Terrible timing for 2010's stragglers: Leigh Matthews (afl site)

[one-eyed]

Terrible timing for 2010's stragglers
richmondfc.com.au
By Leigh Matthews
Mon 29 March, 2010

SOMETIMES timing is everything in life and footy.

The fact that both Melbourne and Richmond were well-beaten round-one losers only reinforced the universal view that they will again be well off the pace and are likely to remain anchored in the bottom two positions.

These two clubs are stuck in the terrible situation of losing good players quicker than they can develop the teenagers they draft.

The harsh reality is that there will always be a premier and there will always be a wooden spooner. The AFL draft and salary cap are designed to reduce the gap between the best and the worst and the early draft picks have been the consolation for the losing pain and a beacon of hope for a brighter future.

Remember Carlton won only 11 games in the three seasons from 2005-07 but picked up Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs and Matthew Kreuzer - and a  priority pick received for sustained failure was swapped to recruit current captain Chris Judd from West Coast.

However this year in footy is the worst possible time to be a struggling team with a talent-depleted list. Over the next few years, the new teams on the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney have been given the cream of the next generation draftees.

They have also been given the right to recruit an uncontracted player from each of the other 16 teams. It would be diabolical and unfair if Melbourne and Richmond in their current situations were further weakened by losing a player or two to the new expansion clubs.

They are already starting behind scratch and can’t afford the body blow of having one of their few good players pinched through the free agency granted to establish and build competitive 17th and 18th teams. That may be critically important for the big-picture growth of the national competition but any team that wins five games or less cannot be further weakened to strengthen the expansion clubs.

It seems very reasonable to me that clubs in this category should somehow have their players declared off-limits to the northern raiders.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/91208/default.aspx

[tugga]

Interesting. I don't think you could keep players from struggling teams off-limits as it denies the individual the chance to earn more money. What I would like to see, however, is greater compensation for, say, bottom 4, clubs if they lose an uncontracted player.

[Smokey]

Interesting. I don't think you could keep players from struggling teams off-limits as it denies the individual the chance to earn more money. What I would like to see, however, is greater compensation for, say, bottom 4, clubs if they lose an uncontracted player.

Your idea certainly has merit tugga - worth debating further.

[HD]

Maybe they should have been giving GC17 & GWS some draft picks in the 1 to 2 years leading up to each clubs inclusion in the AFL to lessen the impact in the draft's overall. They enter in 2011, which is going to decimate the draft for the rest of the teams - maybe they should have been getting draft picks from 09 & 10 which would still allow the bottom-ish sides to get some benefit from the 2011 draft.

15th & 16th might not have got the No .1's but it would've been better than what they'll end up with in 2011. All too late now though, guess we'll have to wait and see what the fallout is. And before anyone says it, I know we would've missed out on some of the youngsters that we got this year, but we'll probably see some youngsters in 2011 that we wish we could've picked up instead!