Sheehan considers midfielders Angus Brayshaw and Christian Petracca and tall forwards Peter Wright and Patrick McCartin all good enough to be No.1, with the choice sure to keep the man with that pick, St Kilda head of recruiting Tony Elshaug, awake at night.

Sheehan beamed as he welcomed the pick of this year's draft crop to the draft combine at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. The fresh-faced youngsters face days of physical and mental testing, including vertical jumping and repeated sprints.

"That's the six-by-30 metres in a very short space of time as an interval, and that's the way the game is now played through the midfield," Sheehan said.

"We take a greater interest now in the running vertical jump of players because we talk about match-ups now and we want to know if that guy can match-up as a deep defender and be able to spoil a tall forward, and that gets back to his absolute reach and jump."

On this year's draft, Sheehan said: "It's got depth and it's got class up top. I'd be very optimistic about it being a great year to stock your list up."

Brayshaw, the nephew of North Melbourne chairman James, is a big-bodied midfielder, good on either foot, who excelled for Vic Metro this year.

He and Petracca – an explosive midfielder from the Eastern Ranges - have been the two best-performed midfielders this year, along with Isaac Heeney, set to join Sydney as a Swans Academy player.

"They're the two midfielders that have performed on the best stage available, which is our national champs; they dominated that. They've got the skill set required and the leadership potential to be fine players," Sheehan said.

It's rare to have such strong key position talent vying for the No.1 pick, but this year's draft could shape as a repeat of the 2000 draft when Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke went to St Kilda with picks one and two respectively.

Wright and McCartin are very different sorts of tall forwards.

"Peter Wright is two-metre-Peter or the Big Sauce, whatever you want to call him. He's 203 centimetres ... he's huge and can play in the ruck as well. He's a unique player, he's a 14.5 beep tester, so his endurance for a boy of that size is just enormous, you can't find a player of that type.

"And Paddy McCartin has a little bit of Tommy Hawkins, in the way he reads the ball in flight. He always appears to be just a step off the other player as it comes into his area and he's got that vice-like grip - that's his X-factor. He just grabs it first time every time.

"So it's probably around those four, but I wouldn't be surprised if others jump up with their performances this week."