On Sunday night after Collingwood play Carlton it will be worth noting that Hodge (pick 1 in that famous draft), Luke Ball (pick 2) and Chris Judd (pick 3) just spent the past three weeks crossing each other's paths on the football field once again.

 

Although not quite the match-winners they were in their prime, they all still draw the attention of fans and players.

 

That's because moments from each of them are etched in our memories.

 

It's now 11 years since a 19-year-old Chris Judd stamped himself as a once-in-a-generation player with five brilliant goals in the first half against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

 

On that day, when he made a team heading for its third flag in a row look silly, he earned two Brownlow votes, bringing his career tally at that point, after 35 games, to five votes.

 

Champion Lion midfielder Simon Black, who had just won a Brownlow medal and was only 14 games away from earning a Norm Smith Medal (and remains one of the only players of that era who can match the revered trio's list of honours), remembered what Lions coach Leigh Matthews said about Judd after the game:

 

"The kid has arrived on the big stage and he is only going to get better."

 

Fifteen months later, Judd would win the first of his two Brownlow medals, aged just 21.

 

From that moment on, expectations on what young players could provide changed forever.

 

In 2010, Judd won his second Brownlow and by the end of last season only two people in the game's history, Gary Dempsey and Robert Harvey, had polled more than the 202 Brownlow votes he has earned in his career

 

No player has had more contested possessions, more clearances or generated more inside 50s than Judd since 2002.

 

However it was on that day against the Lions 11 years ago that the No.3 pick from the 2001 AFL Draft stole a march on the two players who were chosen before him in the highest quality draft in the game's history.

 

At that time, No.1 pick Luke Hodge had played just 20 games for the Hawks, managed three Brownlow votes and was taking time to mature.

Luke Ball had made his debut in 2003 and played the first nine games, earning one Brownlow vote, but he was still settling in to the AFL.

 

Judd never lost that lead he set up early but with all three champions now past 30, AFL.com.au pondered whether they can now be placed in any sort of order?

 

The immediate reaction was that it might be football's equivalent of the 1956 Hotham Handicap, the only three-way tie in Australian horse racing history.

 

Black places Judd first, Hodge second and Ball three in keeping with conventional wisdom. But he voices an opinion most football fans share.

 

"I still love sitting down and watching them run around on the weekend," Black told AFL.com.au. "They're gems of our game."

 

All three are premiership players, all three were captains of their clubs at some stage and Judd and Hodge led premiership teams.

 

All three won club best and fairests, Judd's five dwarfing Hodge's two and Ball's one. Judd also won a best and fairest in a premiership year.

 

Ball and Judd played 17 finals and Hodge 14 and both Judd and Hodge won Norm Smith Medals.

 

Ball's two last-quarter stoppage goals in the 2011 qualifying final (against West Coast) and preliminary final (against Hawthorn) are part of Collingwood folklore.

 

Judd's six All Australian jumpers put him ahead of Hodge (three) and Ball (one).

 

Black said what made Judd amazing was his explosive power. "He had this ability to break through a tackle, through traffic and through pressure, which saw him able to go from the inside to outside. It was as good as I have seen."

 

Judd is a dual Brownlow medallist and has averaged 0.78 Brownlow votes per game in his career, behind only Fitzroy triple Brownlow medallist Hayden Bunton and Essendon's Graham Moss.

 

Hodge still managed 103 Brownlow votes and Ball only 39, a remarkably low tally for such a fine player.

 

Hodge's leadership stood out for Black. He compared his ability to inspire teammates to the Sydney Swans' Brett Kirk and Geelong's Cameron Ling.

 

"[I] haven't come across too many opposition captains that are able to inspire and lead his players like he (Hodge) does," Black said. "[You] get that real feel from being out there that he inspires his teammates."

 

When asked how Hodge compared to his own premiership captain Michael Voss, Black paused. "Pretty similar … and that is not a light statement,” he said.

 

Ball leads in one important statistic for such team oriented players. He has played in wins 66.9 per cent of the time, with Judd (56.4) and Hodge (56.9), after locked on the same mark of 56.7 per cent until last week's results.

 

Ball's 1196 tackles also places him fourth in that category since 2002.

 

Black said Ball's reaction time was amazing but it was his courage at ground level that stood out.

 

"[His] ability to go when the average footballer probably wouldn't go and put his head where he didn't want to put it … he would put it there every time," Black said. "He is a tough, tough player Bally, the sort of player I admired for a long, long time. You'd love to play with him because you know he'd give everything he has got." 

 

Hodge only sits in the top 20 for disposals statistics, but they don't tell the Hodge tale as well as Hawthorn's six trademarks in 2013.

 

They were: live an elite lifestyle; respect all; have a selfless attitude; leave ego on hook; have open and honest conversations; and carry a fight-to-the-death attitude.

 

That sums up Hodge.

 

Ask Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury what he thinks of the trio, and you get a sense of the esteem which each is still held among their peers.

 

"Juddy was, early on in my career, one of the guys I was most excited to get on the field with and see what he was like," Pendlebury told AFL.com.au. "I remember touching him at one stage and it felt like he was carved out of stone."

 

It was Pendlebury's seventh game and the memory has stayed with him forever.

 

The next week, in his eighth game, he saw Hodge up close for the first time. Not much has changed nine seasons later.

 

"When he (Hodge) plays in and around the ball you notice his intensity is at the next level compared to most you play against," Pendlebury said. "He just cracks in and has got no regard for his body."

 

Pendlebury laughs when he thinks of his opposing captain's approach on the football field.

 

“Hodge has got that presence on the field. He's such a good leader of that football club [and] probably the most talkative bloke on the field I play against. Even when he gets smashed he loves it and gets up laughing and says you can hit me harder than that," Pendlebury said.

 

Ball was a feared opponent who became Pendlebury's much-loved teammate and trusted friend. Pendlebury kept pestering the Magpies football department when he knew there was a chance they might secure the St Kilda star.

 

Pendlebury said Ball has always been so hard to play against. Quite simply if he doesn't win the contest, he halves it.

 

His courage amazes Pendlebury.

 

"I fear for him weekly. He just goes so hard but it just lifts everyone around him to aspire to get to that level," Pendlebury said. "Having a guy like that at your football club, whether he talks or not, he is just a role model for the right thing to do and it is infectious."

 

Having to make the call the order is reasonably obvious: Judd, Hodge, Ball.

 

But the degree of difference is minimal.

 

Football, as good as it's ever been.

 

And the clock ticking on three greats.