[RELATED: North's full draft history | Drafted: Stevens | Drafted: 1992 | Drafted: 1993]

In the lead-up to the 2014 National Draft to be held on November 27, NMFC.com.au delves into the archives to feature some of the club’s more memorable selections.

After looking at 1988, 1992 and 1993, we push ahead to 1995, and a team of the verge of greatness hoping to add to its ammunition.

Following a tough year in 1994 (of the five players recruited, none debuted in 1995), North headed to the National Draft with its first selection at 17.

Before that, Clive Waterhouse went to Fremantle with the number one pick overall, while Matthew Primus ended up at Fitzroy with pick two.

The former was brilliant at his best, albeit inconsistent and injury prone. The latter played just one year at the Lions, who were defunct by the end of 1996. He later skippered Port Adelaide and became a two-time All-Australian.

As always, there were draft disappointments. The Dockers’ selection of Ben Edwards (pick 7) was drafted and de-listed by the start of the season.

Brisbane (Andrew Gowling – pick 12) and West Coast (Luke Trew – pick 14) were other clubs with early picks that didn’t net a game.

With its first pick, North took Scott Welsh, nephew of former player Kym Hodgeman (91 games between 1981-1985).

At just 17 years of age, Welsh played his first game in Round 1 of the following season. He didn’t manage a disposal, and backed it up the following year with one touch in his only game of 1997.

Nevertheless, the South-Australian was seen as a development player and by 1998 was playing more regular senior football in the forward half. In 1999, he played 22 games for 24 goals, including a goal in the Grand Final.

In just game 36 he was a premiership player. In game 37 he was in Adelaide colours after being traded for pick 77 (Lindsay Smith).

While Smith played just one match in North colours (three with Carlton), Welsh played a further 169 times at the Crows and Bulldogs, booting 333 goals.

Robert Pyman’s departure to Collingwood saw pick 26 in the Kangaroos’ hands. Delisted by Fremantle, Chris Groom arrived at Arden Street.

Despite promising signs, he injured his knee a week before the AFL’s centenary season, recovering only to see it buckle again five months later.

Groom would return to play two games in 1997 and three the following year, but ultimately retired after a career riddled with injuries.

History shows the 1995 National Draft was a tough one for North; with pick 33 it selected Sam McFarlane.

A slightly built wingman from Subiaco, then delisted by Fremantle, McFarlane is perhaps better known for an incident with Barry Hall than his two senior games in the royal blue and white.

In 1997, he was struck by Hall in a reserves game against St Kilda at Waverley Park. Then 21, he spent three days in hospital having his jaw wired back together.

“I had a compound fracture between the front part of my face and the right side of my jaw,” McFarlane told The Herald Sun years later.

“I ended up having surgery and I have three titanium plates in my face that I will have forever.”

The incident drew comparisons to that of Hall and Brent Staker in 2008.

After a long recovery period, McFarlane was delisted and returned to Subiaco.

Pick 47 was next. With selections 40 to 46 managing just 44 games as a collective, it was very much a lottery.

At just 167 centimetres, surely 17-year-old Brent Harvey couldn’t make it in the cut and thrust of the modern game? He certainly had his doubters. Not least from within the four walls at Arden Street.

“How many (pick) 47’s make it? Not many 47’s make it – you’re in the hands of the Philistines,” Denis Pagan would later say.

“He was tiny and at that stage somebody said to me he’s smaller than (jockey) Darren Gauci.

“We knew he had ability, but he was very small.”

19 seasons later, Harvey is closing in on 400 games. His small stature is no longer a talking point, with his remarkable longevity and consistency making him one of North’s best ever.

It was the State of Origin match in 1999 that first brought Harvey to prominence. He won the E.J Whitten Medal and his first premiership in the same year, and has never looked back since.

Just 17 players of the 76 drafted in 1995 went on to play 100 games, a feat Harvey is close to achieving four times over.

A massive bargain at pick 47, his selection was followed by Darren Milburn (Geelong). In what was a year that saw several wildcards become stars, Daniel Bradshaw (pick 55), Clint Bizzell (pick 74) and Matthew Carr (64) all played over 150 games.

It wasn’t the same story for Eric Lissenden. Drafted back in 1989, he was the leading goal-kicker under 19 level the following year. Nevertheless, he made his way to Essendon in the 1992 mid-season draft after not managing a senior game.

Six seasons after originally being drafted, he was back at Arden Street with selection 65.

Two games, and one goal on the full-back of the century Steven Silvagni later, his career was over.

384 games for a champion of the club, 45 combined between its four other selections; it was the definition of an up-and-down year at the draft table.