The AFL will dump the current priority draft pick system and replace it with a new modified version, making it much harder for clubs to secure extra or priority selections through tanking for picks.
After so many years denying the existence of tanking this development by the AFL hierarchy is surely an admission that tanking did exist and that clubs were rorting the system for top player selections. Under the outgoing system, a club which earned 16 premiership points or less in a season was granted an extra draft selection before the second round of the national draft.
If a club earned 16 points or less in two consecutive years they were awarded a further selection before the first round draft. The new regulation in effect this year, has a complicated formula which will be used to determine a clubs eligibility for a pre-draft pick taking into account premiership points, percentage, finals appearances and injury rates over several seasons. Future priority picks will rest ultimately at the discretion of the AFL Commission.
Some of the AFL’s star players have come into the AFL as early pick priority selections, including three club captains – Carlton’s Chris Judd, St Kilda’s Nick Riewoldt, Hawthorn’s Luke Hodge. Then there’s Bulldog’s Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney and midfielder Ryan Griffen, Luke Ball and Dale Thomas at Collingwood and Marc Murphy at the Blues.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said the rule changes are aimed at eradicating any suspicion that clubs sometimes tanked late in seasons for extra draft picks. Although the League can weave any spin about this as they like -the fact remains, tanking did take place and the change of rule is an admission that it did.
Anderson also said the league was moving closer to having an uncompromised national draft. The AFL has already taken steps by changing the father-son system: what was a virtual free pick outside the draft for clubs, they now have to bid draft sequence positions for the sons of former players.
