Draft strategy that saved the Lions

The Brisbane Lions used their first four draft picks in the 2016 national draft on kids who had played their footy in regional Victoria.

Brisbane midfielder Jarrod Berry, who will play in a preliminary final against Geelong on Saturday in Brisbane. Picture: Peter Wallis

When the AFL season was suspended in March, Hugh McCluggage scampered back to regional Victoria alongside a number of his Lions teammates.

With the world stalled due to coronavirus, the Brisbane midfielder reset the alarm clock to chime a couple of hours earlier at his family’s dairy farm in Allansford, near Warrnambool.

The No 3 pick in the 2016 national draft spent the time doing odd jobs around the property which is the home to 700 cows and took the opportunity to engage with his siblings.

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“It was awesome, I think, for the mental state, just being able to get back and see the parents, see my sister and brother was amazing and time I will cherish forever,” he said.

It is no coincidence that as McCluggage was back at home, the fellow draftees Brisbane selected in his draft year were also re-acquainting themselves with regional life.

Of the six draftees the Lions selected that season, the first four either hailed or had played their junior football in regional Victoria. It was a deliberate recruiting strategy.

McCluggage played his junior football at the North Ballarat Rebels with Jarrod Berry, who was selected at pick 17, and Cedric Cox, who hailed from Halls Creek but spent the latter years of his schooling in the old gold mining city.

Alex Witherden, who was selected with pick 23, is from just down the Midland Highway in Geelong, having been a standout with the Falcons at under-age level in defence.

In the years before Chris Fagan arrived from Hawthorn to be senior coach and David Noble was lured from Adelaide to be Brisbane’s football boss, the Lions had an issue retaining talent.

West Coast premiership star Elliot Yeo, Carlton co-captain Sam Docherty and Kangaroo Jared Polec are among players who left the Lions in the infancy of their careers.

But as one former Hawthorn player told The Australian, Fagan had seen at the Hawks the success the club enjoyed when a group of young draftees from regional areas all bonded and developed together. Luke Hodge, who spent the last couple of seasons of his career in Brisbane, was from Colac and Jordan Lewis from Warrnambool, not too far from the McCluggage family farm.

Jarryd Roughead was from Leongatha, Brad Sewell near Ballarat. Rick Ladson was a Bendigo Pioneer. When Lions recruitment manager Steve Conole selected the 2016 crop, he said they were selected for the range of skills they offered “through the midfield and around the flanks”.

But as Berry told The Australian on Monday, they were also firm friends who had plenty in common.

“I was part of the new crew coming through, with Fages, Nobes, a few of the other coaching staff. It was a big turnover, so I was starting with a clean slate,” said the Horsham product. “It was our own canvas to paint what we wanted to and I feel like those relationships, being so tight, so early on, it was able to transfer on to the field and help us to better each other on the field, but also off the field in the weights room and to help us develop more quickly, I guess.

“To move with not only one of my best mates, but a lot of guys I knew through a lot of junior programs is a great way of drafting, I think, because you feel a fair bit more comfortable rolling in here on day one.

“We have been able to share milestones and big moments together, and I guess being together previously in the under-18s and under-16s, that was pretty special in itself. You already have those relationships with them and that adds to the culture of what you are trying to achieve at the club.”

In their first season, the Lions finished 18th. On Saturday, they play Geelong at the Gabba for the opportunity to play in a grand final on their new home soil, a world away from the western plains and Wimmera of Victoria.