But there aren't many clubs that hit the jackpot like Collingwood did on the 26th of November, 2005.
Watch Dale Thomas and Scott Pendlebury playing in the under-18s for the Gippsland Power in 2005 on CTV in the video above.
With selection No. 2 in the 2005 National Draft, National Recruiting Manager Derek Hine shocked most football followers as he read out Dale Thomas' name.
Most experts had forecast that Hine would be welcoming Thomas' Gippsland Power teammate Xavier Ellis to the black and white.
It wasn't to be.
Three picks later, the Magpies were at it again when Scott Pendlebury's name was read out at pick No. 5.
The tall left-footed midfielder remained a mystery to many and was considered every inch a draft bolter as names such as Shannon Hurn, Patrick Ryder and Shaun Higgins remained on the shelf.
Who would have thought that less than five years later the pair would be arguably Collingwood's most important players in the club's 15th premiership against St Kilda at the MCG?
Derek Hine is one man who may have seen it coming.
Hine and his recruiting team had watched the pair dominate in Gippsland's triumph over the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup Grand Final, hours before the first of Sydney and West Coast's epic AFL deciders.
Four All-Australian awards, a Copeland Trophy, a Norm Smith Medal and a premiership later, it has well and truly proved a recruiting masterstroke.
Scott Pendlebury is showered in Powerade after debuting in Collingwood's 26-point win over Brisbane in round 10, 2006.
Dale Thomas has had the game in the palm of his hand since the get-go.
The Gippsland pair was well and truly on the rise by the time they had helped conquer Carlton at the MCG in round seven, 2007.
By 2011, they were among the cream of the competition.
