SEN draft analyst Brett Anderson has explained why introducing live draft day trading could both add to the spectacle and allow AFL clubs to better fill their lists during a trade period.
While talking on The Run Home with David Schwarz and Mark Allen, Anderson has expressed that the new structure will allow club list managers and recruiting managers to trade up draft picks to fulfil list needs more efficiently rather than relying on luck on draft day that their respective targets.
Sam McLure wrote in The Age this morning that the AFL is looking to introduce the ability for teams to be able to trade draft picks and potentially even players live during the national draft – either this year or next year.
“Clubs have been banging on about this for a while and really banging down the door of it in terms of wanting it because it allows them greater flexibility with their list management,” Anderson said.
Anderson added that draft day trading creates more of an accurate feel of the current landscape of the AFL draft, rather than predicting where certain draft prospects will fall to during the trade period.
“It is more related to draft picks in terms of a player that’s available when potentially, say during the trade period right now, is essentially a month and a half away from the draft so you’re a fair way out and things can change,” he said.
The recent case study involving both the Gold Coast and Melbourne in the 2015 AFL Draft is a prime example of why draft day trading would benefit their list management strategies, as the Suns tried to predict the overall position of late riser Clayton Oliver during the trade period.
“Clayton Oliver’s stocks kept rising. During trade period Gold Coast was a club that traded down from pick three to five with the idea of being able to get him. The problem was though, is that the pick they traded to Melbourne was the one that came up to take Clayton Oliver,” Anderson said.
“Say if ‘David Schwarz’, the best key forward in the draft, fell through to the first five picks and he was still there at pick eight or nine, they can get on the phone to the team who’s got that pick (GWS in this situation) and do a deal.
“The benefits for GWS out of this is that they can stockpile, because generally you pay a premium to come up and get that player, so Hawthorn would have to play slight overs. They (Hawthorn) come up and select said player (Schwarz), GWS go back to pick 16 and the draft continues."
The live draft day trading structure stems from the NFL and NBA draft models, which adds to the value of the day from a supporter’s perspective as well as benefiting general managers and head coaches in making deals to get a prospect.
Even though NFL and NBA franchises have the right to trade away the rights of players already on their list, Anderson believes that the AFL won’t introduce this rule straight away, but it could be introduced in future years.
“The AFL will dip their toe in the water and just allow trading of picks,” he said.