Fears AFL clubs could manipulate mid-season draft and stockpile young talent from SANFL
SANFL clubs fear a mid-season draft debacle as AFL clubs Adelaide and Port Adelaide cast an eye to the future rather than immediate needs.
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SANFL clubs’ worst mid-season draft fears appear certain to be realised, with Adelaide and Port Adelaide indicating some AFL clubs will stockpile talent for the future rather than look for an immediate list fix.
With less than two weeks before SANFL clubs are exposed — and possibly have their premiership hopes wrecked — to the first AFL mid-season draft since 1993, the Crows and Power say clubs will cast an eye to the future, as much as the present, in deciding whether to add players from another league to their 2019 squads.
“I think that’s the way clubs will approach it,’’ Port general manager of football Chris Davies said.
“I’m sure some clubs will have the future in mind and say, ‘here is a 19-year-old player who we potentially were going to draft last year who we want to get onto our list before the drafts at the end of the year’.
“There will be a balance. You keep hearing that Essendon might be looking for a ruckman (to play now).’’
Adelaide assistant coach Michael Godden said he expected some clubs to ‘look more long term’.
“I don’t sit on list management but, potentially, (that’s the way it would work),’’ he said.
“Hopefully if we are bringing a player into our system we are not bringing him in for three months, we are bringing him in to make him a part of our system for a long period of time.’’
AFL player manager Liam Pickering claimed some clubs would manipulate the contentious May 27 mid-season draft to secure a young player for the future rather than one with experience.
“I think you’ll see clubs looking at the draft saying, ‘we get a bloke in who’s 26 who can fill a hole for us, unless they’re right near the top, they’re going to have to pick up the speed of AFL for a start, so what do they do?’,’’ Pickering told SEN.
“They take the best young kid available, give him a six-month window into our club and he gets a jump on next season.
“He’s already six months in and had six months of learning what we’re doing.
“You’re looking at maybe a 10-year career. (Clubs will say) we won’t have to use pick 40 on this kid because we’ll already have him.”
More than 300 players have nominated for the draft, including 40 from the SANFL.
Twenty-two of them, including Glenelg’s Cory Gregson and Lachie Hosie, West Adelaide’s John Noble — son of Brisbane football general manager David Noble — and Norwood’s Matthew Nunn are set to undergo medical screenings next week.
South Adelaide ruckman Michael Knoll, who won the Fos Williams Medal in South Australia’s seven-point triumph against Western Australia in Perth on Sunday, is almost certain to be thrown an AFL lifeline.
The Power and Crows both have a list spot available following season-ending knee injuries to the untried Jake Patmore and last year’s AFL Rising Star runner-up Tom Doedee respectively.
“We’ve got the opportunity to participate,’’ Davies told ABC Grandstand.
“What we need to weigh up there is financial factors compared with the ability for whoever it is who we might draft to come in and make a difference potentially for the remainder of this season.
“We don’t have a specific need right now, despite the fact that we’ve got a number of injuries.
“We still think that we’ve got a reasonable balance, so we’ll make some of those decisions over the next couple of weeks as to whether we will participate or not.’’
Draft order will be in reverse premiership ladder position after round 10.
The mid-season draft was reintroduced by the AFL to help limit the impact of long-term injuries and premature retirements to its clubs, giving them the opportunity to replenish their lists for the back half of the campaign.
But it does stand to be manipulated.
“We’re going into the mid-season draft expecting that to be the case,’’ said SANFL general manager of football Adam Kelly.
“We’ve always felt this draft would be used more for securing talent for future years, rather than finding talent that might solve an immediate issue on an AFL club list.
“This is mainly because it’s difficult to see how many players from outside the AFL system could come in and make an immediate impact because of the different (training) preparations.
“The mid-season draft is disappointing for State Leagues, full stop.’’
Godden, who coached SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens for nine years before joining the Crows at the end of last season, said he sympathised with State League clubs that might lose players.
“It’s a difficult situation,’’ he said.
“I've seen both sides of it and from a SANFL point of view you obviously wouldn't be real happy about it.
“But you deal with that at the end of every year and you have to understand the situation you are in, which is a development league, that’s part of it and players can get injured too.
“Giving a player an opportunity at AFL level is exciting as well.’’
Under the rules, a club that selects a player in the mid-season rookie draft can negotiate a short-term (until October 31 this year) or longer-term (October 31 next year) contract.
Once the deal expires, the club has first rights to them prior to the national draft, as per the current rookie-list rules.
Otherwise the player becomes a delisted free agent.
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