Why the Power is looking to build a foundation for success through youth, not poaching experience
Port Adelaide’s AFL list management took a dramatic shift at the end of last year. The Power are no longer seeking a quick fix with a version of baseball’s Moneyball theme, writes Michelangelo Rucci.
Michelangelo Rucci
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Port Adelaide has tried its AFL list management by Moneyball. But that loading up with other clubs’ loose ends, particularly in the 2017 trade period, has not delivered regular finals appearances, let alone that much-needed premiership.
The Power says it binned Moneyball - the American baseball theme of buying “undervalued” players, such as Steven Motlop from Geelong - at the end of 2018 when Ken Hinkley’s team fell from seventh to 10th, continuing to under-deliver after an 11-4 start in 2017.
“We made a decision at the end of 2018 that the squad needed to change,” explains Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas.
And for the past two trade and draft periods Power list manager Jason Cripps, more so than senior coach Hinkley, has been working “Astroball” - the latest American baseball theme in building a successful squad.
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Like the 2019 MLB runner-up Houston Astros, who built their success after falling to the lowest payroll in American baseball, Port Adelaide is investing in youth, top-end draft picks - and needing to keep fans filing through the gates to avoid financial collapse.
Houston’s “grand experiment”, as Sports Illustrated termed it, emphasised “every decision - no matter how painful - would be based on the probability of being helpful in the long term.”
Trading club champion Chad Wingard to Hawthorn to secure defender Ryan Burton and top-10 draftee Connor Rozee met this aim.
So does, in the long-term theory, trading Dougal Howard to St Kilda to engineer to first-round picks (Nos. 12 and 18 as opposed to just No. 10) in November’s AFL national draft.
“If,” adds Thomas, “we’re looking at not just being around the top eight but being in (finals) and being a really serious contender (for the flag), we needed to make changes across the board.
“It has been a two-year process (of) injecting a lot more high-end young talent into the squad.”
It began last year with first-round draftees Rozee, Xavier Duursma, Zac Butters, (2012 No. 8 pick at Brisbane) Sam Mayes and (2015 No. 19) Burton.
It will continue this year with two more first-round draftees as Port Adelaide seeks to build the AFL’s best under-23 squad and uses the league’s new four-year rule for stockpiling salary cap to make big plays - as the Astros did after working youth - in the trade and free-agency market.
“We want to win consistently, play good finals footy and, ultimately, win premierships,” Thomas says. “We are on that path.”
Port Adelaide’s list profile highlights the change from buying experience in the Moneyball way to developing under-23 talent by the Astroball system.
Of the 38 players on the Power’s list today, 19 are in the under-23 category next season - 11 in the 18-21 age group which is to be the basis of Port Adelaide’s next AFL premiership team.
They are: Rozee, Duursma, Butters, Kane Farrell, Joel Garner, Riley Grundy, Sam Hayes, Jake Patmore, Boyd Woodcock and the rookie-listed Tobin Cox and Martin Frederick.
Between the under-23s and the 16 players aged 26 and older, there are just three: John Cahill Medal runner-up Darcy Byrne-Jones, Karl Amon and Geelong recruit Wylie Buzza.
Of the seven primary squad players moved out of Alberton in the recently concluded delisting-trade period, four (Matthew Broadbent, Sam Gray, Patrick Ryder and Jack Trengove) were aged 26 or older.
The Astroball theme of stripping down to youth is clear at Port Adelaide.
Of the 38 still at Alberton, eight are first-round draftees of the Power’s own choosing. This will increase to 10 with picks Nos. 12 and 18 on November 26-27.
There are another four first-round draftees claimed from other AFL clubs - Burton, Mayes, former vice-captain Brad Ebert and 2008 No. 1 draftee Jack Watts.
“We’re thrilled with the development of our under-23 squad and how the guys in that next line - Dan Houston, DBJ, Ryan Burton - have had great years,” Thomas said.
“It is a solid group aged under 25. And we go to the draft again in a good position to inject more high-end talent.”
Gone is the quick fix with Moneyball. Port Adelaide is on the long game with Astroball or what might become the AFL’s Powerball.