It happened 25 years ago, in the lead up to what was the then VFL’s first formal draft. Only seems like yesterday to Fotia - a dedicated husband and father, self-employed builder and local junior football coach at Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula, about an hour’s drive north-west of Adelaide.
“At the time I was a 16 year-old still at college, I’d just played Teal Cup and I was going to play senior footy for West Torrens,” Fotia recalled.
“Officials from St Kilda, Hawthorn and North Melbourne had spoken to me leading up to the draft, but never gave me any real indication they were going to pick me up.
“And then I got a phonecall at school from Dad. He said ‘I think you better come home - I’ve just taken a call from a man named Stephen Gough at the Carlton Football Club, and I said ‘Who the hell is he?’. I just didn’t know who he was.”
On his return, Fotia flicked the switch on the telly and discovered that he and North Adelaide’s Doug Smart had been taken with Carlton’s first and second round selections at 12 and 25 respectively. Sandy Bay’s Darrin Pritchard, Norwood’s Craig Kelly and Hobart’s Alastair Lynch - future premiership players with Hawthorn, Collingwood and Brisbane - would go at 26, 34 and 50.
“I was on the retention scheme in South Australia at the time, and I remember thinking ‘Okay, I’ve been drafted, but what does it all mean?’,” Fotia said.
“Back then the draft wasn’t a big thing - we had no screening, no vertical jump tests or anything like that.”
Fotia recalled a post-draft meeting with Gough, now the MCC Chief Executive, and then Carlton captain Mark Maclure, in his home state. “They wanted to get me over for the Under 19s in ’87, but I thought I needed to develop a bit more by playing senior football at West Torrens,” Fotia said.
“During that time I watched Carlton from afar. In the end I went in 1989 and my parents came with me, because the club knew I wouldn’t leave without them.”
Fotia was handed the No.2 Navy Blue guernsey of the club’s five-time best and fairest and the lofty expectation that went with it. At the time he thought little of the number’s significance, “but when you look at it now you had Nicholls, Motley and Williams”.
Fotia’s three seasons at Princes Park would afford him 18 senior matches and a lifetime of memories.
“When I finally broke into the seniors I was a bit reserved. I think what got me in the end was that I was frightened to make a mistake,” he conceded.
“The pressure came in the lead-up to me going, when the papers were comparing me to Naley, [Tony] McGuinness and [John] Platten, and when I got there Naley, Adrian Gleeson, Fraser Murphy and Andrew Phillips were the rovers.
“But in the end, I have no regrets about going to Carlton.”
In the years since, Fotia has made the matchday pilgrimage at least once a year with his son Bailey, a more passionate Carlton supporter there never was. Bailey has three Carlton guernseys in his keep - a dark Navy Blue No.5 signed by Chris Judd (which he never dons for fear of damage), a light blue No.13 guernsey of Chris Yarran, and Eddie Betts’s No.19 jumper in white.
This week, a quarter of a century after his name was called as Carlton’s first draftee, Fotia and his son will tune in to Thursday night’s telecast with interest.
“Bailey and I were only talking about the draft this week,” Fotia said. “Bailey thinks that when I got drafted in the pre-AFL days football wasn’t proper, and he said to me ‘Gee Dad, you were pick 11 - what happened to you?’.
“He also said to me ‘Can we watch the draft on Thursday night? I want to see who Carlton picks up’. He’s just so excited about it.”
So what advice would he impart upon the new draftees?
“You know what, if I had my time over again I’d make sure I’d leave no page unturned,” Fotia said.
“My message to the players would be ‘You’ve got nothing to lose. Your cause will be helped by joining a better team that’s travelling well, so just work your butt off’’.”
25 years ago - the top 25, VFL Draft 1986
1 Brisbane - Martin Leslie (Port Adelaide)
2 St Kilda - Steven Sims (West Torrens)
3 Melbourne - Steven Febey (Devonport)
4 Richmond - Richard Anderson (Norwood)
5 Geelong - Michael Taylor (Port Fairy)
6 Footscray - Richard Cousins (Central District)
7 North Melbourne - Chris Lindsay (West Torrens)
8 Collingwood - Grantley Fielke (West Adelaide)
9 Essendon - Andrew Payze (West Torrens)
10 Sydney - John Brinkkotter (Barooga)
11 Fitzroy - Jason Taylor (New Norfolk)
12 Carlton - Dominic Fotia (West Torrens)
13 Hawthorn - Clayton Lamb (West Adelaide)
14 Brisbane - Scott Adams (Clarence)
15 St Kilda - Andrew Wickham (Latrobe)
16 Melbourne - Matthew Febey (Devonport)
17 Richmond - Trent Nichols (Sandy Bay)
18 Geelong - Mark O'Keefe (Warrnambool)
19 Footscray - Matthew Mansfield (Glenorchy)
20 North Melbourne - Brenton Harris (South Adelaide)
21 Collingwood - David Robertson (North Adelaide)
22 Essendon - Kieran Sporn (West Adelaide)
23 Sydney - Lyndon Dakin (Longford)
24 Fitzroy - Matthew Armstrong (Hobart)
25 Carlton - Doug Smart (North Adelaide)
Carlton’s other selections
38 Simon Minton-Connell (North Hobart)
51 Andrew Herring (Wynyard)
64 Darren Newlan (Golden Square)
