Why AFL clubs should never trade their draft picks: A guide to the biggest draft pick trade bungles
HOW different things might have been. Instead of winning four premierships with Hawthorn, Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell could have been Dockers. DRAFT PICK TRADE DEBACLES
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“SEEMED like a good idea at the time.”
John Farnham’s song of regret has been sung more than a few times by AFL fans when they’ve looked back on draft pick disasters.
It is the anthem of the Freo Docker.
The WA club traded draft picks in 1994 and 2001 who turned out to be AFL legends Matthew Lloyd and Luke Hodge.
Triple premiership star Simon Black might have been a Swan and Jordan Lewis could have landed at Collingwood, instead of winning four flags with the Hawks.
As the trade period heads towards its climax, we look at why you should never trade your draft picks:
TOP 50: WHO MADE ROBBO’S FINAL LIST?
BUCKY: GARY BUCKENARA ON WHAT ADAM SAAD MEANS FOR BOMBERS
DEFIANT BLUES: CARLTON BULLISH ON GIBBS TRADE
STRINGER: HAS HE BEEN HUNG OUT TO DRY BY DOGS?
1994: THE TRADE THAT COST THE DOCKERS 1397 GOALS
FREMANTLE GETS: Todd Ridley, Tony Delaney and Dale Kickett
ESSENDON GETS: Pick 4 (Scott Lucas) and a compensation pick (Matthew Lloyd)
As far as draft trading bungles go, this one surely takes the cake.
About to begin its first season in the AFL, the Dockers decided they needed some mature bodies in order to compete in the top competition.
So, with Essendon keen on a talented young full forward in Matthew Lloyd, in a convoluted set of circumstances, the Dockers ended up with Todd Ridley, Tony Delaney and Dale Kickett.
The Bombers got back the No. 4 pick, which was on a raking left-footer named Scott Lucas.
And they also received a compensation pick — which turned out to be Lloyd.
Between the pair they would play 540 games and kick 1397 goals.
Ridley was off the Freo list by the end of 1996 and Delaney made it to 1999.
Kickett provided the strongest service for the Dockers, but is still best known for the infamous Demolition Derby, where he belted the suitcase out of half of the West Coast Eagles and was suspended for nine weeks.
If that wasn’t enough, Fremantle had the right to recruit a young indigenous flyer named Andrew McLeod. They traded those rights to Adelaide for a kid named Chris Groom, who played seven games and was delisted by the Dockers at the end of the season. McLeod retired as the Crows games record holder (340) and was the Norm Smith Medallist in two premiership wins.
1997: BLACK DAY FOR SWANS
SYDNEY GETS: Simon Hawking and Brent Green
BRISBANE GETS: Pick 31 (Simon Black)
Only a season removed from its merger with Fitzroy, Brisbane was keen on a plodding Perth kid who was born in Queensland named Simon Black.
So they convinced Sydney to take defender Simon Hawking and Brent Green in exchange for pick 31 in the draft, hoping the kid who could run all day would fall to them.
It happened and the rest is history.
Black would go on to the captain the club, play in three premierships, and win a Norm Smith and a Brownlow along the way. He is still the club’s games record holder with 322.
Recurring injuries forced both Hawking and Green to retire prematurely.
Hawking’s claim to fame is keeping Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall goalless in a 1994 game. He would never make an appearance for the Swans, while Green played seven games but retired at the end of 1998.
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2000: CROWS DREW SHORT STRAW
ADELAIDE GETS: Evan Hewitt
NORTH MELBOURNE GETS: Pick 23 (Drew Petrie)
North Melbourne selected Evan Hewitt with the 23rd selection in the 1996 AFL draft.
Four years later, the Roos traded the forward to Adelaide for, ironically, pick No. 23.
North would use that pick to draft a rangy tall forward named Drew Petrie.
Petrie was an All Australian, led the Kangaroos’ goalkicking five times and played exactly 300 games at the club, before spending his final season at the West Coast Eagles.
Hewitt made it to an elimination final with the Crows in 2000, but was delisted at the end of 2001 after managing just two more games.
2001: NOT AGAIN, FREO
FREMANTLE GETS: Trent Croad and Luke McPharlin
HAWTHORN GETS: Picks one (Luke Hodge), 20 (Daniel Elstone) and 36 (Sam Mitchell)
You’d think Fremantle would be apprehensive when trading draft picks after the Lloyd-Lucas debacle, but in 2001, Hawthorn offered them a package they could not refuse.
Taking nothing away from tall defenders Trent Croad and Luke McPharlin, who were both supreme talents, the draft picks the Dockers sent back would yield Hawthorn two of the top 10 — top five in some people’s books — in the club’s rich history.
But it almost never happened, with supporters organising petitions and rallies to keep Croad at Glenferrie.
Hodge was the biggest fish in the Super Draft that featured the likes of Luke Ball, Chris Judd, Jimmy Bartel, Nick Dal Santo, Steve Johnson, Leigh Montagna, Gary Ablett, Brian Lake, Matthew Boyd, James Kelly and Dane Swan. Mitchell, it turns out, fell criminally low.
Both men would play over 300 games for the Hawks, playing in each of their four premierships from 2008-15 and winning seven best and fairests between them. Hodge was the Norm Smith Medalist in 2008 and 2014 and Mitchell won the Rising Star in 2003 and was awarded the 2012 Brownlow Medal after Jobe Watson was stripped of it.
Elstone never managed an AFL game, but he’s best mates with Hodgey and what a story he has to tell the grandkids.
McPharlin retired as second on the list of Dockers in games played (244) — and ironically lost to Hodge and Mitchell in the 2013 Grand Final, while Croad would be back at the Hawks by the end of 2003, winning a premiership with that pair in 2008.
So, if you’re keeping score, that’s nine premierships to zero.
TRADE SPECIAL: NO WAY BACK FOR STRINGER
2003: DOCKERS GET ONE BACK
WESTERN BULLDOGS GET: Steven Koops
FREMANTLE DOCKERS GET: Pick 19 (David Mundy)
In 2003, Fremantle decided it had had enough of getting fleeced of its draft picks and targeted the Western Bulldogs to get a little bit back.
The Dockers sent injury riddled small forward Steven Koops to the Dogs in exchange for pick No. 23.
Koops was a talent, but several injuries, including a broken jaw, cruelled his time at the Dogs and he retired after managing just 11 games.
Mundy won a Rising Star nomination in 2005 and became one of the toughest midfielders in the game, churning out 271 matches to date and captaining the club in 2016.
2004: COLLINGWOOD’S DRAFT DISASTER
COLLINGWOOD GETS: Chad Morrison and pick 10 (Chris Egan)
HAWTHORN GETS: Pick 7 (Jordan Lewis) plus Bo Nixon
WEST COAST GETS: Pick 37 (Mark LeCras)
Jordan Lewis in Magpie colours? Hawthorn fans shudder at the thought, while Collingwood supporters can only bury their heads in their hands when the topic of the 2004 draft comes up.
With Hawthorn red hot for Geelong Falcons bull Lewis, the Pies and Eagles joined a complex three-way trade.
Collingwood would give the Hawks pick No. 7 and Bo Nixon (one game) so they could take Lewis, using Hawthorn’s pick 10 to draft Chris Egan. Half forward Chad Morrison crossed from West Coast to Collingwood, while the Pies sent Pick No. 37 to West Coast for Mark LeCras.
LeCras has over 400 goals in 196 games for the Eagles, leading the goalkicking twice and was a club champion and All Australian. Lewis (283 games with Hawthorn and now Melbourne) has four premierships, a best and fairest and All Australian gong.
Morrison played 21 games across two seasons, retiring at the end of 2006 due to injury, while Egan never managed to carve out a regular spot in the Pies line-up and was delisted after 27 games in four seasons.
Then-Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse might want to take a mulligan on this one: “We reckon there are four or five very, very good top-line players who will go one to five and from there to 15, 16, the players are probably equal. So, at the end of it, we have come out of it with perhaps the same player we would be picking anyway, and Chad Morrison.”
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2005: POWER OUTAGE
PORT ADELAIDE GETS: Nathan Lonie
HAWTHORN GETS: Pick 14 (Grant Birchall)
Hawthorn is again the winner in this one, convincing Port Adelaide to take Nathan Lonie for pick No. 14, which they turned into four time premiership star Grant Birchall.
The two players actually shared similar profiles.
Both raking left-footers. Both around the 190cm mark. Both around the 90kg mark. Only one was a game changer.
Birchall is perhaps an unsung hero in the Hawks’ multiple premiership successes, behind the likes of Hodge, Lewis and Mitchell, but he has been no less important.
Lonie played 40 games for Port Adelaide but was out of the competition by the end of 2008.
2007: BULLDOGS MAUL TIGERS
WESTERN BULLDOGS GET: Pick 19 (Callan Ward), Pick 35 (Sam Reid), Pick 43 (Easton Wood)
RICHMOND GETS: Jordan McMahon and Mitch Morton
WEST COAST GETS: Pick 22 (Scott Selwood)
ADELAIDE GETS: Ben Hudson, Pick 30 (Jarrhan Jacky) and Pick 38 (Myke Cook)
The Tigers had a history of misusing their picks — see Tambling, Richard, Oakley-Nicholls, Jarrad — so you can understand their thinking in offloading pick 19 for the Dogs’ handy running defender.
It wasn’t all the same deal, but four clubs got involved in a number of deals that yielded a fine kitty for the Dogs — and some disappointment for the Tigers.
Problem is, the Dogs used that pick to nab midfield monster Callan Ward and would then net Pick 43, which turned into premiership star Easton Wood.
Then Richmond football director Greg Miller had this to say at the time: “I think with Mitch Morton and Jordan McMahon we’ve added great kicking ability. I think Richo (Matthew Richardson) and Browny (Nathan Brown) would be pretty pleased with those signings.”
There is some solace for the Tigers, with Ward jumping ship at the end of 2011 to captain the new GWS club, winning the Giants’ inaugural best and fairest.
The Dogs used that compo pick on Jackson Macrae Before you judge this trade too harshly, consider that it might just have been the first step in the Tigers drought-breaking premiership this season, kicking the goal against Melbourne in 2009 that ensured the they would miss out on the top pick and securing them some guy named Dustin Martin.
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