I remember the days when we had picks with no trading, no deals, no future this, future that.
Simple times. These days I have no clue what the hell is going on. Practically given up on phantom drafts to see who’s worth drafting with the pick we have. By the time the draft night comes around, that pick could be anywhere.
Don’t think it would be very hard to get back into next years 3rd round if we needed to.
By trading Ricky Dyson?
Its almost like the AFL rules have made it still quite restrictive.
Given can only trade 1 year in advance AFl should just let it be open slather…or alternatively let clubs swap 2nd/3rd/4th round picks 2 years in advance as well.
Interesting seeing Club list management strategies trending towards pick swapping and gaining access to higher draft picks “now” instead of in future years - kind of like using the Credit Card to pay for a nice holiday and then worry about paying it off later.
Ummmmm… for each trade forward in time, the other party has gone backwards.
Yep plus the fact you get an additional 12 months development into the player you need now.
And the fact next years draft likely to be further compromised by the academdys.
They need to get rid of these stupid rules around what you can and can’t trade.
Didn’t think this years draft was that strong. Why would you want to trade into the first round?
If next year you have quality academy kids lined up, you can do the point deal now. The risk being your academy pick doesn’t come on, but the opportunity being that you get your earlier pick now.
And there’s probably an opportunity to trade back up next year if you have, say, multiple 2nds
And also everyone thinks they’ll be better next year, whereas opponents may be happy to death ride them, which creates a situation where 2 teams think they’ll get value.
Early thoughts was it wasnt that strong, but it seems to be ok. (no real good talls though like last year) except the WA Ruck
Its more top 2 really good last year had top 7 standouts.
Whereas this year has Serong who was rated 3 earlier and may end up outside the top 10 due to the evenness of the next rung after Rowell/Ainsworth maybe GWS kid Green etc
then there is pretty even talent from 10-20 and decent players all the way through to around pick 30.
then its a bit of a chook lotto which is a little annoying as we just miss out on the more well known players as shown in the draft central mock draft.
The issue I see with the bidding system is that it’s allowing clubs to get multiple first round picks by packaging up some late picks with a future pick.
I’m sure when the AFL made up this points system they just figured clubs would use their next pick to match - not bring in additional picks to double down. But as we know they never think of the unintended consequences.
First thing I would do is get rid of the discount when bidding on players tied to a club. Paying fair value is reasonable given they get the chance to match anyway.
Western Bulldogs are certain to secure the teenager being talked up as the next Lance Franklin at a hugely discounted price next year.
Clubs are campaigning the AFL to scrap the generous discounts applied to Next Generation Academy prospects in the national draft, but the earliest that can happen is in 2021.
The Dogs have priority access to Jamarra Ugle-Hagan through their NGA next year and, without the 20 per cent discount, they would have had to pay a hefty price.
“He’s arguably going to be as good as Buddy Franklin, and very arguably heading towards pick No. 1,” one recruiter said on Monday.
“He’s already committed to the Bulldogs. He’s mercurial, gifted in the air, got good agility, good size although he lacks body strength at the moment.
“He kicked 10 for Scotch in the APS a couple of times last season, so when they start kicking 10 you start taking notice.”
An AFL spokesman mistakenly told the Herald Sun that the discounts would be reviewed after this week’s draft, with changes possible for 2020, however the league later clarified that the 20 per cent discount would remain next year.
Carlton great Andrew McKay completed a review into the bidding system in July this year and, while tweaks were made, the 20 per cent discount was untouched.
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan soars for a mark in the NAB League. Picture: Andy Brownbill.
Top 2020 draft prospect Jamarra Ugle-Hagan kicks truly for Oakleigh Chargers.
Next year’s draft will be extremely compromised with an abundance of academy and father-son prospects headlining the pool.
One expert said 22 of his top 40 prospects were already tied to a club.
Multiple mooted changes have been suggested to the AFL, both to amend the bidding system and to toughen up the eligibility rules.
The most common one is to either reduce the discount or have it only apply after pick 30, which would ensure that elite talents are paid for at market value.
Most clubs are happy for discounts to be applied to all father-sons, enjoying the romance of that rule.
Some also believe that the current rule is fair for the northern academies run by GWS, Sydney, Brisbane and Gold Coast because it is important to nurture players in rugby heartland.
But there is widespread frustration at the potential to rort the system.
There were suggestions on Monday that one wealthy club had started relocating talented juniors into its zone.
“NGAs were designed to help disadvantaged kids and grow the talent pool of non-football families and backgrounds,” one scout said.
“Not for clubs to scoop up already-talented footballers who were always going to make it.”
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But Adelaide has access to midfielder James Borlase next year despite his father, Darryl, playing in four SANFL premierships for Port Adelaide.
Borlase played Auskick in primary school but qualifies for the Crows’ NGA because he was born in Egypt.
The AFL does not count Darryl Borlase’s Escort Cup appearances, reducing his senior games tally to 177 and below the 200 required to qualify as a father-son prospect for Port.
Collingwood’s zone covers the rich Oakleigh region and the Magpies are poised to secure Reef McInnes next year after taking Isaac Quaynor last year.
The Magpies were able to match bids for Quaynor (No. 13) and father-son Will Kelly (No. 29) with a suite of picks beyond 40, which also didn’t sit well with rivals.
“If you cop a bad academy area you might not get anybody out of it,” one club said.
“It’s almost gone back to zoning plus some draft picks.”
Ruckman Bigoa Nyuon has been nominated by St Kilda as a next generation academy player. Picture: Andy Brownbill
*Players nominated for draft
Isaiah Butters (Fremantle)
Liam Henry (Fremantle)
Leno Thomas (Fremantle)
Harrison Pepper (Hawthorn)
Matthew McGuinness (North Melbourne)
Bigoa Nyuon (St Kilda)
“He’s arguably going to be as good as Buddy Franklin”
No pressure kid
Yeah that’s a ridiculous statement.
You’re approaching this as if it was designed to be good for the game, rather than a freebie for the 2 QLD clubs.
Yeah, ■■■■ the zones off completely IMO.
This rubbish where Sydney are listing 100+ kids in each age group into their “academy” is an absolute joke, and exactly what the draft was designed to avoid.
Can you imagine Essendon or Collingwood being allowed a 20% discount on 4 or 5 x under 18s sides worth of kids? We’d never need to draft anyone from outside that ever again
Worth pointing out there was a decade from the late 90s to the late 00s where literally every club made a prelim and I think 14 of the 16 played off in a GF. The draft - equalisation - was working.
They put the academies in place to get kids playing footy. However I’m not sure they needed to go the next step and basically gift the clubs high draft picks.
The only complication is the father son rule. If that didn’t exist it would be simple to just allow clubs to select academy players undrafted in the rookie draft. Everyone in the draft pool in my opinion should be fair game.
Again, no mention of anyone coming Essendon’s way this year or next. Is our NGA a bust or something?
Apparently we have two promising NGA kids next year.
