1987 Phantom Draft

[footyfan1978]

This is the 13th post in a series of retrospective draft pools I've posted here starting with players turning 18 during the year 1975 and each subsequent year the next batch of 18 year olds. This is just a fun task to look back in the time that I been watching football in this league and wondering the quality of players that can be found retrospectively, as if drafts were done the same as they are now. Obviously in the past, drafts as we know them now, did not exist. The late 1970's and 80's before the league expanded progressively from 12 to 16 clubs there were clubs having under 19's and no real restriction on ages to play seniors and later the early drafts of league had different rules regarding birth date eligibility to be in some draft pools. This series is to look back at each batch of players from same birth year and wonder whom would be the top draft picks and how deep in quality each yearly draft pool could have been.

If you watched football in the league from late 80's and during the 90's feel free to add your own thoughts on players you felt would have been number 1 in such retro-drafts.
This particular one of players born in 1969 has some of the core players that helped expansion clubs Eagles and then Crows make their own mark in league with premierships in the 1990's and in general is a pool of players that looks deep in midfielders.

Here is the retrospective draft pool of 18 year olds in year 1987:

1969 Born players (retrospective 1987 Draft)
Waterson, Chris
Kellett, Nigel
Fotia, Dominic
Keighran, Darren
Matthews, Ashley
Welsby, David
Sim, Lachlan
Rowe, Brad
Wilkinson, Darron
Luff, Troy
Gilbert, Phil
Williams, Grant
Baldwin, Jason
MacMillan, Glenn
Willison, Leigh
Ingerson, Anthony
Fletcher, Adrian
Fox, Brad
Harris, Brenton
Long, Michael
Brown, David
Rose, Gavin
Plain, Bradley
Stubbs, Justin
Tudor, Leigh
Beardsley, Nicholas
Cummings, Robert
Svilar, Michael
Shephard, Heath
Venner, Steven
Wallis, Dean
Quill, Peter
Monkhorst, Damian
Febey, Steven
Febey, Matthew
Cummings, Steven
Moore, Brendan
Bickley, Mark
Ballantyne, Jon
Kelly, Paul
Lovett, Glenn
Angus, Warwick
Woods, Tony
Free, Tony
Mansfield, Matthew
Smith, Shaun
Evans, Tony
Werner, Michael
Clarke, Troy
Peters, Wayne
Barnes, John
Bowey, Brett
Clape, Matt
Bingham, Lawrence
Gow, Paul
Smart, Nigel
McKenna, Guy
Hooper, Stephen
Brown, Paul
Lamprill, Andrew
Lewis, Dale
Denham, Sean
Minton-Connell, Simon
Retzlaff, Brendon
Lawrence, Stephen
Wigney, Stuart
Bourke, Tim
Gowers, Andrew
Johnston, David
Nichols, Trent
Miller, Peter
Matera, Peter
Hungerford, Brett
Francis, Tony
Freeman, Peter
OBrien, Darren
Lewis, Chris
West, Robert
Modra, Tony
Scott, Robert
Faull, Greg
Whyte, Peter
Pittman, David
Flood, David
Lupson, Dean
Kemp, Dean
Ridley, Todd
Griffiths, Stuart
Hickmott, Robert
Bond, Chris
Watters, Scott
Strempel, Shane
Reynolds, Keenan
Hrysoulakis, Athas
Campbell, Adrian
Brunton, Neil

Previous Retro-Draft Polls
1975 retro-draft
1976 retro-draft
1977 retro-draft
1978 retro-draft
1979 retro-draft
1980 retro-draft
1981 retro-draft
1982 retro-draft
1983 retro-draft
1984 retro-draft
1985 retro-draft
1986 retro-draft

 

[Monkey King]

For me, a toss up between Matera & Modra. I went with Modra. A genuine star who drew people to the game, he had Adelaide alight with Modra Fever in his prime. It was hard to overlook Matera though.

 

[footyfan1978]

For me, a toss up between Matera & Modra. I went with Modra. A genuine star who drew people to the game, he had Adelaide alight with Modra Fever in his prime. It was hard to overlook Matera though.

Tough pool to find a clear first pick. Good pros for those guys to have been pick one but also players like Paul Kelly and Long were stars of the 1990's.
Kemp was a better player than most people realized at the time. You would be quite happy with having any pick in top five and feel you'd get a real quality player for long term.

 

[InFineForm]

Tough pool to find a clear first pick. Good pros for those guys to have been pick one but also players like Paul Kelly and Long were stars of the 1990's.
Kemp was a better player than most people realized at the time. You would be quite happy with having any pick in top five and feel you'd get a real quality player for long term.

Agreed with all of the above. I went with Kelly as #1 on the basis of his captaincy being an important factor on his overall contribution to his club. Matera comfortably ahead on pure brilliance, but I thought their overall output was similar. Long may even be ahead of both in overall contribution to the game, but that would take into acount his off-field contributuion as well. Modra was gold, but shone bright for a relatively shorter period.