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SWANSBEST
26th May 2003, 09:12 PM
Patrick makes one very good point " Climbing the AFL ladder is an intricate combination of coaching , management and administration. "



Early draft picks guarantee nothing
9:51:57 PM Sun 25 May, 2003
Patrick Smith
afl.com.au

Surely the headlines are screaming the bleeding obvious.

Former Hawthorn coach Ken Judge says he was approached by management management and admiboard member Don Scott to lose matches so that the Hawks could get the very best deals at the draft table - No. 1 pick plus a priority choice available to under performing clubs.


President Ian Dicker said on Sunday that he doubted Judge?s claim was right. Judge said the approach was made in 1998 when the club had won just three games for the season.

It really doesn?t matter much. There would be no doubt at all that clubs in Hawthorn?s position would have mulled over the rights and wrongs of under performing to snag the best kids in the draft.

To have first choice of the superior talent in the land is odd reward for failure. But it is at the very heart of the philosophy that drives AFL football. That is to make the weak strong and the strong beatable.

It was Mick Malthouse who put priority picks on the agenda this week when he said St Kilda should be a top four side given the number of times in recent years it has been able to secure Australia?s best talent.

Well, it won?t be happening this year. Malthouse himself helped see to that, guiding his Magpies to a 65-point win over St Kilda on Saturday night. The Saints sit in 11th spot with four wins from nine games.

St Kilda is proof positive that early draft picks guarantee nothing. Climbing the AFL ladder is an intricate combination of coaching, management and administration. St Kilda is endeavoring to find that right mix. With Nick Riewoldt, Luke Ball, Xavier Clarke and the rest of the kids, the Saints have just part of the equation.

Malthouse considers the priority picks for teams that win less than 25 per cent of their matches are too rich a reward for a team. The coach would prefer priority picks be made available to clubs whose lack of success is chronic rather than seasonal. He would also apply it to the draft itself.

Malthouse argues the system, as it works, now rewards mediocrity and is open to abuse. He suggests some AFL club officials would gladly finish 16th with a priority pick rather than ninth with nothing much at all.

All these points were considered by the AFL when it began a review of the draft two years ago. When the draft review panel finally considered its verdict it was decided to go with the status quo.

For the moment it appears to have been the right call. Football is a fragile business. Clubs that sit around the bottom of the ladder quickly lose supporters, members and sponsors. Remedies must be quick and significant.

Perhaps more attention should be paid not to the team that finishes last but the club that sits just outside the top eight. The club that finishes ninth gets into the draft when all the obvious talent is gone. Especially if there are priority picks in play as well.

It is here that Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy says it is easy to make the mistake of considering the draft position in isolation. Sheedy says smart trading of players is just as important as high draft picks.

He likes to point to the deal that saw Paul Salmon, a champion at Essendon, switch across to Hawthorn. The Bombers lost Salmon but picked up Sean Wellman and Paul Barnard. In an odd twist Essendon got Salmon back for a year after he retired from Hawthorn and Barnard and Wellman are still in Essendon?s best 22.

Hawthorn enraged its supporters when it traded Trent Croad to Fremantle so that it could get into the 2001 draft at the top. It now has Luke Hodge, a gifted teenager and Croad is yet to return to his best form.

It is important that the draft process be constantly monitored. The draft and the salary cap are now coming into play as football administrators hoped they would when they were introduced in the 1980s.

The two mechanisms are squeezing the competition at both ends.
The salary cap is forcing successful clubs to release quality players back into the system and the draft is giving unsuccessful clubs the best talent a sophisticated nursery can produce.

The AFL needs to constantly review all its systems. It is good that the likes of Malthouse continue to prod and probe the manner in which we run the competition.

Football grows and expands at an astonishing rate. What worked yesterday is on the scrap heap today. Every club is seeking a one per cent advantage. That means the result is allowed to justify the means.

The draft system appears to work well. For the moment.