen, key position players and midfielders included.
Comparisons have been drawn with the celebrated 2001 draft that saw Hawthorn choose premiership hero Luke Hodge ahead of a field that boasted Luke Ball (No. 2), Chris Judd (3) and Jimmy Bartel (8), and extended to Steve Johnson (24), Sam Mitchell (36), Andrew Welsh (47) and Paul Medhurst (56).
"It's a great draft, there's no doubt about it," McCartney told afl.com.au from the NAB AFL Draft Camp held in Canberra.
"The depth is quite enormous, there's a smorgasbord of players in it and it really depends what the clubs are looking for.
"Some [potential draftees] have obviously been through AIS Academy over the last couple of years, so we have been watching these guys for a two-and-a-half, three-year period.
"No club's going to miss out."
Since 2002, anticipated No. 1 picks have been formalised with Brendon Goddard (St Kilda), Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs), Brett Deledio (Richmond), Marc Murphy (Carlton), Bryce Gibbs (Carlton) and Matthew Kreuzer (Carlton) earning those nods.
But 2008 should almost certainly buck a trend.
"Previous years it's been pretty common knowledge [who will be selected No. 1]," McCartney said. "We've known probably who the No. 1's going to be.
"This year it's probably debatable and I suppose it's what Melbourne, having first pick, really need. They could choose one of five or six players and we probably haven't had that for the last five or six years at least."
The NAB AFL Draft will be held on Saturday, November 29 with the pre-season and rookie drafts set for Tuesday, December 16.
Click here to view the full interview with Jason McCartney.
