Priority draft pick
Encyclopedia
The priority draft pick is a type of draft selection in the Australian Football League
's AFL Draft
. Priority draft picks are additional draft picks, located at or near the start of the draft, which are given only to the poorest performing teams, to provide additional help for those teams to improve on-field performances in future years.
The priority draft pick has been the consistent subject of controversy, as several poor-performing teams have been accused of tanking during the later part of the season to ensure that they qualify for the additional draft pick.
s: the National Draft, the Pre-Season Draft and the Rookie Draft. The National Draft is the most important of the drafts, as it is the primary recruitment method for prospective young players once they reach the age of 18.
In the draft, the selections are arranged into rounds, with each team having one selection per round. Selections in each round are arranged in reverse ladder position order.
The location of the priority draft picks within the overall National Draft depends upon the team's performance over the previous two years.
Another way to describe this is that in a sequence of consecutive poor seasons, the priority draft pick in the first season is taken after the first round, and subsequent priority draft picks are taken before the first round.
Where more than one team participates in the same round of priority picks, selections are made reverse ladder position order, as is the case for normal rounds.
, where some teams (such as Carlton, Hawthorn, Essendon, Collingwood) were perennially successful, and others (such as St Kilda, Fitzroy and Footscray) were perennially unsuccessful. The draft was intended to give the weakest teams access to the best prospective players.
By 1993, weak teams were still enduring prolonged unsuccessful periods, so the priority draft pick was introduced to further assist these teams. In its first incarnation:
In the early 2000s, it became apparent that a team with reasonable prospects could have an isolated poor season through injuries or other off-field trouble and finish with five wins, thus 'inappropriately' receiving a player-list boosting priority draft pick. This was deemed to be unfair, as the initial raison d'être of the priority picks was solely to help consistently poor teams to rebuild. As a consequence, the rules were changed to their current form, starting with the 2006 draft.
There are a wide variety of behaviours which could be considered to be tanking. These include:
While all of these behaviours can be interpreted as an attempt to avoid winning matches, all but the first point can also be justified as a sensible player management and development strategy for a team with no chance of playing finals. This complicates the debate about tanking.
Also complicating the debate is the fact that different people have different opinions on what is acceptable behaviour. When speaking about 's 2010 priority draft pick, coach John Worsfold
openly defended his right to play young players in unfamiliar positions to assist their development; but, when speaking about 's 2007 priority draft pick, assistant coach Tony Liberatore
said he personally thought it was wrong to play younger players in place of senior players whose niggling injuries would not be bad enough to force their omission if the team were playing finals.
In addition to the allusions to corruption, tanking has the significant issue that fans of poor performing clubs sometimes openly support against their teams on match-day. The legal implications of tanking on sports betting is also a significant problem, and in 2009 a betting agency suspended betting on the wooden spoon when it became concerned about the potential legal ramifications if tanking or corruption were ever proven.
In 2006, by shifting the Priority Round from before to after the First Round, the AFL reduced the incentive to tank, but did not eliminate it. Some members of the media, particularly from the Herald Sun
, call frequently for the priority draft pick to be scrapped altogether, and some even call for a draft lottery
to be applied in the first round. AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou
has maintained that the AFL supports the continuation of the priority system, and has the endorsement of the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation that the integrity of the game is sufficiently protected. The AFL Players Association
's official position is that it would like to see the priority pick abolished, due to the perception of tanking and its impact on the public's confidence in the game, rather than any suggestion of actual corruption.
made similar statements in 2008, when he claimed that he felt like "winning wasn't the be all and end all" when Carlton received a priority pick in 2007; but, he also said that he'd never seen anything to suggest that players were deliberately losing matches. In both cases, the statements were seen as an admission of guilt to tanking by some, but (in the absence of an explicit directive to throw matches) acceptable by others.
The Round 22, 2007 match between and , known as the Kreuzer Cup, was the most controversial match in the tanking debate. It was the last match of the year, and both Carlton and Melbourne had a record of 4–17, meaning that whichever team won the match would lose the chance at a priority draft pick. Both clubs had already avoided the ignominy of the wooden spoon
( had secured it with a final record of 3–18–1). Overall, this meant that there was no benefit for either club to win, but a significant benefit to losing.
The stakes were particularly high in Carlton's case, because the club had also received a priority pick in the 2006 season; as such, if it lost this match, it would receive the No. 1 draft pick as its priority pick. In Melbourne's case, the priority pick it could have received was be the No. 18 pick; the No. 1 pick would have gone to wooden spooners Richmond had Melbourne lost the match. The match became known as the Kreuzer Cup, named after Northern Knights
' ruckman Matthew Kreuzer
, who had been expected to be selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2007 AFL Draft
.
The match was high scoring, played with low intensity, poor skills and very little defensive pressure. Two players (Carlton's Heath Scotland
and Melbourne's Travis Johnstone
) gathered more than 40 disposals. In addition, the crowd of 26,156 was subdued, and there were reports of fans openly supporting against their own teams. In the end, Melbourne had a five goal lead by quarter time, and ended up winning 21.13 (139) to 15.18 (108). Carlton went on to recruit Kreuzer with the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Round 18, 2009 – Melbourne vs Richmond
Melbourne entered the match with a record of 3–14. Because it had received a priority draft pick in 2008, it had the potential to receive a priority draft pick at the start of the draft if won no more than one of its final five matches.
The match was close for much of the game, but Melbourne kicked away to lead by a few goals in the final quarter. Richmond was then able to make a come-back, and an after-the-siren goal by Jordan McMahon
gave Richmond a four-point win. The Herald Sun
later accused coach Melbourne coach Dean Bailey of making positional changes in the final quarter which were so nonsensical that they could only have been designed to ensure Richmond would make a comeback: this included moving key defenders James Frawley
and Matthew Warnock
into the forward-line, resting key midfielders, and using Brad Miller
as a ruckman for the first time in his career.
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
's AFL Draft
AFL Draft
The AFL Draft is the annual draft of new unsigned players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.-History:...
. Priority draft picks are additional draft picks, located at or near the start of the draft, which are given only to the poorest performing teams, to provide additional help for those teams to improve on-field performances in future years.
The priority draft pick has been the consistent subject of controversy, as several poor-performing teams have been accused of tanking during the later part of the season to ensure that they qualify for the additional draft pick.
AFL Draft
At the conclusion of each AFL season, there are three AFL draftAFL Draft
The AFL Draft is the annual draft of new unsigned players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.-History:...
s: the National Draft, the Pre-Season Draft and the Rookie Draft. The National Draft is the most important of the drafts, as it is the primary recruitment method for prospective young players once they reach the age of 18.
In the draft, the selections are arranged into rounds, with each team having one selection per round. Selections in each round are arranged in reverse ladder position order.
Priority draft pick rules
Under current AFL rules, a clubs becomes eligible for a priority draft pick in the National Draft if it finishes a season with fewer than 16.5 premiership points. As such, a team with a record no better than 4–18 (or 3–16–2), from the current season length of 22 matches is eligible for a priority draft pick; a team with a record of 4–17–1 is not eligible.The location of the priority draft picks within the overall National Draft depends upon the team's performance over the previous two years.
- Where the team finished with more than 16.5 premiership points in the previous season, and fewer than 16.5 premiership points in the current season, the priority draft pick is taken between the first and second rounds of the National Draft.
- Where the team finished with fewer than 16.5 premiership points in both the previous season and the current season, the priority draft pick is taken prior to the first round of the National Draft.
Another way to describe this is that in a sequence of consecutive poor seasons, the priority draft pick in the first season is taken after the first round, and subsequent priority draft picks are taken before the first round.
Where more than one team participates in the same round of priority picks, selections are made reverse ladder position order, as is the case for normal rounds.
Priority round history
The draft was established in 1986 to attempt to reduce the inherent unevenness of the league under zoningZoning (Australian rules football)
In Australian rules football, zoning refers to a system whereby a given area, either region or lower-level football league, is reserved exclusively for one club....
, where some teams (such as Carlton, Hawthorn, Essendon, Collingwood) were perennially successful, and others (such as St Kilda, Fitzroy and Footscray) were perennially unsuccessful. The draft was intended to give the weakest teams access to the best prospective players.
By 1993, weak teams were still enduring prolonged unsuccessful periods, so the priority draft pick was introduced to further assist these teams. In its first incarnation:
- Teams received a priority draft pick if they finished fewer than 20.5 premiership points for the season
- The entire priority round took place prior to the first round of the National Draft.
In the early 2000s, it became apparent that a team with reasonable prospects could have an isolated poor season through injuries or other off-field trouble and finish with five wins, thus 'inappropriately' receiving a player-list boosting priority draft pick. This was deemed to be unfair, as the initial raison d'être of the priority picks was solely to help consistently poor teams to rebuild. As a consequence, the rules were changed to their current form, starting with the 2006 draft.
Tanking
The priority draft pick has become controversial because of the potential for corruption. There is annual speculation that poorer performing teams manipulate their results after they are eliminated from finals contention, in order to ensure they remain below the 16.5 point eligibility criterion and receive a priority pick; this is referred to as "tanking."There are a wide variety of behaviours which could be considered to be tanking. These include:
- Instructing the players to deliberately lose matches
- Employing unusual tactics in matches, including using players in positions where they do not usually play
- Resting star players with minor injuries, who would likely not be rested if the team were contesting finals
- Playing younger players who do not yet have much experience at AFL level
While all of these behaviours can be interpreted as an attempt to avoid winning matches, all but the first point can also be justified as a sensible player management and development strategy for a team with no chance of playing finals. This complicates the debate about tanking.
Also complicating the debate is the fact that different people have different opinions on what is acceptable behaviour. When speaking about 's 2010 priority draft pick, coach John Worsfold
John Worsfold
John Worsfold is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the West Australian Football League and the West Coast Eagles in the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League . He also represented Western Australia in State of Origin matches...
openly defended his right to play young players in unfamiliar positions to assist their development; but, when speaking about 's 2007 priority draft pick, assistant coach Tony Liberatore
Tony Liberatore
Anthony "Tony" Liberatore is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray in the Australian Football League ....
said he personally thought it was wrong to play younger players in place of senior players whose niggling injuries would not be bad enough to force their omission if the team were playing finals.
In addition to the allusions to corruption, tanking has the significant issue that fans of poor performing clubs sometimes openly support against their teams on match-day. The legal implications of tanking on sports betting is also a significant problem, and in 2009 a betting agency suspended betting on the wooden spoon when it became concerned about the potential legal ramifications if tanking or corruption were ever proven.
In 2006, by shifting the Priority Round from before to after the First Round, the AFL reduced the incentive to tank, but did not eliminate it. Some members of the media, particularly from the Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
, call frequently for the priority draft pick to be scrapped altogether, and some even call for a draft lottery
Draft lottery
Draft lottery could refer to:* NBA Draft Lottery, a lottery determining the order of the teams for the first fourteen selections in the NBA Draft* Sports draft...
to be applied in the first round. AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou is the chief executive officer of the Australian Football League and a former Australian rules footballer. He is the youngest son of Greek-Cypriot immigrants and, before becoming a VFL player, he worked in the dental import industry...
has maintained that the AFL supports the continuation of the priority system, and has the endorsement of the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation that the integrity of the game is sufficiently protected. The AFL Players Association
AFL Players Association
The AFL Players Association, or AFLPA, is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League players....
's official position is that it would like to see the priority pick abolished, due to the perception of tanking and its impact on the public's confidence in the game, rather than any suggestion of actual corruption.
Statements alluding to tanking
In 2011, sacked coach Dean Bailey stated that he coached to "ensure the club was well placed for draft picks" in 2008 and 2009, and admitted to playing players in unusual positions, but he never claimed that the team had deliberately lost matches. Tony LiberatoreTony Liberatore
Anthony "Tony" Liberatore is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray in the Australian Football League ....
made similar statements in 2008, when he claimed that he felt like "winning wasn't the be all and end all" when Carlton received a priority pick in 2007; but, he also said that he'd never seen anything to suggest that players were deliberately losing matches. In both cases, the statements were seen as an admission of guilt to tanking by some, but (in the absence of an explicit directive to throw matches) acceptable by others.
Controversial matches
Round 22, 2007 – Carlton vs MelbourneThe Round 22, 2007 match between and , known as the Kreuzer Cup, was the most controversial match in the tanking debate. It was the last match of the year, and both Carlton and Melbourne had a record of 4–17, meaning that whichever team won the match would lose the chance at a priority draft pick. Both clubs had already avoided the ignominy of the wooden spoon
Wooden spoon (award)
A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...
( had secured it with a final record of 3–18–1). Overall, this meant that there was no benefit for either club to win, but a significant benefit to losing.
The stakes were particularly high in Carlton's case, because the club had also received a priority pick in the 2006 season; as such, if it lost this match, it would receive the No. 1 draft pick as its priority pick. In Melbourne's case, the priority pick it could have received was be the No. 18 pick; the No. 1 pick would have gone to wooden spooners Richmond had Melbourne lost the match. The match became known as the Kreuzer Cup, named after Northern Knights
Northern Knights
The Northern Knights are an Australian rules football club playing in the TAC Cup, an under-18 competition in Victoria, Australia. They are based in Preston, representing the northern suburban area of Melbourne....
' ruckman Matthew Kreuzer
Matthew Kreuzer
Matthew Kreuzer is an Australian rules footballer for the Carlton Football Club. He was selected with the first pick overall in the 2007 AFL National Draft....
, who had been expected to be selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2007 AFL Draft
2007 AFL Draft
The 2007 AFL Draft consisted of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2007/08 Australian Football League off-season. These were trade week, the National Draft, the Pre-Season Draft and the Rookie Draft.- Trades :...
.
The match was high scoring, played with low intensity, poor skills and very little defensive pressure. Two players (Carlton's Heath Scotland
Heath Scotland
Heath Scotland is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.-Background:Scotland grew up and played his junior football for the Darley Football Club, then in the Riddell District Football League, and he played TAC Cup football for the Western Jets. He also featured in the...
and Melbourne's Travis Johnstone
Travis Johnstone
Travis Johnstone is an Australian rules footballer who has played for the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne in the Australian Football League...
) gathered more than 40 disposals. In addition, the crowd of 26,156 was subdued, and there were reports of fans openly supporting against their own teams. In the end, Melbourne had a five goal lead by quarter time, and ended up winning 21.13 (139) to 15.18 (108). Carlton went on to recruit Kreuzer with the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Round 18, 2009 – Melbourne vs Richmond
Melbourne entered the match with a record of 3–14. Because it had received a priority draft pick in 2008, it had the potential to receive a priority draft pick at the start of the draft if won no more than one of its final five matches.
The match was close for much of the game, but Melbourne kicked away to lead by a few goals in the final quarter. Richmond was then able to make a come-back, and an after-the-siren goal by Jordan McMahon
Jordan McMahon
Jordan McMahon is an Australian rules football player. McMahon, a native South Australian, was drafted from the Glenelg Football Club in the 2000 AFL Draft as a first round selection by the Western Bulldogs. Playing as a running defender, McMahon had seven seasons at the Western Bulldogs,...
gave Richmond a four-point win. The Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
later accused coach Melbourne coach Dean Bailey of making positional changes in the final quarter which were so nonsensical that they could only have been designed to ensure Richmond would make a comeback: this included moving key defenders James Frawley
James Frawley
James Frawley is an American director and actor. Frawley was born in Houston, Texas. He has worked on Smallville, Ghost Whisperer, Judging Amy and The Monkees, as well as many other programs...
and Matthew Warnock
Matthew Warnock
Matthew Warnock is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League . He began his AFL career playing for Melbourne where he wore the No. 1 guernsey , and was recruited from the Sandringham Zebras in the Victorian Football League...
into the forward-line, resting key midfielders, and using Brad Miller
Brad Miller
Brad Miller is the name of:*Brad Miller , American basketball player*Brad Miller , American politician and attorney*Brad Miller , Australian rules footballer...
as a ruckman for the first time in his career.