For every high profile draft pick, there are dozens that miss out altogether. 

But the birth of the rookie list provided the opportunity for a second chance. 

First introduced in 1997, the rookie list helped those who may have fallen through the cracks of the National Draft. 

While the rules have changed over the years, the Bombers were one of the many teams to take advantage of being able to blood players through this system.

One of them was Mark Johnson.

Johnson had enjoyed a successful junior career leading up to the National Draft.

He was part of the Calder Cannons in the TAC Cup and had also played in the U18s National Competition (then referred to as the Teal Cup).

However, despite these achievements, Johnson didn’t get selected during the 1997 National Draft. 

Instead he was given his opportunity via the rookie draft, where he was taken with pick 12 by the Bombers. 

“I had a couple of years playing in the Teal Cup. It went from one year to two, I’d had two pretty successful years in the Teal Cup so I thought maybe I’d be a chance, but I fell through the gap,” Johnson told Bomber Radio.

“There just so happened to be this new thing that they brought in called the ‘rookie list’ and they said would you like to go onto that after coming down to Essendon.”

From here, Johnson joined the Bombers’ reserve team – coached by Mark ‘Bomber' Thompson.

Having retired during the 1996 season due to ongoing injury, Thompson was looking to pave out his own future as a coach in the AFL and took his first steps as an assistant to Kevin Sheedy and as the main man for Essendon reserves. 

Side by side, Sheedy and Thompson began to form a list that would soon become one of the most successful and dominant teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“They’re both great minds that think really well about football, but come from two different directions,” Johnson said. 

“Bomber comes from a really strategic ‘do anything for you’ type coach, where Sheeds is a really challenging coach. He’d say ‘you can’t do that’ and come from a different point of view and really make you want to do it despite him.

“Psychologically, (Sheeds) is a very good coach.” 

Johnson speaks highly of his time on the rookie list playing with the reserves, believing it was this time that allowed him to gain the confidence that was integral in being able to have the impact he did at a senior level.

He wouldn’t have to wait long for his chance, elevated to the senior list in 1999 and playing in a premiership just one year later. 

“By that stage, I’d had two really good grounding years,” Johnson said. 

“I had a fantastic reserves coach (Thompson) who really instilled the team desires and rules that would make me be a good senior player.

“By the time I got my first senior game, I truly believed that I deserved to be there and knew what I was doing.”

The rookie list has continued to help Essendon’s youth blossom to this day. 

Dean Rioli, Damien Peverill, Nathan Lovett-Murray, Adam Ramanauskas, Gary Moorcroft and Stewart Crameri are just some of the past players who featured on the list. 

More recently, there has been Mark Baguley, Heath Hocking, Ben Howlett, Patrick Ambrose and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti rise through the ranks. 

Judging by Johnson’s sentiment, the rookie list not only provided the players with the chance that they deserved, it allowed them to form relationships with teammates, the coaches and the Club. 

“There were really, really good memories,” Johnson said.

“Even looking back now, the Essendon rookie list has been a very, very good stomping ground to get experience and it has been very successful for the club.”

Essendon’s Rookie Listed Players (history):

Mark Johnson (194 games)

Gary Moorcroft (95 games)

Dean Rioli (100 games)

Damien Peverill (144 games)

Nathan Lovett-Murray (142 games)

Andrew Lovett (88 games)

Stewart Crameri (57 games)

Essendon players who started on the list (current):

Mark Baguley (82 Games)

Heath Hocking (124 Games)

Ben Howlett (117 Games)

Patrick Ambrose (44 Games)

Will Hams (11 Games)

Shaun McKernan (47 Games)

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (15 Games)

Conor McKenna (8 Games)

Mark Jamar (159 Games)

Current Essendon Rookies:

Jake Long

Gach Nyuon

Tom Wallis