Former St Kilda captain Luke Ball has been granted his wish to join Collingwood in the AFL's national draft.

While Melbourne took young midfielders Tom Scully with the No.1 pick and Jack Trengove with No.2, as expected, the destination of former Saints' best and fairest Ball had been the big talking point in the lead-up to Thursday night's draft.

The 25-year-old had attempted to get to the Magpies during trade week, but that ambition was thwarted when Collingwood were unable to strike a deal that satisfied the Saints.

It prompted him to enter the draft and put an asking price of almost $1 million over two years on his head in what has proved a successful gamble to win his way through to his chosen club.

Melbourne and Essendon, which had a combined seven picks before the Magpies entered the draft at No.30, had both threatened to jump in earlier and thwart his plan, but instead plumped for younger players with their selections.

Ball's acquisition is a big win for Collingwood, who had offered the Saints picks 25 and 62 during trade week, or else pick 30 and a player, but have ended up having to give up only pick 30, while the Saints end up with nothing in return.

Earlier, the top selections followed the expected script, although there had been some question over which of Victorian Scully or South Australian Trengove would be named No.1.

Scully, a hard-working, prolific ball-winner who captained Vic Metro at this year's under 18 championships, and topped that competition for winning the hard ball, was given the honour.

Trengove had impressed playing senior football for SANFL side Sturt this year, including a best afield 29-touch performance to lift the side to a preliminary final win, and Demons coach Dean Bailey said either would have been a worthy No.1 choice.

"Unfortunately we were required to call them one by one, if it was up to me we would have called them out together," he said.

Richmond also followed the expected script, choosing highly-skilled Victorian on-baller Dustin Martin with the No.3 choice, while Fremantle took versatile 190cm West Australian speedster Anthony Morabito at No.4 and North Melbourne chose tough Victorian midfielder Ben Cunnington at No.5.

The only genuine key position player in the top 10 was Port Adelaide's No.8 pick, agile Victorian 197cm forward John Butcher.

Among other notable selections, St Kilda picked up Nicholas Winmar (No.32), a distant cousin of former Saints star Nicky Winmar, while with the following pick Essendon took Anthony Long, the nephew of their former club great Michael Long.

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