1991 National Draft - North Melbourne

[JA27]

anyone know why north melbourne didnt seem to be allocated draft picks in the 1991 national draft?

they had 3 selections that year,
Pick 34 (traded in exchange for russell evans)
Pick 50 (traded in exchange for col gasden & john mcnamara)
Pick 69 (maybe part of ron de iulio trade?)

cant seem to find any information anywhere,
draft picks seem to be allocated in reverse ladder position with the exception of adelaide and north melbourne
i assume adelaide was still under foundation rules?

 

[Hard_to_Beat]

anyone know why north melbourne didnt seem to be allocated draft picks in the 1991 national draft?

they had 3 selections that year,
Pick 34 (traded in exchange for russell evans)
Pick 50 (traded in exchange for col gasden & john mcnamara)
Pick 69 (maybe part of ron de iulio trade?)

cant seem to find any information anywhere,
draft picks seem to be allocated in reverse ladder position with the exception of adelaide and north melbourne
i assume adelaide was still under foundation rules?

34 and 50 are correct.

North upgraded Brad Scholl with pick 69.

I think De iulio was traded as part of the Richard Dennis trade to North.

 

[35Daicos]

The 1993 Media Guide (an AFL publication) has this for North Melbourne in 1991 (National Draft):-

34 Tim Leng Mildura -
Essendon transferred selection for R. Evans

50 Bruce Hando St. Arnaud -
Geelong transferred selection for C. Gadsden and J. McNamara

69 Brad Sholl North Melbourne

Selection transferred to Geelong for T. Bourke

Carlton transferred selection for R. De Iulio - not able to be utilised

Selection transferred to Carlton for R. Dennis

NOTE: NORTH MELBOURNE LODGED A LIST OF 50 PLAYERS ON 23RD OCTOBER, 1991 THEREBY LIMITING THEIR DRAFT SELECTION OR EXCHANGES TO FIVE PLAYERS.

 

[35Daicos]

anyone know why north melbourne didnt seem to be allocated draft picks in the 1991 national draft?

they had 3 selections that year,
Pick 34 (traded in exchange for russell evans)
Pick 50 (traded in exchange for col gasden & john mcnamara)
Pick 69 (maybe part of ron de iulio trade?)

cant seem to find any information anywhere,
draft picks seem to be allocated in reverse ladder position with the exception of adelaide and north melbourne
i assume adelaide was still under foundation rules?

It's very difficult to find anything definite out about this, but it looks to me as if North Melbourne were "given" almost no picks in this draft, and perhaps apart from the Sholl selection, wouldn't have had any if they hadn't traded players to Essendon and Geelong. While a 15 team competition in 1991, there were just 13 selections in each of the first 2 rounds of the draft, with Adelaide ruled out of the entire draft and North seemingly not allowed any picks.

Obviously 1991 was the last year of the U19 competition and Victorian club's were then stripped of their metropolitan zones and needed to make decisions as to which junior players they would keep on their list. As North had won the last 2 U19 Grand Finals and clearly had plenty of talented young prospects coming along, they must have decided to keep a few more of them and almost ignored the draft.

 

[JA27]

The 1993 Media Guide (an AFL publication) has this for North Melbourne in 1991 (National Draft):-

34 Tim Leng Mildura -
Essendon transferred selection for R. Evans

50 Bruce Hando St. Arnaud -
Geelong transferred selection for C. Gadsden and J. McNamara

69 Brad Sholl North Melbourne

Selection transferred to Geelong for T. Bourke

Carlton transferred selection for R. De Iulio - not able to be utilised

Selection transferred to Carlton for R. Dennis

NOTE: NORTH MELBOURNE LODGED A LIST OF 50 PLAYERS ON 23RD OCTOBER, 1991 THEREBY LIMITING THEIR DRAFT SELECTION OR EXCHANGES TO FIVE PLAYERS.

sent an email to north melbourne with the query, came back with the same details as above,

so basically north melbourne dont seem to have been allocated any picks in the first 5 rounds of the draft,

pick 69 would have been a 6th round draft pick, (brad sholl who was originally drafted in the 1988 draft)

also found on blueseum that the selection transfered to carlton for r dennis was a 10th round selection, so they must have been allocated picks for each round from 6 to 10,

so it must have to do with listing so many u/19 players before the cutoff date of the metro zones, although no other teams seem to have lost picks?

 

[35Daicos]

sent an email to north melbourne with the query, came back with the same details as above,
so basically north melbourne dont seem to have been allocated any picks in the first 5 rounds of the draft,
pick 69 would have been a 6th round draft pick, (brad sholl who was originally drafted in the 1988 draft)
also found on blueseum that the selection transfered to carlton for r dennis was a 10th round selection, so they must have been allocated picks for each round from 6 to 10,
so it must have to do with listing so many u/19 players before the cutoff date of the metro zones, although no other teams seem to have lost picks?

Unfortunately there's just so little information out there about this draft. It's a far cry from the sort of coverage we get these days.

There's nothing like this "NOTE: NORTH MELBOURNE LODGED A LIST OF 50 PLAYERS ON 23RD OCTOBER, 1991 THEREBY LIMITING THEIR DRAFT SELECTION OR EXCHANGES TO FIVE PLAYERS." for any of the other clubs in the Media Guide (forerunner to today's AFL Record Season Guide). It does simply look like North chose to fill up a lot more list spots with their U19 prospects than did their rivals.

 

[Albert Ross]

It does simply look like North chose to fill up a lot more list spots with their U19 prospects than did their rivals.

The minimum age for kids in that draft increased from 16 to 17, so it was the same talent pool a second time.
Adelaide had all the SA players
Sydney had all the NSW/ACT players up until they were 19, or had been drafted and cut.
Brisbane had all the QLD/NT players up until they were 19, or had been drafted and cut.

Very little incentive to participate.

It wasn't just the end of the under-19s but also Metro zoning. So North chose to keep more under-19s /metro-zone players at the expense of draft picks. They had won the 87,88,90,91 under-19 premierships and lost in 89 to Richmond. They actually made 9 grand-finals in a row for 5 wins before that draft.

Heaps of the picks in that draft were from WA because previously there had been a 1-WA player each policy ... so a lot of established WA players in the early rounds. Most of the later picks were clubs drafting blokes who hadn't made the cut when a rival club had decided with metro-zone/under-19 kids to keep.