AFL Draft 2015: Sydney worried Callum Mills, Jacob Hopper hype is inflating points price Swans will have to pay

SYDNEY chairman Andrew Pridham is worried the publicity surrounding Academy prospects Callum Mills and Jacob Hopper is inflating the points price they will have to pay.

Five AFL stars of the future will be heading off to draft camp. The guys are pictured wearing new tops, each colour represents a postion on the ground, they are pictured at Albert Park Lake. Callum Mills (NSW). Picture: Sarah Matray

SYDNEY Swans chairman Andrew Pridham is worried the publicity surrounding Academy prospects Callum Mills and Jacob Hopper is putting enormous expectations on the players and inflating the points price they will have to pay.

After decades of slim pickings north of the Murray Mills and Hopper are likely to become the first top 10 picks from NSW since Sydney skipper Jarrad McVeigh was taken at pick five in 2002.

Wagga Wagga’s Matthew Kennedy is also an outside chance of being selected in the top 10.

This week Hopper and Mills were rated the number one and two draft prospects respectively by the AFL’s official statistician Champion Data.

“It’s a risk for the kids that they become superstars before they’ve walked into a football club,” Pridham told The Daily Telegraph.

“There is so much written about them there is so much expectation. It can also inflate their expectations and also the market’s expectations and their view of how good they are.

“I’m not saying they’re not that good I’m just saying there aren’t many kids in the draft who get as much publicity as Callum Mills for example who has had a lot of attention. These are 18 year old boys after all.”

Since the draft began in 1986, top 10 picks from NSW have been a rarity.

There have been four in 30 years, Jarrad McVeigh (No. 5, 2002 Sydney), Mark McVeigh (No. 9, 1998 Essendon), David Trotter (No. 9, 2003 North Melbourne) and John Brinkkotter (No. 10, 1986 Sydney).

Brinkkotter played five games at the Swans and Trotter played seven at North.

Isaac Heeney (No. 18, 2014 Sydney) would certainly have been a top 10 selection last year before the changes to the bidding system for Academy players and father-son picks.

Jacob Hopper in action. Picture: Colleen Petch

Pridham believes rival clubs should have to pay some sort of price to bid for academy picks and is worried opposition clubs will bid up his club at next week’s national draft and force them to pay an inflated price for Mills.

“If you make a bid to inflict points pain on another club there should be a cost to it if you don’t get them and it’s not just a free hit,” Pridham said.

“When there is not cost associated with an action there is no disincentive not to do it.

“I’m not sure how that will work, whether it’s points lost or money. One of the problems with the system is that there are no checks and balances to stop clubs bidding for players they may not want to get but want to impose pain on another club, that’s something that is a concern. There is real risk you can get inflation if you like.”

The Swans look certain to pay the points price demanded for Mills but says Academy players will be overlooked by their host clubs in the future.

“There will be times with all clubs with academies that the assessed cost is too much and they won’t be taken and it will be a surprise,” Pridham said.

“It will come for sure, it has to. You shouldn’t assume all academy and father-son players are going to get picked because the point’s system is there to inflict pain. There will be times when the pain will be too great.

“At the end of the day it’s a commercial decision based on a judgment you have to make. Sometimes father-sons don’t go to the club their father’s played for because they player doesn’t pick them or the club doesn’t pick the players.”

Originally published as AFL Draft 2015: Sydney worried Callum Mills, Jacob Hopper hype is inflating points price Swans will have to pay