Father-son hot form could force Tigers to pay high priceafl.com.au
11 July 2017PATRICK Naish's impressive season sees him likely to become Richmond's first father-son pick since 2003, but the classy midfielder's form has also created an interesting situation for the Tigers.
Richmond has a strong hand at this year's draft, holding two first-round selections – its own (currently pick No.13) and Geelong's first-round pick (currently No.16) which was on-traded to the Tigers last year from GWS to secure Brett Deledio.
Should the Tigers hold on to their two first-round picks during the trade period, they will be desperate for a bid to come on Naish after they have already used their early selections on other players.
But the 18-year-old's excellent season – he was last week named in the NAB AFL Under-18 All Australian team – has seen him rise into top-10 contention for some clubs.
If, for instance, a bid for Naish came at pick eight (worth 1551 points under the AFL's draft value index) at November's draft in Sydney, the Tigers would need to match the bid with 1241 points after their 20 per cent discount.
They could do that with their next pick (No.13 is worth 1212 points) which wouldn't impact the place of their next pick (No.16 is worth 1067 points).
However, if a bid was to come earlier than No.8 and the Tigers' first pick didn't have enough points value, their second first-round pick would get pushed back to make up the difference.
Under the live father-son and academy bidding system, if the Tigers used their two first-round picks before matching another first-round bid on Naish, their first-round pick for next year would be pushed back equal to the points they owed to bring him in.
The Tigers don't have a second-round draft selection at this stage having traded it last year, but that won't restrict their ability to nab Naish.
Naish is the son of former Tigers forward Chris, who played 143 games for the club between 1990-97 and kicked 212 goals.
The Northern Knights prospect averaged 21 disposals across the carnival, including a stellar finish to the championships against the Allies last Wednesday at Simonds Stadium, when he gathered 26 disposals.
He has spent plenty of time at the club in recent years as part of its father-son program, with recruiting manager Matt Clarke telling the Road to the Draft podcast earlier year the club wasn't too fussed about how high his form might have pushed him.
"We probably don't look at [where he sits in the order] too much at the moment, that's for sure," Clarke told AFL.com.au in May.
"We're probably just tracking all the areas of his game that he needed to improve on. Others may be able to give you a bit more of an insight into where he sits, we're just more concerned about the small things in his game he needed to work on and if he's ticking those boxes.
"He tends to be doing that at the moment."
The Tigers haven't had a father-son pick since they took Tom Roach, the son of former champion Michael, in 2003. Their most successful father-son has been Tigers legend Matthew Richardson, while former defender Joel Bowden also joined as a father-son in the 1990s.
AFL DRAFT VALUE INDEX
ROUND ONE ROUND TWO ROUND THREE ROUND FOUR ROUND FIVE
Pick/Points Pick/Points Pick/Points Pick/Points Pick/Points
1. 3000 19. 948 37. 483 55. 207 73. 9
2. 2517 20. 912 38. 465 56. 194 74. -
3. 2234 21. 878 39. 446 57. 182
4. 2034 22. 845 40. 429 58. 170
5. 1878 23. 815 41. 412 59. 158
6. 1751 24. 785 42. 395 60. 146
7. 1644 25. 756 43. 378 61. 135
8. 1551 26. 729 44. 362 62. 123
9. 1469 27. 703 45. 347 63. 112
10. 1395 28. 677 46. 331 64. 101
11. 1329 29. 653 47. 316 65. 90
12. 1268 30. 629 48. 302 66. 80
13. 1212 31. 606 49. 287 67. 69
14. 1161 32. 584 50. 273 68. 59
15. 1112 33. 563 51. 259 69. 49
16. 1067 34. 542 52. 246 70. 39
17. 1025 35. 522 53. 233 71. 29
18. 985 36. 502 54. 220 72. 19
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-07-11/fatherson-patrick-naishs-hot-form-could-force-tigers-to-pay-high-price