WHERE DID THE TIGERS RATE OLIVER?TALK about wishful thinking, but Richmond had initially hoped to snag Clayton Oliver with a “late pick” or “rookie pick”, according to the Melbourne ball magnet.
Leading into the 2015 AFL draft, Oliver, 20, thought he had “absolutely no chance” of being selected so when Richmond recruiters began circling after a stint in their VFL team the former Murray Bushranger was “over the moon”.
“They (Richmond) said they might take me with one of their late picks, rookie pick, and I was over the moon with that,” Oliver told RSN 927.
“So I was thinking maybe a year at the club would be good and I’ll just try and do what I could.”
The Tigers, to be fair, weren’t the only ones to initially underestimate the Mooroopna product snubbed by Vic Country for the under-18 national carnival.
Oliver played two VFL games before returning to the Bushrangers where he produced five standout games to rocket in draft calculations.
Richmond had wanted to use its first round pick but Melbourne swooped, selecting Oliver with the fourth overall pick.
The Tigers didn’t do too badly either, grabbing excitement machine Daniel Rioli with pick no.15.
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