The 2001 AFL draft consisted of a state draft, a body draft, a pre-season draft and a trade period. The AFL draft is the annual draft of players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League (AFL).
In 2001 there were 83 picks to be drafted between 16 teams in the national draft. The Fremantle Dockers originally received the first pick in the national draft after finishing on the bottom of the ladder in the 2001 AFL season but they traded it to Hawthorn for Trent Croad. The No.1 draft pick was Luke Hodge, who became the first No.1 draft pick in many seasons to play in a premiership side.
The draft is known widely as the "superdraft"[1] due to the recruitment of modern star players such as Luke Hodge, Luke Ball, Chris Judd, Jimmy Bartel, Nick Dal Santo, Steve Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Leigh Montagna, Gary Ablett, Brian Lake, Matthew Boyd, James Kelly, Dane Swan, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Campbell Brown, and David Hale.[2] All of the aforementioned players have played in at least one Grand Final; all but Dal Santo and Montagna have played in a premiership team; and Judd, Mitchell, and Hodge (three times) have captained their respective teams to victories in the 2006, 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015 grand finals. Furthermore, Judd (2004, 2010), Bartel (2007), Ablett (2009, 2013), Swan (2011) and Mitchell (2012) have also won the Brownlow Medal, the award for the best and fairest player in a season, while Judd (2005), Johnson (2007), Hodge (2008 and 2014), Bartel (2011) and Lake (2013) have all won a Norm Smith Medal (awarded to the best player on-field in the AFL Grand Final).