I am for a lottery system. But it must be for every club outside of the 8. Must be an even roll of the dice for all the remaining clubs.
There must be no weighting. As long as there is an advantage to go one spot lower on the ladder, then tanking is possible. The 8th club has the incentive to play finals, the 9th club once finals is out of reach can't have an incentive to tank and finished 10-14th depending on how even the year is for a small perceived gain in draft order. Would defeat the purpose. (There is no incentive in the draft for Richmond to win the rest of their games this season but plenty to lose them starting with Brisbane).
The current draft system is bad for the game and for the u18 comps. You can't have your number 1 draft pick constantly going to teams that do not know how to develop players, have bad coaches, facilities and are poorly managed. If you are the best player, being picked at number 1 shouldn't be instant doom for your career and you shouldn't have to suffer loss after loss after loss as a reward for being that good. If you were the potential number 1 draft pick, there is an incentive to tank the last few weeks and hope you get picked up later in the draft by a decent team.
If a team finishes bottom 4 multiple years in a row, there are much bigger concerns than their list. Those things need to be addressed before that club can go forward. These are the things the AFL can help with. If asked for assistance, the AFL can step in and help a club improve their structures and finances. Much like a poorly run business goes into voluntary administration, a poorly run club should do the same. This will do a lot more than a priority pick ever would.
This kind of lottery will force the lower teams to be more aggressive trading and recruiting players from the middle competitions and other clubs. This is preferred to them putting their hand out for easy draft picks. It will mean that a team that has clawed their way to 9th will have a better opportunity to reach higher. This will create more competition which is better for the game.
