• Semi-final voting results
• The No.1 pick who didn't know who'd selected him
IT'S THE final we had to have.
Between them Luke Hodge and Nick Riewoldt share eight best and fairest awards, eight All Australian guernseys and 13 years of inspirational captaincy of their respective teams. Plus three premierships. Sorry, Nick.
But on Saturday one of them will claim the greatest prize of all, voted by you as the best ever No.1 draft pick and winner of the inaugural Lounder-Waterhouse-Hooper-Banik Trophy.
Hodge and Riewoldt were the favourites when the contest began, and they have swept magisterially through the early rounds and the quarter and semi-finals, treating their opponents with more disdain than a Dusty Martin don't-argue and all the verve of a Courtenay Dempsey back heel. But with slightly less seat-of-the-pants good luck.
Sadly, the final face-off will inevitably affect the Australian team's preparations for the International Rules match in Perth on Saturday night, with the national colleagues naturally refusing to have anything to do with each other in the breathless lead-up to the Saturday morning announcement of the winner of the No.1 clash.
It's a small price to pay for the glory of being named as the best of the best. The draftee of draftees. The one of ones.
You can click here to check out profiles and stats of our two finalists, plus the 30 top picks who lie slumped against the ropes after four rounds' voting. And click anywhere on the image below to open the full grand final bracket in a new tab.
Semi-final results
THWACK! Down goes the Boy Wonder. BIFF! A crippling blow to the solar plexus. KER-SPLOOSH! And now there's a punch to the ... oh dear. KAPOW!
We decided to use 1960s Batman style to report the Jaeger O'Meara v Luke Hodge semi final in our poll to choose the No.1 draft number one because – BAM! – we felt like it.
In fact it's quite similar to our prediction of what will happen when Anthony Mundine (cough) finally gets his chance to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. BOOF! SPLAT!! THUNK!!! But we digress.
O'Meara-Hodge and Drew Banfield versus Nick Riewoldt were both knockouts. Standing eight counts were applied early, but the underdogs fought it out bravely to the end.
Both Hodge and Riewoldt nudged the 90 per cent approval rate – cop that Tony Abbott. SMACK! – continuing their series-long domination. The Hawks skipper disposed of Des Headland, Marc Murphy and Brendon Goddard before dispatching O'Meara 6274 votes to 1106, while 'Roo' wiped the floor with Jeff White, Josh Fraser, Michael Gardiner before KOing Banfield 6059 to 1290. KABLOOEY!
Grand final voting
When comparing players, some say one is better simply because of his superior premiership tally.
But if that were true, Brisbane Lions triple-premiership ruckman Clark Keating would be regarded as having a better career than Collingwood's flagless great Nathan Buckley.
In reality – well, unreality – Big 'Crackers' would have been battling to surpass Buckley's superpowers even if his surname had been Kent. And if he'd had access to a phone booth on game day.
This premiership-based argument may be considered by many of you today as you weigh up your great responsibility to decide the ultimate No. 1 draft pick of all time.
The grand finallists sit at opposite ends of the flag spectrum. Hawthorn skipper Luke Hodge has won three premierships, while we'll respectfully resist the temptation to refer to the Saint champion Nick Riewoldt as 'Nix'.
And not only that – hot-to-trot Hodge has captained the Hawks to the past two flags. But let's not forget that it wouldn't have taken much luck for Riewoldt to have been a back-to-back premiership skipper himself in 2009-2010.
Riewoldt also has a more extensive honours list in terms of best and fairests (six to two) and All Australian selections (five to three), and has also collected the Leigh Matthews Trophy (the AFL Players' Association MVP award).
However, there's little doubt Riewoldt would trade most of his gongs for just one of Hodge's premiership medals.
Hawthorn thought so highly of Hodge that it orchestrated a trade in which key position players Trent Croad and Luke McPharlin were given the heave-ho to Freo in exchange for the No.1 pick.
The Hawks selected the kid from Colac ahead of Chris Judd, and there is now a convincing argument that Hodge has overtaken Judd.
Unlike his path to our grand final, Riewoldt took a more circuitous route to the AFL, spending his first nine years in Tasmania and the next nine on the Gold Coast before thrilling Saints fans over the past 15 seasons.
Let's be clear, this is bigger than a sequel to Ben Hur. It's at least two or three times bigger than Texas – the humungous, cowboy-breedin' US state that has become a second home for Riewoldt, whose lovely wife Catherine is a tall Texan. In fact they married there. But we digress.
This iconic pair – we're talking about 'Hodgey' and 'Rooey' now (nicknames as great as their draft status) – aren't simply the best No.1 picks in draft history, as definitively proven by you over four days of voting. They're also two of the greatest and most admired players, captains and personalities of the draft era.
Though vastly different players, both humble, one-club veterans are held in such awe that it's a shame there has to be a loser. Can the regal Riewoldt finally cast aside the dreaded bridesmaid tag, or will Cool Hand Luke thwart him with a Heath Shaw-style, goal-line smother?
• Round one voting: The Flounder flops
• Clive's alive: How you voted in the round of 16
• Quarter-final voting: death of a hashtag
• Semi-final voting: Boof! Bam! Kapow!
