There has been a lot of condemnation from footy fans about this year's draft farce, and it keeps getting worse year after year. How many players got picked up this year .... 60-70 ?? And it took two days to do it as well making it a total borefest.
The points index (i.e pick weighting) is still too low thus allowing clubs to pick up players in the first round using a gaggle of later picks that are borderline useless.
Discounts for father-sons & academy players is a total rort whilst compensation picks for losing a free agent is a complete & utter joke.
Compounding the problem is the fact that academy players get picked up in the same draft as rank & file players. Listenng to the radio the other day, the presenter mentioned that in the U.S., they have a large draft & no academies. In other parts of the world, they have just academies, no draft.
We are the only professional sport that has both but clearly, it doesn't work. I have a suggestion on how to straighten it up but I am not brimming with confidence about its overall plausability.
The whole point of having a national draft in reverse order is to maximise equalisation measures but it looks like the strong keep getting stronger & this has to be rectified and quickly.
I have a rather rough idea on how to address the academy issue and I have included it here so everyone can pick it apart and offer their thoughts, it's not perfect but at least it's a starting point.
Overall, I'd like to see something like this as the revised structure for all future drafts (some of this is not new, I have banged on about it before) :
1. all clubs must have a playing list of 44 players, no more & no less
2. Cat B, regular rookies and all other offbeat 'exquisite' categories become non-existent
3. all clubs must make a miminum of 8 changes to their list every year, this includes trades, draftees, retirees, delistings & free agents
4. clubs can re-draft players they have delisted earlier
5. trade week becomes a 5-day only event & runs from Monday-Friday 9am-5pm in the first week of November
6. trade week includes all free agency changes & non-draft player movement
7. free agency compensation is scrapped permanently
8. all players who get delisted and do not get picked up via FA in trade week must nominate for the national draft to continue in the AFL
9. all existing player contracts remain in place when a player gets traded, clubs can add extra years & annual salary amounts to what is in place currently but cannot make any other alterations
10. there are no draft discounts for father-son selections
11. #1 pick in the draft is worth 5000 points, #2 - 4750, #3 - 4512, #4 - 4286, #5 - 4072 and so on, #118 is worth 8 points only (i.e. their value comes down by 5% each time)
12. to be known as the "Equalisation Round", all non-finalists receive an extra pick in reverse ladder order prior to the actual first round, next year they will be ladder positions 18-11 due to the new wildcard option, it will become a final 10 soon enough
13. clubs with "Equalisation" picks can trade them for other national draft picks if they wish to, they can trade them for an academy draft picks if they wish to as well
14. all future draft assistance & handouts to poor performing clubs is scrapped permanently
15. the AFL is to set-up their own high-end academies with one in each state (six in total across the country) to provide talent identification and growth for the code
16. all players from the academies who are eligible for drafting go into a seperate "Academy Draft"
17. the draft order in the academy is the same as the regular national draft (reverse order), there is no mid-draft trading of academy draft picks
18. only club's with 'equalisation' picks can trade for academy draft picks
19. if there is not enough academy draftees in the academy pool for each club to get the same amount of draftees then so be it
20. academy players can nominate for either of the two drafts (national or academy) but one draft only
21. the academy draft is held on the last Tuesday in November (same week as the national draft)
22. the national draft is held on the last Thursday in November (same week as the academy draft)
23. there is only one national draft, the rookie draft and all other flim-flam options are pooled into the one big national draft
24. all players picked up in the first round of the national draft automatically earn a three-year contract, all players picked up in the second round of the national draft automatically earn a two-year contract, all players picked up from the third round onwards can be given one or two year contracts but this is at to the club's discretion.
25. both drafts are held on the one nominated day in November commencing at 12-noon
26. all clubs must make a mimimum of 5 draft selections every year from the two drafts, this could be on new draftees or recycled players who have been jettisoned by their old clubs
27. clubs can pass at any time within each draft, they don't have to take academy players if they don't want to as long as they have reached their minimum 5 draft picks criteria
There's a fair bit to digest ............. interested to read your thoughts, both good & bad.
The points index (i.e pick weighting) is still too low thus allowing clubs to pick up players in the first round using a gaggle of later picks that are borderline useless.
Discounts for father-sons & academy players is a total rort whilst compensation picks for losing a free agent is a complete & utter joke.
Compounding the problem is the fact that academy players get picked up in the same draft as rank & file players. Listenng to the radio the other day, the presenter mentioned that in the U.S., they have a large draft & no academies. In other parts of the world, they have just academies, no draft.
We are the only professional sport that has both but clearly, it doesn't work. I have a suggestion on how to straighten it up but I am not brimming with confidence about its overall plausability.
The whole point of having a national draft in reverse order is to maximise equalisation measures but it looks like the strong keep getting stronger & this has to be rectified and quickly.
I have a rather rough idea on how to address the academy issue and I have included it here so everyone can pick it apart and offer their thoughts, it's not perfect but at least it's a starting point.
Overall, I'd like to see something like this as the revised structure for all future drafts (some of this is not new, I have banged on about it before) :
1. all clubs must have a playing list of 44 players, no more & no less
2. Cat B, regular rookies and all other offbeat 'exquisite' categories become non-existent
3. all clubs must make a miminum of 8 changes to their list every year, this includes trades, draftees, retirees, delistings & free agents
4. clubs can re-draft players they have delisted earlier
5. trade week becomes a 5-day only event & runs from Monday-Friday 9am-5pm in the first week of November
6. trade week includes all free agency changes & non-draft player movement
7. free agency compensation is scrapped permanently
8. all players who get delisted and do not get picked up via FA in trade week must nominate for the national draft to continue in the AFL
9. all existing player contracts remain in place when a player gets traded, clubs can add extra years & annual salary amounts to what is in place currently but cannot make any other alterations
10. there are no draft discounts for father-son selections
11. #1 pick in the draft is worth 5000 points, #2 - 4750, #3 - 4512, #4 - 4286, #5 - 4072 and so on, #118 is worth 8 points only (i.e. their value comes down by 5% each time)
12. to be known as the "Equalisation Round", all non-finalists receive an extra pick in reverse ladder order prior to the actual first round, next year they will be ladder positions 18-11 due to the new wildcard option, it will become a final 10 soon enough
13. clubs with "Equalisation" picks can trade them for other national draft picks if they wish to, they can trade them for an academy draft picks if they wish to as well
14. all future draft assistance & handouts to poor performing clubs is scrapped permanently
15. the AFL is to set-up their own high-end academies with one in each state (six in total across the country) to provide talent identification and growth for the code
16. all players from the academies who are eligible for drafting go into a seperate "Academy Draft"
17. the draft order in the academy is the same as the regular national draft (reverse order), there is no mid-draft trading of academy draft picks
18. only club's with 'equalisation' picks can trade for academy draft picks
19. if there is not enough academy draftees in the academy pool for each club to get the same amount of draftees then so be it
20. academy players can nominate for either of the two drafts (national or academy) but one draft only
21. the academy draft is held on the last Tuesday in November (same week as the national draft)
22. the national draft is held on the last Thursday in November (same week as the academy draft)
23. there is only one national draft, the rookie draft and all other flim-flam options are pooled into the one big national draft
24. all players picked up in the first round of the national draft automatically earn a three-year contract, all players picked up in the second round of the national draft automatically earn a two-year contract, all players picked up from the third round onwards can be given one or two year contracts but this is at to the club's discretion.
25. both drafts are held on the one nominated day in November commencing at 12-noon
26. all clubs must make a mimimum of 5 draft selections every year from the two drafts, this could be on new draftees or recycled players who have been jettisoned by their old clubs
27. clubs can pass at any time within each draft, they don't have to take academy players if they don't want to as long as they have reached their minimum 5 draft picks criteria
There's a fair bit to digest ............. interested to read your thoughts, both good & bad.
