Don't worry be happy

[the_boy_jake]

I reckon its the best thing for the club to finish second last and gain priority picks. I despise the system, but as long as you avoid the spoon there is little difference for me between 15th and say, being eliminted in the preliminary final.

How about this system:

* No priority picks.
* Picks are grouped into sets of two such that they add up to the same number... e.g. 1st and 2nd round picks: {1, 32}, {2, 31}, {3, 30}..... {16, 17}...... 3rd and 4th round round: {33, 64}, {34, 63}..... {48, 49} ... etc
* The team that finishes last gets to choose which pair of picks they want from each round, the team that finishes second last gets to choose second etc... therefore the team that finishes last gets some advantage, but is not overcompensated for being spineless, uncoordonated hacks.

[mightytiges]

I would still keep priority picks but only award them to teams who have finished near the bottom of the ladder over consecutive years. The priority pick was designed to stop a club spending years down the bottom. If you only awarded it for that then you wouldn't get the situation we see now of a top side having a bad injury run one year, getting a priority pick then returning back to the top only stronger the following year when they get their players back.

 

[Struggletown]

I have also seen suggestions for a lottery style system that has merit,which would eliminate the suspicion of sides 'tanking' matches for the priority picks.
Eg: If the bottom 3 all win less than 5 games,they get 2 balls in a lottery. the remaining sides outside the eight get 1.
they are then drawn out of a barrell for selection order.the top eight goes from 8-1st as per norm.
After each side has one selection,and those bottom 3 two selections, the draft reverts to selection based on ladder position again.

[the_boy_jake]

MT, the reason I don't like priority picks is that it punishes teams that show a bit of guts and determination.

The doggies under Wallace, for example, I felt usually finished about 4 places above where their list should have, because they showed a bit of grit. They could have been out of the mess they are in now a lot sooner if they had of picked up PPs back then..

[mightytiges]

Fair point Jake. We ourselves have been "punished" for mostly finishing just outside the top eight for the last 10 years. Not good enough to make the finals but not bad enough to get priority draft picks (until now hopefully).

I still reckon there is an art to the draft and the successful clubs are smart at it while dumb clubs like Richmond never got it. Hopefully the promising youngsters coming through are a sign that's changing. Essendon have been up the top since the draft was introduced in 1986. That hasn't affected them while the Dogs fell away again. Sheeds just knows who is an A-grade player and who is a replaceable B-Grader. When they are up the top and he's got the most out of the current crop he lets valueable B-graders go (Blumfield, Caracell, Heffernan, Calthorp, Ollernshaw, Kickett, Anderson, Bradbury for example) to get high picks to rebuild again without spending years out of the finals. Like Richmond the Doggies mistakenly held onto their best 22 with making any major changes when up the top even though they couldn't achieve a premeirship. You must continually improve your list no matter where you are on the ladder otherwise you go backwards big time. Those Clubs that overrate and don't improve their list only have themselves to blame. Richmond of course is/has been one of those clubs.

As a result I don't have a problem with priority picks as long as it's for a Club that's been down the bottom for a few years. It's not good for the competition to have a easy-beat team like Freo and St KIlda were a few years ago winning 1 or 2 games for a couple of years straight. The priority picks they received has made them competitive again.

[om21]

The lottery system has to work doesnt it? You are garunteed that way to not have anyone go for priority picks.
Look I like my soccer as well and I dont know about this help crappy teams theory. I mean do the lottery way, that way there is no garuntee who will get them. This revolving door doesnt sit well with me...how can the Saints go from Bottom 2 (not 4) all these years in a row to finals because of picks?

Have teams 13-16 as Pot 1 teams and 9-12 Pot 2 teams. Pot 1 gets lottery for the first 4 picks, Pot 2 for picks 5-8 and the rest in order of knocked out of finals.

[the_boy_jake]

I still reckon there is an art to the draft and the successful clubs are smart at it while dumb clubs like Richmond never got it.

You're definitely right, and that is the way clubs should be encouraged to go about it. If St. Kilda win anything in the next three years though, we will all know what made them so good...

[mightytiges]

If St. Kilda win anything in the next three years though, we will all know what made them so good...

No doubt about that. Same goes for Freo.

Hopefully the Tiges can exploit their current woes and the current system and turn it into long-term success in 3-4 years time.