Opinion What can the AFL do to make the draft more interesting?

[captain cotch 9]

I have to give the AFL credit for at least trying something new this year with the 1st round done in one night.
I did enjoy the small interviews with the young blokes after they just had their dreams realised.
But........
Mostly it was extremely slow and I think the majority of fans wouldnt of known who the players where which also dosnt help.

So what can the AFL do next year to make it more interesting?

 

[tigs2010]

I think they're on the right track.

Need to do something about the coverage of juniors throughout the year.

 

[Colonial]

Make it one day include live trading of players and picks.


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[random260]

Put it on prime time night free to air

And advertise the hell out of it.

I would have watched if was free to air

 

[Lore]

Do it during the Brownlow, Rising Star, All Australian presentations, or some other mind-numbing event. Then the boring gaps can be filled with the other event. Maybe even play an AFLX game between picks, there's enough time to do that if they wanted to.

 

[Groin guru]

Do it all at once and get on with it.

 

[Lore]

Do it during the Brownlow, Rising Star, All Australian presentations, or some other mind-numbing event. Then the boring gaps can be filled with the other event. Maybe even play an AFLX game between picks, there's enough time to do that if they wanted to.

Better yet, make the clubs play off against each other for the picks, 18th plays 17th in AFLX, whoever wins takes pick 1. #exciting #dontmissit #liveandexclusive

 

[Heisenberg_]

I think they're on the right track.

Need to do something about the coverage of juniors throughout the year.

It will never be the event it is in the US because the juniors don’t have the following that the college system has in the US.
Everybody knows the big players up for draft there for 2-3 years where as here most people just see done junior highlights on YouTube.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Less bullshit will make it more interesting.

 

[Jeremias]

Definitely on the right track but there's plenty of room for improvement.

It'd be nice to have a host who seems genuinely interested. Gil and Hocking were terrible.

Every club having to wait out the 5 minutes per pick on the first night was laughable, and added nothing to the spectacle. If they're ready to take the pick, take the pick.

Would be nice to have 'draft experts' more involved in the coverage, guys like Matt Balmer we saw for 5 minutes before the draft, and then nothing else from him. I'd much rather listen to what he has to say than the likes of Brad Johnson and that buffoon David King who has no idea.

 

[Macca19]

There is no point in showing a table of recruiters all with their arms crossed except for the bloke in front of the laptop who clicks the mouse once for 3 1/2 minutes each pick. Unless there is some robust discussion going on then the viewers should not see the recruiting teams at all. Get on to Champion Data and organise for 3-4 minutes of highlights of each pick.

 

[master bate]

Just stop trying to have an each way bet and either scale it back and speed it up or go all in on making it work.

It's the whole - if you're going to do something then do it properly.

1. Rules: Allow teams to trade future picks with far less restriction. Up to 3 years in to the future with any round. Make academy picks be matched within at least 1 pick within 20 picks, none of this adding a bunch of late picks that completely scrambles the order.

2. Venue: It needs to have a crowd. Doesn't have to be massive but get some fans in there. It's footy in Melbourne (as long as they don't sell it else where) a crowd will come.

Move the players to a green room set up with a table for each family. Dress them up in suits and let them be emotion when picked. The interview were already good, with a bit more atmosphere they interviews could be great.

3. Coverage: The panel back in the studios?? Bush league stuff. Get the panel live at the draft. Huddo on the radio was great - there's your host. Mick Ablett or Shifter weren't bad, pair them with someone who covers the draft and not afraid to have an opinion. I'd hire Nightmare and give him a few drinks and let him loose, the guy actually rates the players and puts his neck on the line unlike most involved in draft coverage.

Get proper vision of each of the top 20 picks. When they get drafted tell us there athletic tools and roll some footage and break it down.

One of the great myths about the NFL Draft is that fans have watched the players. It's BS. Yeah they've seen the top 5, the QB's and the well known skill position guys. But a fan of the San Fran 49ers is unlikely to have watched games and deeply studied the play of an offensive linemen from the 60th best team in College Football located on the other side of the country. They publish the physical testing results, they publish highlights and they get Todd McShay and Mel Kiper to yell at each other when he's drafted with the 25th pick in the draft. It's watchable because it's real life reality TV.

 

[master bate]

In the mean time given they won't invest what they need to spruce it up they should:

1. Scale back the requirement of the full 5 minutes. If that happens they can do the first round in 80-90 minutes which is perfectly watchable.

2. Invent trades!! That's how they fill time in trade week. Just lie and report a few muted trades. If Carlton have the guts to do 19 and swap with the Crows then the audience will believe anything.

 

[2006_Eagles]

It's not an entertainment product breh's, it's the ******* draft

 

[Richo83]

It's way too long and there's way too many interviews with awkward kids who all say the same thing.

 

[james Dean]

It's not an entertainment product breh's, it's the ******* draft

Yep, this. No matter how much fanfare they add to it, it is still just a bunch of middle aged men deciding which 18 year old boys they want to take home with them.

 

[Scodog10]

IMO, both of the first two options and end the Chinese whispers that goes on between clubs, kids/ families, managers and journos bringing us back to a “pure” draft night. The last draft I remember a shock inside the top 5 was 05 with Pendlebury. Since then every man and his dog knew what everyone was doing for the majority of the first 20-30 picks.

A scenario like today where most of the 50+ picks were up in the air will garner much more interest. Look at Collingwood and Sydney they were able to trade out picks heading into draft night that had them cover their points within a pick or two. At least today we saw a heap of trades as players slipped which added an element of intrigue to it. Only my two cents and I realise it’s nigh on impossible to enforce, but why not give it a crack.

FWIW although I’m strongly in the camp of not making something like this interesting I understand there’s a desire from the average punter for it to be the case.

 

[RUNVS]

I thought the live trading worked well and added a certain amount of excitement to the draft.

 

[dmc333]

Roaming Brian

 

[Jibroni]

Stopping Gilligan from hosting it would be a good start.

 

[DIG]

Allow the trading of just-drafted players.

 

[DIG]

Also, a minor thing but it was awful the way it kicked off...........and then there was 5 minutes of NOTHING while Blues waited to be allowed to pick Walsh.

It should start straight away. So next year “And so Carlton has pick one and they have selected.......”

 

[FD2646]

Stopping Gilligan from hosting it would be a good start.

He is so boring!

 

[footyfan1978]

It will never be the event it is in the US because the juniors don’t have the following that the college system has in the US.
Everybody knows the big players up for draft there for 2-3 years where as here most people just see done junior highlights on YouTube.

Exactly. I think lower expectations of what it can be as a television event. It is the draft for mostly unknown kids. They have dressed it up about as best as they can for a draft of mostly unknowns.

The only way they can make it a bigger for audience is for players to be known more. We do not have a college system. The best second tier thing we can do is never going to replicate that but if we dropped all the state leagues and turned them into under 22 leagues in time it may change a little. We could have those comps followed more than present state leagues and in time people would take more interest in these leagues because of youngsters on display and not the hurry for them all to be drafted as 18 year olds. If it was more common place for draftees to be spread across ages of 18 to 21 from such leagues it would be a better outcome for the game as a whole. But right now the window of opportunity to know players drafted is a couple of months in the year they turning 18. It gives little opportunity for people to even know whom in draft pool. You either accept that is how it will always be or adjust the pathways to allow for more knowledge of players in draft pool. I barely know whom Liam Stocker is. The most I learn is in the 24 hours after drafted. So there is no real barracking for whom we draft as such which is completely different to USA where most of fans know the players in pool because they are seen for 2 to 3 years prior for people to actually know them. The build up there for fans must be massive as a result as they so invested in whom exactly they want. Most of us would not even know whom we want except when we got pick 1 or 2 but beyond first few picks it is totally unknown for 95% of us. Hence we take more notice, after the draft, not during it as an event.

 

[eastfreo75]

Allow the trading of just-drafted players.

This