Priority picks are back on the agenda, with North Melbourne last week declaring they likely would seek one from the AFL.
The Roos sit last on the ladder despite picking up their first win of the season in Round 9 against Hawthorn. They have a very young list having traded way veterans and delisted a quarter of their 2020 group.
Should the AFL begin handing out picks at the top of the draft again to fast-track rebuilds or do the negatives outweigh the positives?
These compensatory selections were all the rage in the late 1990s and early 2000s and they had an enormous impact. Hardly a draft went by without the top-end being granted above and beyond the norm.
This was because any team that finished with five wins or fewer was granted one until 2006.
1997 saw Melbourne given pick one, which they used on Travis Johnstone.
From 1999 to 2005, the very top of the draft was covered in priority selections to help the bottom teams get off the canvas.
Unquestionably, this extra access to the top talent and the decision to hand these picks out changed the next decade of football history.
It gave St Kilda Nick Riewoldt in 2000, West Coast Chris Judd in 2001 and Hawthorn Jarryd Roughead in 2004, among others.
Let’s look at 2005 as an example. Carlton, Collingwood and Hawthorn were all given priority picks.
Marc Murphy, Dale Thomas and Xavier Ellis were taken by the above clubs with the first three picks of the draft. They then double-dipped with picks four, five and six, drafting Josh Kennedy, Scott Pendlebury and Beau Dowler respectively.
Carlton got a future captain and the key figure of the upcoming Judd trade and Collingwood got two enormous pieces of their 2010 premiership side.
Hawthorn didn’t quite get the same value, highlighting the obvious importance of nailing the selection, but don’t worry 2005 Hawks fans, you’ll be alright.
This meant that Essendon, who finished fourth last on the ladder that year, didn’t enter the draft until pick seven. They got it right by taking Paddy Ryder, but nevertheless it seems reasonably disadvantageous.
If the Bombers are on the board at pick four, do they take Josh Kennedy and pair him with Matthew Lloyd for the last few years of his career? Do they go a midfielder and take Scott Pendlebury?
You could go down an endless rabbit hole of what the AFL would look like had priority picks not existed.
Regardless, those three teams exited the 2005 draft with the six top players and in Collingwood’s case, they leveraged a premiership out of it.
Hawthorn similarly took Luke Hodge as a priority pick in 2001, Roughead in 2004 and then Ellis in 2005.
The nature of having two of the first six picks allowed the Hawks to take Lance Franklin as well as Roughead in 2004.
The AFL realised how influential this was, and likely also how it incentivised some form of tanking, and tweaked things in 2006 and tightened the rules.
Carlton was granted pick one as priority in 2007 after three years plastered to the bottom of the ladder, allowing them to draft Matthew Kreuzer and trade pick three as part of the Judd trade.
From there however, priority picks tended to come later in the draft, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t still game changers if nailed.
Richmond was granted pick 18 in 2007. They selected Alex Rance. West Coast was handed the same pick the following year. They took Luke Shuey. The Eagles also picked up Jack Darling as a priority pick in the same vein in 2010.
However, the AFL put the diamond of the top-of-the-draft priority selection away until 2019 when Gold Coast was deemed worthy.
This allowed the Suns to leave with both Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson.
So the AFL has clearly put priority picks back on the agenda, but will North Melbourne receive one?
If they do, should they become a staple like we saw in the early 2000s?
Teams like St Kilda, West Coast, Collingwood and Hawthorn built dominant teams with help from priority access, highlighting what it looks like at its best.
Though you could look at a team like Carlton that had the same opportunity and did not make the most of it.
You’re also incentivising losing if you bring back the original systems and punishing teams in the middle of the draft pack.
Though priority picks in 2021 may go the way of free agency compensation. Where the AFL does what they want, when they want without a black-and-white public measurement available.
Top 10 priority picks of the 2000s:
- Chris Judd (West Coast)
- Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda)
- Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)
- Alex Rance (Richmond)
- Jarryd Roughead (Hawthorn)
- Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs)
- Luke Shuey (West Coast)
- Marc Murphy (Carlton)
- Dale Thomas (Collingwood)
- Luke Ball (St Kilda)