1998 Phantom Draft

[footyfan1978]

This is probably the last retrospective look at a pool of players turning 18 together in same year in the transition of the VFL into a national league before drafts were the normal pathway to be recruited until they were the established way in late 1990's.

Most of the next decade of drafts had no interruptions to drain on the draft pool of talent of new start up clubs so can easily be reviewed by looking back of AFL records of drafts of time.
All players born beyond 1980 would be drafted to a club in some form except international recruited players so can easily look back on drafts from 1999 onwards and find the pools of players is truly representative of the type of talent available for each age group.
This has just been 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've been done since 2009, which is to have no players younger than 18 at end of that year able to be drafted. In essence this means the pool of players new to league each year since 2009 is mainly 18 year olds which is the focus now to draft new talent into all clubs.

Here is the retrospective draft pool of 18 year olds in year 1998:

1980 Born players (retrospective 1998 Draft)
Golding, Matthew
Henneman, Aaron
Hayden, Roger
Baynes, Dale
Watt, Shannon
Ramanauskas, Adam
Hall, Ken
Stevens, Michael
Bradshaw, Darren
Hall, Ray
Ladhams, Chris
Carroll, Nathan
Godfrey, Simon
Broadbridge, Troy (tragically died in natural disaster on end of season holidays)
Tarrant, Chris
Wojcinski, David
Cox, Adrian
Prendergast, Ian
Rusca, Shannon
Thurstans, Toby
Gallagher, David
OBrien, Michael
Begley, James
Scotland, Heath
Johnstone, Travis
Stenglein, Tyson
Taylor, Garth
Jacobs, Danny
Jacotine, Craig
Oborne, Brad
Hill, Andrew
Baird, John
Alvey, Mark
Shirley, Robert
Picioane, Lance
Street, Peter
Davis, Chad
Antonowicz, David
Bolton, Craig
Massie, Kris
Knobel, Trent
Baker, Steven
Woolnough, Marc
Wulf, Daniel
Backwell, Brett
Clarke, David
Vardy, Royce
Shattock, Aaron
Carr, Josh
Vance, Murray
Rode, Steven
Moyle, Brett
Davis, Nick
Murray, Derek
Bolton, Jude
Grover, Antoni
Croad, Trent
Milne, Stephen
James, Heath
Smith, Lindsay
Fosdike, Nic
OBrien, Danny
Ottens, Brad
White, James
Schell, Daniel
Hayes, Lenny
Solomon, Dean
Power, Luke
Goodes, Adam
Bennett, Scott
Stevens, Nick
Holland, Brodie

A possible best of team from this 1980 born batch of players:
Light on for ruck options and gun key position depth.

Backs: Solomon, C Bolton, Massie
Half Backs: H Scotland, Croad, Ramanauskas
Centreline: T Johnstone, L Hayes, N Stevens
Half Forwards: L Power, A Goodes, Fosdike
Forwards: Milne, C Tarrant, N Davis
Followers: B Ottens, J Carr, J Bolton
Interchange: Wojcinski, Shirley, R Hall, B Holland

Emergencies: Stenglein, Thurstans, D Jacobs

A possible top ten may have been chosen from these guys:
A random suggestion of mine just at first glance.

1. Adam Goodes
2. Lenny Hayes
3. Jude Bolton
4. Luke Power
5. Nick Stevens
6. Stephen Milne
7. Chris Tarrant
8. Brad Ottens
9. Heath Scotland
10. Dean Solomon

Links to 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
1992 retro-draft
1993 retro-draft
1994 retro-draft
1995 retro-draft
1996 retro-draft
1997 retro-draft

 

[footyfan1978]

One thing is clear to me after going through this series of retro-draft pools, and that is, if the AFL recruiters as a whole are doing their job well by the time the AFL draft gets to pick 40 virtually all the players that are of use to an AFL club should have been picked up. Of course they will be trying to pick a diamond in the rough with picks 40 and more but there usually is no more than 30 decent players each new intake. The absolute guns to build premiership teams around should be found in first 4 or 5 picks. As a supporter of a team if your first pick of a draft is pick 9 or 10, you can't be expecting your club to find a Michael Voss or Luke Hodge at that stage into a draft. Of course you hope you can and the further you go back in time the less likely the recruiters were professional enough at their job to pin-point truly what was the cream of the crop from a batch of 18 year olds. However we are now a few decades into this, so I expect the whole process and professionalism of full time recruiters now would mean, in the future you won't find the experts giving examples of finding a Chris Grant or James Hird late in the draft. If your club has a garbage list and on the bottom or near it, it is no easy fix. One of two picks in top end of a draft is not going to fix a poor list. You need a good number of years of getting very early picks in top two or three and then also be patient of the years those players develop into players approaching body size and conditioning to be near their best against players already playing 5 or more years.

As a Carlton supporter as an example, there is no way , we should be expecting to have a list competing for a premiership any time within five years. I hope for a minor miracle but honestly think it will take a good 6 or 7 years to create a list capable of winning a premiership which in turn means any guy over 24 on your list, you got to expect has little chance of seeing a premiership in his time with the club. The list managers have to be creative in these situations of retaining talent and also trading talent to get hold of more picks at top end of draft to improve the list.
Carlton have 4 picks in top 25 of draft tonight. They should be expecting to get one absolute gun and also compliment that with 3 good players. They will need to go back to the well in 2016, 2017 and 2018 drafts with many more picks in top five of draft. They will need to identify players in mid twenties to trade in that time to get hold of more of those picks we will need. You are only given one first round pick so the challenge is to find ways to get hold of more picks early in draft. Essendon trading Carlisle and making sure they got hold of a very early draft pick is what clubs have to do down near the bottom.