Carlton, Gold Coast, Melbourne among clubs with most top-10 draft picks
Carlton will emerge from this month’s national draft with a perfect dozen of top-10 draft picks on its list. But does that rank the Blues as the league’s No.1 for top end talent?
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Carlton will emerge from this month’s national draft with an incredible 12 players on its list taken as a top-10 selection.
The Blues have stockpiled a stunning array of talent, with coach David Teague saying this week he wouldn’t put a ceiling on what the club could achieve in 2020.
Having missed out on Sydney’s Tom Papley, the club’s No. 9 pick will likely shuffle down to pick 10 by the time the Giants bid for inside midfielder Tom Green.
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But the Blues will still secure another top-10 pick and then snaffle Jack Martin in the pre-season draft, a player taken by the Suns in the 2012 mini-draft after they traded pick two to GWS.
Carlton’s top-ten selections – including players they have drafted who were initially top-10 picks – include Sam Walsh, Paddy Dow, Sam Petrevski-Seton, Harry McKay, Lochie O’Brien, Marc Murphy and Matthew Kreuzer.
Players who could go around pick 10 on November 27 include WA inside midfielder Deven Robertson, Vic Metro swingman Fisher McAsey and dynamic Vic Country small forward Cody Weightman.
Teague said this week his players had their destiny in their own hands, aware five years of rebuilding has handed the club a list with so many potential stars, if they can maximise their talent.
“It really depends upon how we train. It’s in our hands, which I love. I believe in this playing group,” he said.
“They have started to believe in themselves so it is in our hands in terms of what we can achieve. I am not going to put a ceiling on it. They came back in really good condition. Compared to last year we can already see the difference. You can see the hunger there. They want to be a part of it.”
The Giants are desperate to secure Melbourne’s No. 3 pick to secure a player before anyone bids on academy star Green, happy to give away next year’s first-round pick to elevate from pick six to three.
It would give them two first-round picks by the time they bid for Green, and mean they have 10 players taken in the top 10 on their list.
Gold Coast has picks one, two, 15 and 20 and is keen to trade up for a third high pick by swapping 15 and 20.
While there has been an exodus of talent from the Suns in previous years they still have nine top-10 picks on their list.
But as an indication of the club’s talent drain, the Suns have only five players picked between 11-20 and just 18 players taken in the top 40 of a draft, with only five clubs having fewer top-40 picks on their lists.
The Crows have just two top-10 selections on their list and only 13 players taken in the top 40 selections, adamant the way forward is to secure star talent through the draft.
Richmond has only five players taken in the top 10 but they are some of the club’s stars, including Dustin Martin, Trent Cotchin, Dion Prestia and Nick Vlastuin.
West Coast has the most players taken as top-40 selections, with four players taken in the top 10, seven from 11-20, eight from 21-30 and seven from 31-40.
Originally published as Carlton, Gold Coast, Melbourne among clubs with most top-10 draft picks