This is such bull****. Richmond get rewarded for being abolutely ****house not once, not twice, but 3 times.
They get the first pick in the draft for winning the wooden spoon (and it really does seem like it is winning the way they are coming out of this year's trade/draft periods). This is fair enough.
They get the top bonus draft pick for being incompetent and having an incompetent coach. This is debatable whether this is a good system at the moment. I am all for extra priority picks, but not through the current system. It should be based on performances over a few seasons. Just look at Melbourne - last year less than 5 wins, this year finished 5th after h&a without the help of the players taken with priority picks, and played finals 2 years ago. They were not deserving of a priority pick, they only had one pathetic season sandwiched between 2 competitive ones. The priority picks should be reserved for basket-cases - at least the bulldogs last year and richmond this year are worthy recipients.
On top of these hand outs, they can hold every club to ransom during trade week knowing that they get the pick of the best out of contract player in the december draft for free. So out of this, they get the pick of the youngsters in that draft and then the pick of the established players. 3 ready-made champions. and it costs them NOTHING.
I dont think this is good for the game. I dont think that st kilda's sudden rise up the ladder on the back of many year's inadequacies is good for football. It has not been on the back of good anything other than good draft picks, and lots of them. Geelong has done much the same. Instead of giving the bottom sides a huge leg-up to the top, the draft/trade week should be trying to lift those sides from bottom to mid-table, and reward the mid-table sides somehow better for consistency, whereas at the moment the mid-range teams get virtually no assistance at all.
One way I think it could be done is a lottery system that randomly allocates the draft picks in the december draft for uncontracted players. And only announcing the order after the trade week has fininshed. This would force richmond to find a deal with freo for simmonds instead of just sitting on their hands knowing they get him for free anyway. why would they want to make a trade and thus have to give up something for him?
I was always told there is no such thing as a free lunch. Now I'm confused.
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