2005 Retro-Phantom Draft Pool

[footyfan1978]

With the careers of Travis Cloke and Andrew Swallow ended it feels a reasonable enough time to revisit a pool of players that born the same year and would have been in the same draft pool together as turning 18 year olds in the same year like the AFL have been doing since 2009. Just so no confusion of what this thread is about, back in 2005 the age rules were a little different so the pool in the actual year of 2005 for AFL was not actually of guys born for same year like they do now. Cloke and Swallow were two of the players turning 18 in year 2005 but were historically drafted in different years due to different age rules back then.
Some were turning 18 early the next year back then and so on. So the actual AFL draft pool of 2005 is not the same as this. For example Cloke and Franklin were drafted in 2004 as would be turning 18 in early 2005 but under rules now they would have needed to wait to the next draft year to be eligible so in this retro draft pool I am doing that are in a 2005 retro draft pool. My purpose is to look back in time as if done the same age restrictions as now and wonder the type of players would all be found in same draft pool born of same year.

I've done this for players turning 18 in same year since 1975 and each subsequent batch of 18 year olds born beyond then for my own interest as an exercise over last few years. The series of them you can find in links at bottom of this post.

This retro draft of players born in 1987 for a retro-draft pool of 2005 features the likes of gun tall forwards Buddy Franklin, Roughead, Josh Kennedy, Travis Cloke and 200 game and beyond career mid types like Deledio, Marc Murphy, Michael Barlow, Dale Thomas and the likes of those just finished such as Andrew Swallow and Heath Hocking. Feel free to add your own thoughts on players you felt would have been number 1 in the 2005 retro-draft and search the polls below of previous years if it interest you to look back further.

Here is the retrospective draft pool of 18 year olds in year 2005:

1987 Born players (retrospective 2005 Draft Pool)
Hocking, Heath
Sweeney, Justin
Howard, Brad
Barlow, Michael
Dowler, Beau
Derickx, Tom
Puopolo, Paul
Richardson, Cameron
Rowe, Sam
Clarke, Martin
Nahas, Robin
Simpkin, Jonathan
Clark, Mitch
Jones, Matt
Strijk, Andrew
West, Trent
Addison, Dylan
Silvagni, Alex
Pfeiffer, Darren
Dickson, Tory
Gamble, Ryan
Bode, Jace
Lee, Brendan
Anthony, Liam
Tuck, Travis
Hurn, Shannon
Horsley, Kyal
Mills, Wayde
Dempsey, Courtenay
Kennedy, Josh
Magner, James
Salter, Nick
Spurr, Lee
Murphy, Marc
Ballantyne, Hayden
Stewart, Paul
Peterson, Carl
Jack, Kieren
Lower, Nick
Lower, Ed
Thomas, Dale
Iles, Sam
Swallow, Andrew
Clifton, Steve
Bate, Matthew
Goldsack, Tyson
Baguley, Mark
Obst, Alan
Dunn, Lynden
Tippett, Kurt
Drum, Marcus
Carlile, Alipate
Newton, Michael
Spangher, Matthew
Wrigley, Stephen
Buckley, Simon
Deledio, Brett
Graham, Angus
White, Matt
Bentley, Greg
Phillips, Simon
Jackson, Ryan
Lonergan, Sam
Tiller, Stephen
Toovey, Alan
Pedersen, Cameron
Dalziell, Bradd
Eckermann, Ben
Cloke, Travis
Wood, Cameron
McKinley, Ben
Nicholls, Daniel
Muston, Beau
Thomas, Matt
McGuane, Luke
Laidlaw, Matthew
Douglas, Richard
Clouston, Scott
Franklin, Lance
Valenti, Shane
Morton, Mitch
McCormack, Damien
Deluca, Fabian
Barlow, Ed
Sherman, Justin
Roughead, Jarryd
Willits, Ryan
Campbell, Matt
Warnock, Robert
Monfries, Angus
Hughes, Cleve
Markovic, Lukas



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
1998 retro-draft
1999 retro-draft
2000 retro-draft
2001 retro-draft
2002 retro-draft
2003 retro-draft
2004 retro-draft

 

[footyfan1978]

Shannon Hurn, Josh Kennedy, Buddy Franklin and Marc Murphy showing to extend your career beyond 32 years of age is rare territory.
Plenty have finished up now from the same birth year such as Dale Thomas, Deledio and Ballantyne.
If you drafted as 18 year old and get to stay in the league 14 years, you had about as much time as you can expect your body to allow you to go on at the elite level.

I will look into doing another pool of players born in 1988, 1989 and 1990 to see what it throws up.

Most of those players had long enough careers now for me to consider doing such retro-drafts up those points.