South Adelaide coach Jarrad Wright says AFL mid-season draft ‘really hurt us’
South Adelaide has “never recovered” from losing its number one ruckman to Sydney in the mid-season AFL draft and now needs a miracle to play in September.
SOUTH Adelaide coach Jarrad Wright has opened up on the high cost of the AFL mid-season rookie draft to SANFL clubs, suggesting it has probably cost the Panthers a finals spot.
While not wanting to make excuses for losing four consecutive games, which has seen South slump from sitting in the top three to seventh and needing a miracle to play in September with three rounds remaining, Wright said his club had never recovered from losing the State’s No. 1 ruckman Michael Knoll to Sydney after round seven.
To add insult to injury, Sydney is yet to play the Panthers big man.
His mid-season departure — which came soon after he won the Fos Williams Medal as South Australia’s best player in the State game win against Western Australia in Perth — followed the loss in March of key forward/ruckman Hayden McLean, also to the Swans, under the AFL pre-season supplementary list rules.
The Panthers’ lack of a genuine ruckman was brutally exposed in Sunday’s 28-point loss to a star-studded Port Adelaide at Noarlunga, where fifth-gamer Cameron McGree was torched by Power-listed pair Peter Ladhams and Sam Hayes.
The Port combination won hit-outs 41-25 against McGree and regular defender Alex Cailotto while Ladhams had 22 disposals and kicked three goals and Hayes 20 and one major.
“Losing our ruckman (Knoll) in the mid-season draft has really hurt us,’’ Wright said.
“We've leaked a lot of goals from stoppage over the past month, purely because we are undersized in that (ruck) area.
“It is frustrating, particularly given the fact that he hasn’t played (an AFL game) yet at Sydney.
“McLean, who also was on our list, has been rucking for Sydney for the past couple of weeks, so we lose our key forward just before the season starts and our No. 1 ruckman at the halfway point of the year.
“It’s frustrating but I guess that’s the way the rules were this year and unfortunately it’s probably affected us the most.
“We can’t use that an excuse because we’ve still been in the contest every week but it hasn’t helped us consistently put four quarters together.
“Hayden was our key forward and back-up ruck option and Knoll was our primary ruckman, so we lose them and our remaining rucks are pretty young and raw.
“Cam was playing his fifth game and is probably 12 months away from being a really strong State League player.
“And we’ve had to change our backline structure to ruck Cailotto, which has changed the whole dynamic of the team.’’
West Adelaide is the other SANFL club that has been hit the hardest by the new AFL rules, losing key midfielders Will Snelling (Essendon) and John Noble (Collingwood).
But it had already endured a tough start to the season and probably wasn’t going to play finals anyway.
The SANFL has taken a strong stand against AFL clubs recruiting State League players mid-season but its concerns fell on deaf ears at AFL House.
Next year, the AFL is also considering introducing a mid-season trade period, which Wright hopes might result in less SANFL players being taken in the middle of the year.
He said the reintroduction of the mid-season draft could change the way South approaches its own recruiting.
“Do you go down the path of a developing ruckman who you risk losing or do you look at a mature-ager who is probably a little bit past it (the AFL) and won’t get picked up?,’’ Wright said.
“That is something we are going to have to look at.’’