Draft Profile Does AFL draft players too young?

[bjtoby]

So I was watching some of the NAB cup and saw some young 22-23 y/o undrafted players playing their first games and it made me wonder, do Australian and other sports like Soccer by drafting the kids into the professional ranks at 17, 18, 19 year olds miss a fair bit of talent. While it isn't that big for Rugby Union and Cricket who have strong club divisions and no drafts, games like AFL and to a lesser extent NRL, tend to favour younger players and some guys who develop later can miss out completely. The NFL has college and most guys don't go pro till 22 and 20 at the earliest, should AFL be looking for a stronger development program than TAC and less of a focus on High School students?

Can mod please move to the general draft discussion?

 

[Slattery_20]

If you saw the patches I saw you would've seen some 22yo guys yet to debut starring & also some 18yo kids yet to debut starring.
Hence there's merit in both.