If any club should be confident of getting the No.1 draft pick right it would be St Kilda, according to the league's national talent manager Kevin Sheehan.
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Sheehan pointed out that the top selection was very rarely the best player of any given draft and as a result all the pressure was on St Kilda to avoid making a meal of it at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.
The Saints are reportedly weighing up whether to select power forward Paddy McCartin or inside midfielder Christian Petracca on Thursday night.
But given St Kilda's performance at the 2000 and 2002 drafts, Sheehan suggested Saints fans should rest easy.
"The Saints have got the perfect record," Sheehan told SEN on Thursday. "They've had the No.1 choice on two previous occasions – that was Nick Riewoldt back in 2000 and two years later Brendon Goddard they chose with their No.1 choice.
"They haven't missed because as we reflect a decade on, those boys stand up as the best player in that particular draft but that doesn't happen too often so the pressure's on the Saints."
Unlike 2000 when the Saints selected Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke with the first two picks, the Saints only have pick No.1 this year and Sheehan said St Kilda had a tough choice to make between McCartin and Petracca.
"If you go on performance for the year, Petracca would be the one who had the standout performances and looks like he's going to be a 200-game player as well," Sheehan said.
"Paddy McCartin actually had some setbacks with a few injuries during the year so we didn't see him at his absolute best.
"They're different types. One [Petracca] is the powerful Dustin Martin [or] Ollie Wines midfield-type.
"McCartin is like a big Tomahawk [Tom Hawkins], [a] big powerful boy who will take you a little bit of time, they might be arguing a couple of years, before he starts to emerge with that real physical presence up on the forward line at AFL level.
"They both look to be elite talents and it will be a tough call for the Saints."
Sheehan described exciting midfielder Nakia Cockatoo, who missed most of the year due to a foot injury, as a draft bolter after an extremely strong finish to 2014 that also saw him test very well at October's combine.
"He is one with a bullet," Sheehan said. "He would have been [looking at being picked up at the draft's] backend probably a month before the end of the year because he hadn't played ... he has rocketed right up into contention. He's got all that magical ability."
Sheehan believed Petracca, McCartin, ruckman Peter Wright and midfielders Angus Brayshaw and Jarrod Pickett would, in no particular order, be this year's top five draft picks.
