THERE was, and continues to be plenty of noise surrounding just how compromised this year’s AFL Draft is shaping up to be. Every second emerging ‘top 25’ talent seems to be tied to a club, and recruiters came into the year matching that notion with around half of the best 50 players being off limits.

While club scouts are largely unimpressed with the quality of the crop, it hasn’t stopped them from voicing displeasure in the system, and making suggestions to fix it. Even after revisiting the numbers with the National Championships in full swing, the weight of the club-tied conundrum isn’t much lighter.

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THE CURRENT NUMBERS

In our most recent Power Rankings instalment, a respectable five players were linked to Northern Academies. Problem being, four of them featured in the top 10 – Zeke Uwland (Suns Academy, three), Daniel Annable (Lions, four), Dylan Patterson (Suns, five), and Max King (Swans, eight).

Issue number two is the depth of the draft. Outside of the top 20, six of our next 10 were tied to clubs, rendering 11 of the top 30 as restricted talent. So, on club draft boards, it could be anywhere from a third to half of the first 30 picks requiring bids – night one of the draft could be longer than night two.

To think that 19 of the 26 Allies squad members are linked to Northern Academies is remarkable. That’s not even including Uwland and fellow Suns prospect Jai Murray, who would have been locks for the side if not for injury. The strength of those players, too, meant the Allies were red-hot title favourites – until…

THE GREAT RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE HOPE

South Australia’s National Championships campaign has been sensational. The Croweaters are one game away from clinching their first title since 2018, where Jack Lukosius, Izak Rankine, and Connor Rozee went on to become top five draft picks. It’ll be no mean feat replicating that.

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Perhaps the best part about SA’s surge is the amount of open draft talent in its squad. The Croweaters have the lowest density of restricted talent, with only Louis Kellaway linked to Richmond via father-son rules. Meanwhile, Port is working on adding bottom-age star Dougie Cochrane to its academy.

It means that the likes of skipper Dyson Sharp, forward trio Aidan Schubert, Mitchell Marsh, and Cameron Nairn, flying wingmen Matthew LeRay and Harley Barker, and midfielder-forwards Sam Cumming and Jevan Phillipou will all likely be up for open first round selection, just from SA alone.

That’s a substantial boost. Although, again, it’s the depth and quality of available talent that has clubs worried. It was flagged as early as last year when they parted with their future (2025) picks so readily to get back into the super crop of 2024. But from an access standpoint, it may be better than first thought.

CLUB-TIED TALENT IN REPRESENTATIVE SQUADS:

AFL Academy – 10/28
Allies – 19/26
South Australia – 1/35
Vic Country – 6/27
Vic Metro – 8/28
Western Australia – 9/35

CONCLUSION

South Australia’s rising talent may be saving the day in some respects, but that won’t do much to stop this being the most compromised draft in history. The 29-pick first round of 2023 will be in danger, especially if the claims of Gold Coast’s crop being even better than back then are true.

That year, seven bids were made in the first round alone – four on players tied to the Suns – and the damage could go deeper this year. By the way, that’s not to discredit the academies themselves – they have done an excellent job to identify and nurture talent – it’s the system which needs fixing.

The sheer density of academy and father-son prospects will mean some spill out to be available to other clubs. We saw last year that Gold Coast, St Kilda, and Sydney all opted against matching bids at some point in the draft. This time around, they may not have the choice to retain every club-tied talent.