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THE QUALITY of Hawthorn draftee Daniel Howe can be measured by his response to missing out in last year's NAB AFL Draft, according to Murray Bushranger's TAC Cup coach Darren Ogier.

Howe was selected by the reigning premiers with pick 31 in Thursday night's national draft on the Gold Coast.

The 19-year-old had nominated last year and attracted some interest from Richmond but ultimately wasn't picked up.

But Ogier said Howe's response to that disappointment was extremely impressive.

"The way that he handled missing out was pretty much 'oh well, I missed out and now I've got to improve and just work harder to be better' and that's what he did," Ogier told AFL.com.au.

At 191cm and 84kg, Howe had played predominantly forward in 2013 while playing at Xavier College and occasionally for the Bushrangers.

After the disappointment of missing out last year, Ogier said Howe returned to the Bushrangers' pre-season with purpose.

"He worked really hard," Ogier said.

"From day one he meant business and he just continued to improve the harder he worked. He's hopefully going to be a great acquisition for Hawthorn."

Ogier was one of the key figures behind Howe's successful move into defence this year.

"He reads the play really well off the backline," Ogier said.

"We'd played him forward and we hadn't really seen him back. He certainly had the athleticism to do that. 

"We knew that he played some really good footy for his school off half-back and we wanted to broaden his horizons there and give him that exposure at TAC Cup level in that defensive role. It certainly paid off.

"This year he also moved into the midfield as well for us and it was like he's been playing midfield all his life. He was tremendous there as well.

"His ball use has been very exciting off both sides."