When Franklin roosted a goal from outside 50m to snatch a two-point win for Western Australia in the dying seconds against Vic Metro, Metro star Smith was sidelined with hamstring tightness.
But both Franklin and Smith emerged from the championships as two of that year's most exciting draft prospects.
From there, however, their football journeys have carried one to an Elvis-like celebrity in Australia - at least to the extent he is readily identifiable by a single name - and the other into early retirement and relative anonymity.
As anyone with a passing interest in footy knows, Franklin - or 'Buddy' as he is now better known - enjoys a level of adulation reserved for few, if any, other footballers. Given his unprecedented mix of height, speed, endurance and freakish skill, it continues to amaze many that he slipped to Hawthorn at pick No. 5 in the 2004 NAB AFL Draft.
But barely five years after the 2004 championships, Smith's AFL career is over after just 27 games at North Melbourne. A severe ankle injury at the start of his second AFL season and a subsequent spate of related soft-tissue injuries were to blame.
Ironically, during the 2004 carnival it had been Smith's stocks that soared and Franklin's that dipped - albeit ever so slightly.
Smith looked every bit the prototypical modern utility as he outshone the likes of Vic Country's Brett Deledio and Jordan Lewis, South Australia's Ryan Griffen and Metro teammate Marc Murphy to win the Larke Medal as the division one competition's best player.
At 187cm - he would subsequently grow to 191cm - and with his speed, athleticism, skill and game sense, Smith could slice opposition teams apart as a goalkicking midfielder, forward or half-back.
Prior to the championships, Franklin had been regarded as one of Australia's two best juniors alongside Deledio. Kicking eight goals in the first half of a trial game with Western Australia's under-18 team will do that for you.
But Franklin's inconsistency at the championships - he was dragged against Vic Metro before conjuring his match-winning goal - meant he did not join Smith in that year's All-Australian under-18 team. It also made some recruiters question whether he'd ever fulfil his awe-inspiring physical gifts, AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan told AFL.com.au last week.
Smith, still just 25, told AFL.com.au recently he felt ready for the AFL after the 2004 championships but said his experiences since should serve as a cautionary note for this year's batch of elite juniors.
"You can't just take playing in the AFL for granted from an early age because it doesn't matter if you're the best player in the comp, you can be gone just like that if you have a bit of bad luck," Smith said.
"I suppose that's the main thing for kids getting drafted to remember. And they can't think that all the hard work's done once they get drafted. It pretty much starts from there."
If Smith had not been snapped up by North Melbourne under the father-son rule, he would almost certainly have joined Franklin as a first-round draft pick.
The son of 224-game North defender Ross, Smith joined North before today's father-son bidding system was introduced, allowing North to claim him at the bargain-basement price of their third-round draft pick, No. 42 overall.
But Smith's former Metro coach, David Dickson, long-time recruiter John Turnbull - who was working for Adelaide in 2004 - and Sheehan all told AFL.com.au recently if Smith had nominated for 2004's draft he would most likely have been a top-10 pick. Sheehan said he would not have been surprised if Smith had gone in the top five.
And if he hadn't fallen awkwardly after flying for a mark in North Melbourne's last NAB Challenge match before the 2006 season, fracturing his ankle and snapping three ligaments from the bone, Dickson, for one, thinks Smith would have joined Franklin as one of the AFL's brightest stars.
"He's one of those players who could have been anything. There's no doubt he would have been one of the elite AFL players," Dickson said.
"I base that not so much on his talent - and he was very talented - but on his sheer size and athleticism. That was what made him stand out from the rest.
"He could have played half-back, wing, midfield, forward, any number of positions."
Sheehan agrees Smith appeared to have "the footy world at his feet" back in 2004.
"He fitted the profile of a guy who could just about play in 10 different spots on the ground. He was a lovely size, he was an athlete, skilful and a great decision-maker - all the things you're after," Sheehan said.
"He could play a bit taller, medium or on smalls as well. Just about any angle you looked at it from, he looked to be a very, very good prospect."
Smith showed enough at North to suggest he could have lived up to such lofty expectations.
In his first season, 2005 - when Smith concedes he could have worked "a little bit harder" - he played six senior games.
His ankle injury condemned him to spend the entire 2006 season in the rehab room. But he returned in 2007 to play 19 games, winning the round seven NAB AFL Rising Star nomination for his 27-possession game against Essendon.
Smith also played in North's three finals that year and was widely judged best on ground in the Kangaroos' second semi-final win over Hawthorn.
The week before, Franklin had confirmed his genuine star status, when in his first final he almost singlehandedly lifted the Hawks to a three-point win over Adelaide with a seven-goal haul.
But it was Smith's turn to shine a week later when North rebounded from a 106-point qualifying final loss to Geelong to upset the Hawks by 33 points.
While Franklin struggled to get into the game under the close attention of Josh Gibson, Smith, still two weeks away from turning 21, looked completely at home under the MCG spotlights.
Stationed at half-back, he racked up 27 possessions and, under finals' pressure, hit 85 per cent of his targets.
But it was the poise Smith showed that night in heavy traffic and his ability to lose opponents with a deft sidestep or explosive burst that suggested he was ready to make the AFL his playground.
But he would play just two more games, rounds four and five in 2008, before a succession of hamstring strains caused by compensating for his injured ankle ended his career. Even a move to St Kilda in 2010 could not solve Smith's injury woes.
So where Franklin is still running rings around opposition defenders, Smith has not been able to run for two years.
And where Franklin is widely acclaimed as the best player in the competition, Smith now coordinates three-day junior sporting camps for Australian Sports Cadets.
Not that Smith is complaining.
He enjoys his job and last month had an operation on his ankle that early signs suggest will reduce the bone-on-bone pain he has endured for so long.
He's also having regular blood injections to try and regrow cartilage around his ankle. If that works, Smith has not given up hope of lacing up his boots again.
"If the ankle responds terrifically then I'd be pretty driven to get back into footy if I could," Smith says.
Speaking to Smith, you sense that if he does play again, the competitor in him would want to play at the highest level possible. But he's also realistic enough to know his ankle will again dictate what he can and can't do.
Even if it doesn't allow him to play football again, Smith can live with that.
"I'm pretty confident that it's going to get to a much better level than it's been for the past two years and I should be able to do a lot of other things a lot more comfortably," Smith says.
But when Smith watches his 2004 championships contemporaries like Franklin, Carlton's Murphy and Richmond's Deledio strutting their stuff in big games, does he ever wonder, 'Why me?'
"Not really. It just came down to luck, which you can't really control," Smith says.
"I went up in a contest and came down and there's not much you can do about it.
"It's happened to a lot of other players as well. There's no reason for it. Some players are just luckier than others."
Nick Bowen is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
