Why Ross Lyon was right to whack the compromised draft — not just Gold Coast

While singling out Gold Coast might not have been the right play for Ross Lyon, he is on the money about the AFL’s compromised draft. Jon Ralph writes, other clubs can’t escape scrutiny.

In the same year Gold Coast lost its co-captains Tom Lynch and Steven May to raiding southerners, St Kilda tweeted minutes after the Suns drafted Ben King about luring him back to Melbourne.

“Ben, if you ever want to come home…” St Kilda posted with a wink-face emoji and photo of Ben and their new draftee Max.

The message was clear - Victorian clubs would never stop ravaging the Gold Coast list.

Gold Coast had to draft its own.

It is why the Suns invested so much into its own academy to start stockpiling local talents, spending as much as $2 million a season (some AFL money, and some funded by a pair of Suns sponsors).

Ross Lyon’s comments caused a stir. Picture: Getty Images

And it is why Ross Lyon’s nepo baby comment cut so deep for the Suns on Sunday afternoon.

St Kilda CEO Carl Dilena confirmed on Monday that Suns CEO Mark Evans had angrily confronted him post-match, ironically after emerging from a corporate box the Saints had provided for the clash.

Dilena hadn’t seen Lyon’s comment by that stage but he will not back away from the club’s fight to bring about a less compromised draft.

There is genuine animosity between the clubs.

St Kilda believes Gold Coast is being handed a premiership list on a platter from its academy talent (Ethan Read, Jed Walter, Leo Lombard, Jake Rogers, with more to come).

Gold Coast thinks the Saints are a pack of whingers who took academy picks in Mitch Owens and Marcus Windhager and are boasting about the sons of Riewoldt, Montagna and Hayes one day joining the club.

The Suns are thrilled to have secured St Kilda’s Ben Long for a second-round pick only to turn him into one of footy’s most dynamic forwards.

The Suns’ anger comes from what they see as a lack of credit after working their butts off to build a culture and talent pathway despite no father-son recruits, retention issues and the difficulty in bringing talent north.

Damien Hardwick and the Suns were not impressed with Lyon’s comments. Picture: Getty Images

They still believe they are well behind Victorian rivals when it comes to competitive balance.

Case in point?

Collingwood is still coming as hard as ever for Ben King next year and the Suns haven’t been able to sign Matt Rowell as of yet despite an 8-2 win-loss record that would have surely seen him signing early at a Victorian club.

Collingwood is a pursuer for Rowell.

The same club that was able to secure free agent Harry Perryman, swooped in to nab Dan Houston, has three All Australian father-sons, NGA defender Isaac Quaynor and this year has two quality NGA prospects AND father-son players Tom McGuane and Oscar Lonie.

Yet Gold Coast is St Kilda’s problem?

Collingwood have used the AFL’s trade and draft rules to their advantage. Picture: Michael Klein

So the Suns will boast about their academy pipeline, even if their club announcement yesterday that eight Suns players had been selected in the Allies side for the Under-18 championships seemed designed to troll Ross Lyon.

Gold Coast argues the changes to the draft system will make it legitimately hard to recruit multiple first-round academy players each year, which means many of the Suns academy players will be taken by southern sides.

This year the Suns will take top three-pick Zeke Uwland (brother of Bodhi), speedster Dylan Patterson (a likely first-rounder) and Beau Addinson (best-afield in the Futures games and a likely top ten pick).

But the Suns argue they have been able to stockpile three first-rounders to match those bids in part by moving on former No.2 pick Jack Lukosius last year.

The AFL does have an issue, and it isn’t yet with the Suns given this club has won absolutely nothing.

This year Brisbane could win the flag again, easily match the points for top three academy mid Daniel Annable and secure this year’s best free agent in Oscar Allen.

Brisbane would be stoked to get Daniel Annable at a heavily discounted cost. Picture: Getty Images

How does that aid equalisation not long after Gillon McLachlan warned clubs not to fully rebuild because it took them too long.

This year’s national draft will be a disaster for those who want an equal playing field.

Clubs like St Kilda with mid-tier first-round picks will watch as those early selections balloon to the early or late 20s and their second-rounders become close to irrelevant.

In a year clubs should be stockpiling talent before Tasmania’s inclusion the academy kids are brilliant and clubs are still concerned about a weak Victorian crop this year and next.

A recruiter like St Kilda’s Simon Dalrymple will look on drooling at the talent that is quarantined from a club like the Saints who don’t have any father-sons or NGA products this year.

Brilliant inside-outside Lions mid Annable, Sydney’s 191cm mid Max King, Suns trio Uwland, Patterson and Addinsal, Pies pair Tom McGuane and Zach McCarthy, Essendon NGA kids Adam Sweid and El Achkar.

Not all of them are first-round picks but enough will be to mean those clubs without father-son or NGA access are left far behind.

As Dilena said yesterday: “If we are really serious about a competitive balance review we would have a look at how clubs turn themselves around quickly and how they accelerate rebuilds. How do we have a competitive competition where clubs aren’t languishing at the bottom?”

The doomsday scenario which St Kilda believes is being fulfilled is a league where the power clubs keep topping up with free agents, father-sons and academy kids and never bottom out.

While clubs like the Saints are prevented from the game’s elite talent unless they tank while having to offer preposterous sums to players like Tom De Koning to consider a team that has won one final since 2010.

Ross Lyon was right to keep whacking away at the compromised draft - he just might have the wrong target in Gold Coast.

Originally published as Why Ross Lyon was right to whack the compromised draft — not just Gold Coast