1990 Phantom Draft

[footyfan1978]

This is the sixteenth 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 during the 1990's feel free to add your own thoughts on players you felt would have been number 1 in such retro-drafts of this period of further league expansion.

This particular one of players born in 1972 sees young gun key forwards such as David Schwarz and Chris Grant be in this retro-draft pool along with hard nut medium size players like David King, Adrian Hickmott and Damien Hardwick. The elite kicking mids making strong claims to be the number one type pick of this retro-draft would be Nathan Buckley and Leon Cameron. Some of the decent tall defender types of this pool would be McIntosh, O'Reilly and Martin Pike.

The league was now known as the AFL and the end of VFL club zones and under 19's was soon to become a reality. Concessions to expansion clubs in WA, SA, NSW and Queensland were still in effect. This meant the pool of players still has these conditions existing that effect the pools of actual league draft of this time not having many of these players of this year born in it. In fact if you look back at the 1990 league draft you will not find many of these 18 year olds of that year in it.
The pathway of all teenagers competing together in a truly national draft was still a number of years away from the being the norm.

Here is the retrospective draft pool of 18 year olds in year 1990:

1972 Born players (retrospective 1990 Draft)
Bootsma, Brad
Thomson, Andrew
Mitchell, Gavin
Thornborrow, Wayne
Riccardi, Peter
James, Brett
Sziller, Steven
Grant, Chris
Merillo, Jamie
Ball, Jason
Pike, Martin
Sholl, Brad
O'Reilly, Stephen
Richardson, Mark
Sexton, Ben
Burton, Jay
Robran, Jonathon
Thompson, Andrew
Direen, Scott
McIntosh, Ashley
Lamb, Wayne
Stevens, Gary
Peckett, Justin
Campbell, Wayne
Hills, Paul
Stone, Nicholas
Young, Matthew
Bardsley, Kristian
Prescott, Ashley
Breuer, Shayne
Cameron, Leon
Kilpatrick, Glenn
Heffernan, Martin
Leach, Quenton
Hardwick, Damien
Mensch, David
Smith, Jason
Windsor, Ray
Robins, Haydn
Sullivan, Chris
Connell, Matthew
Atkinson, Brodie
Seecamp, Marcus
Buckley, Nathan
Schwarz, David
Edwards, Stuart
Davis, Brad
Saliba, Adam
McGregor, Anthony
Kretiuk, Steven
Krummel, Brendan
Kowal, Darren
McDonald, Anthony
Ambrose, Richard
Bower, Nathan
Hilton, Jeff
Nettelbeck, Craig
Evans, Brett
Kennedy, Mark
Hernaman, Wayne
Dickie, Donald
Tranquilli, Andrew
Godden, Tony
Rouvray, Paul
De Iulio, Ron
Maxfield, Stuart
Poole, Darryl
Hickmott, Adrian
Steele, Stuart
Balkwill, Andrew
Darcy, Anthony
Metropolis, Daniel
Wira, Brad
King, David
Grgic, Ilija
Lehmann, Troy
Heatley, Jason
McCarthy, Adam
Schaefer, Robert
Stanley, Darren
Geister, Paul
Norrish, Jason
Wilson, Troy
Downsborough, Ian
Dent, Matthew
John, Gareth
Christou, Ang
Dipetta, Aldo
Wills, Andrew
Lissenden, Eric



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
1987 retro-draft
1988 retro-draft
1989 retro-draft