This is the 18th 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 some of these past decades, the national 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 at least from the mid 1990's feel free to add your own thoughts on players you felt would have been number 1 in such retro-drafts of this batch of players and the following years.
This particular one of players born in 1974 for a retro-draft of 1992 has decent quality players for many playing roles but probably not as rich in the early picks as the previous yearly batch. If you wanted a ruck type Everitt or Stafford would be your targets. If you after a midfielder would be hard to look past a young running machine in Shane Crawford or the smooth operator of Mark Mercuri. Other viable options could be Scott West, Nick Holland and Jason McCartney. Young Tassie key forward of famous James Cook name was rated highly as the best key forward of his age and Ben Hart would become a high quality defender for the next decade.
The AFL had now had it's first year without under 19's as it had been replaced with an under 18 system independent of AFL clubs to groom teenagers ready for national draft pathways. 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 early 1990's league drafts you will not find many of these 18 year olds of that year in it. Players previously aged 16 or 17 in last year of under 19's teams existing may have been recruited to clubs directly via old club zones and could skip the need to be drafted in mid 1990's. Many of these early 1990's drafts also had pre-draft selections, mid-season drafts and various drafts going by different names and widely ranging ages of players. The AFL and it's clubs were still finding their way in transition to a full draft pathway system. As a result the so called national draft of the league for most of the 1990's had much talent already removed from a draft pool.
The pathway of all teenagers of similar age competing together in a truly national draft would still take close to end of the decade to be established as the only pathway into all AFL clubs.
Here is the retrospective draft pool of 18 year olds in year 1992:
1974 Born players (retrospective 1992 Draft)
Sierakowski, David
Burns, Scott
Jones, Anthony
Mail, Joshua
Feast, Simon
Nichol, Andrew
Dimattina, Paul
Heppell, Martin
West, Scott
Misiti, Joe
Traianidis, Jason
Campbell, Warren
Abraham, Winston
Wellman, Sean
McLure, James
Phillipou, Sam
Crawford, Shane
Macri, Christin
Stafford, Greg
Crawshay, Simon
Richardson, Adam
Morgan, Danny
Fletcher, Daniel
Jackson, Matthew
Wakelin, Shane
Wakelin, Darryl
Francou, Josh
Curran, Chris
Rintoul, Chad
Holland, Nick
Attard, Mark
Coghlan, Glen
Mellington, Anthony
Rigoni, Guy
Bomford, Andrew
Leoncelli, Andrew
Hart, Ben
Payne, Darren
AhMat, Matthew
OConnor, Ryan
Anderson, Stuart
Pitura, Mark
Pesch, Nick
Bamford, Scott
Waterhouse, Clive
Kerinaiua, Adam
Sharkey, Paul
Nicholson, Brad
Parker, Daniel
Keating, Aaron
Feddema, Brendon
Green, Peter
Everitt, Peter
Healy, Daniel
Jones, Sam
Shaw, Damen
Tape, Jamie
McCartney, Jason
Dhurrkay, Gary
Sanderson, Brenton
Banfield, Drew
Mercuri, Mark
Cook, Tim
Cunningham, John
Watson, Shane
Thiessen, James
Carter, Stephen
Frigo, Rudi
Turner, Peter
Williams, Russell
Cummings, Scott
OBrien, Cristian
Burgmann, Shane
Cook, James
Neill, Robert
Fewster, Brendon
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
1990 retro-draft
1991 retro-draft
If you watched football at least from the mid 1990's feel free to add your own thoughts on players you felt would have been number 1 in such retro-drafts of this batch of players and the following years.
This particular one of players born in 1974 for a retro-draft of 1992 has decent quality players for many playing roles but probably not as rich in the early picks as the previous yearly batch. If you wanted a ruck type Everitt or Stafford would be your targets. If you after a midfielder would be hard to look past a young running machine in Shane Crawford or the smooth operator of Mark Mercuri. Other viable options could be Scott West, Nick Holland and Jason McCartney. Young Tassie key forward of famous James Cook name was rated highly as the best key forward of his age and Ben Hart would become a high quality defender for the next decade.
The AFL had now had it's first year without under 19's as it had been replaced with an under 18 system independent of AFL clubs to groom teenagers ready for national draft pathways. 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 early 1990's league drafts you will not find many of these 18 year olds of that year in it. Players previously aged 16 or 17 in last year of under 19's teams existing may have been recruited to clubs directly via old club zones and could skip the need to be drafted in mid 1990's. Many of these early 1990's drafts also had pre-draft selections, mid-season drafts and various drafts going by different names and widely ranging ages of players. The AFL and it's clubs were still finding their way in transition to a full draft pathway system. As a result the so called national draft of the league for most of the 1990's had much talent already removed from a draft pool.
The pathway of all teenagers of similar age competing together in a truly national draft would still take close to end of the decade to be established as the only pathway into all AFL clubs.
Here is the retrospective draft pool of 18 year olds in year 1992:
1974 Born players (retrospective 1992 Draft)
Sierakowski, David
Burns, Scott
Jones, Anthony
Mail, Joshua
Feast, Simon
Nichol, Andrew
Dimattina, Paul
Heppell, Martin
West, Scott
Misiti, Joe
Traianidis, Jason
Campbell, Warren
Abraham, Winston
Wellman, Sean
McLure, James
Phillipou, Sam
Crawford, Shane
Macri, Christin
Stafford, Greg
Crawshay, Simon
Richardson, Adam
Morgan, Danny
Fletcher, Daniel
Jackson, Matthew
Wakelin, Shane
Wakelin, Darryl
Francou, Josh
Curran, Chris
Rintoul, Chad
Holland, Nick
Attard, Mark
Coghlan, Glen
Mellington, Anthony
Rigoni, Guy
Bomford, Andrew
Leoncelli, Andrew
Hart, Ben
Payne, Darren
AhMat, Matthew
OConnor, Ryan
Anderson, Stuart
Pitura, Mark
Pesch, Nick
Bamford, Scott
Waterhouse, Clive
Kerinaiua, Adam
Sharkey, Paul
Nicholson, Brad
Parker, Daniel
Keating, Aaron
Feddema, Brendon
Green, Peter
Everitt, Peter
Healy, Daniel
Jones, Sam
Shaw, Damen
Tape, Jamie
McCartney, Jason
Dhurrkay, Gary
Sanderson, Brenton
Banfield, Drew
Mercuri, Mark
Cook, Tim
Cunningham, John
Watson, Shane
Thiessen, James
Carter, Stephen
Frigo, Rudi
Turner, Peter
Williams, Russell
Cummings, Scott
OBrien, Cristian
Burgmann, Shane
Cook, James
Neill, Robert
Fewster, Brendon
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
1990 retro-draft
1991 retro-draft
