Top crop adds draft intrigue
ance a standout.
It’s quickly be becoming apparent that there are lot of ticks in a lot of boxes when it comes to Sam Walsh.
“You forget sometimes, as you think he’s got a handle on it and then you go, ‘Oh that’s right he’s still only a kid’,” Jacque says. “He has organised everything because he handles it so well.”
Walsh has always been around football. He grew up in Cobden where his father was coach and saw local lads Gary Rohan and Ben Cunnington make the grade.
The family then moved to Darwin for three years where he made the under-12 state team — which also included Geelong’s Brandan Parfitt — which started his run of making squads.
It wasn’t until the under-16 nationals when the FATHER-SON WATCH North Melbourne could pick up two father-son players. The Roos have nominated for Joel Crocker and Bailey Scott under the father-son rule. Joel’s dad Darren played 165 games for the Roos and is the coaching director at the club, while Bailey’s father Robert played 113 matches for North. Bailey Scott was also eligible to go to the Cats under the father-son rule, but chose North. Other notable nominations include Oscar Brownless, pictured, (Geelong, son of Billy), Rhylee West (Western Bulldogs, son of Scott) and Ben Silvagni (Carlton, son of Stephen). The Cats are likely to use one of their picks in the 50s to secure Brownless. If not, they will be required to use their last pick in the draft.
penny dropped that if he was to fulfil his AFL dream then improvements had to be made.
“I wouldn’t have seen myself in the top 15 players after that 16s carnival but I had glimpses throughout the carnival where I thought I could match it with the best,” Walsh explains.
“After that for me it has been about doing a lot of stuff outside of training, the extras that I feel as though others wouldn’t do.
“I think it is all those little things which have helped me throughout the journey to gradually get an edge and improve my game.”
Last night Walsh had his Year 12 valedictory dinner at St Joseph’s College where he was required to do a speech.
Naturally the speech had been sorted days ago. Organised, professional, mature … sounds like a No.1 draft pick. THE AFL’s new X-factor of live draft trading is about to meet the richest crop of player talent in nearly two decades.
While the live trading of draft picks could be a fizzer in tonight’s first round, many experts agree this is the best group of players since the famed 2001 crop.
Luke Hodge, Luke Ball and Chris Judd led the 2001 draft, which also featured Jimmy Bartel, Nick Dal Santo, James Kelly, Steve Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Leigh Montagna, Gary Ablett Jr and Dane Swan.
This year, it is a given that Sam Walsh, Jack Lukosius, Izak Rankine and Max King will be among the top five choices. But for the first time, clubs can trade where they are in the draft order.
For example, there has been speculation that the two Adelaide clubs might try to pry the No.1 pick from Carlton or the second selection from Gold Coast, given that Lukosius and Rankine are from South Australia.
“Over the course of the two days, there will be some trading — the first night, I don’t know,” AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan said.
“The beauty of this is the clubs may well have most of the same 60 or 70 players on their boards, but the order would be so different.
“When they see someone there that they rank (highly) ... they’d be really encouraged to jump up and get that guy.
“They’ll be dumbfounded he’s still there ... they’ll give a couple of choices up for him, they might even give up the second round (choice) next year if they really value that player.”
Rival clubs can also make bids for father-son or talent academy players, meaning highly-rated Sydney academy talent Nick Blakey will probably go to the Swans in the top 10 because Adelaide or Port Adelaide are likely to force their hand. HOW DOES THE NEXT GENERATION ACADEMY WORK? EVERY club has been assigned non-metropolitan zones across Australia to develop indigenous and multicultural players. Clubs can then nominate to take any player from their zone in the draft. Geelong, for instance, has two zones: the broader Geelong region as far as Colac (effectively the Geelong Falcons’ catchment area), and an area of East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The bidding process to secure the players works like the father-son rule, where clubs can nominate for the right to match any other club in the draft, thereby gaining last rights on the player. WHAT IS “BIDDING”? WHERE father-son players defaulted to third-round selections in the past, the system now is designed to ensure clubs have to part with picks that better represent the value of the player. Each draft selection now has a points value attached to it, starting with pick 1 (worth 3000 points) down to pick 73 (nine points). Picks from 74 onwards are worth nothing. So, for example, if a rival club selects a father-son player from the nominated club’s grasp at, say, pick 10, this forces the nominated club to match the bid to secure the player. If they don’t, the player goes to the club who made the bid. To match the bid, the nominated club must use picks that add up to the value of the selection that the player was taken at. Yes, it’s confusing.