Crows to miss out on prize draft pick
By Michael Gleeson
The Age
July 23, 2005
Adelaide has been delivered a stunning blow and the rest of the AFL's clubs a massive boon with the revelation that the likely No. 1 draft pick the Crows thought they could take under the father-son rule in the 2006 national draft does not qualify.
Precocious talent Bryce Gibbs, who has been compared to Essendon star James Hird, is now back in the open draft for 2006 after it was revealed that his father, Ross, had not played enough games for Glenelg in the qualifying period for him to be taken as a priority by the Crows.
In a move similar to Brisbane missing out on Nick Riewoldt, because he lived kilometres outside the Lions' concessional draft zone, Gibbs falls only a handful of games short of the minimum requirement for him to be taken under the father-son rule.
For Gibbs to qualify, Ross Gibbs needed to have played 200 games for Glenelg between 1970 and 1990. Gibbs played 253 games for Glenelg, but his 200th came too late, in 1991.
The AFL advised the Crows on Thursday they had been agonisingly close to being able to claim the prodigious talent for a third-round draft pick.
"We are disappointed sure, because the kid certainly looks talented," said Adelaide football manager John Reid.
"We are disappointed in the sense that we thought he was eligible but due to some misunderstanding of the statistics, it turns out he is not.
"People were pushing him up, so when we double-checked we found he is short under the AFL rules. He is 20-odd games short; he needed to have played his 200th before 1990 and he played it in 1991."
He also needed to have played his 200th game before the Crows came into the competition in 1991. He had played only about 160 at that time.
With Gibbs back in the mix, what was already shaping as a stellar draft has become significantly stronger.
Highly fancied teenagers Joel Selwood, Leroy Jetta and Scott Gumbleton are already being touted as top draft picks in what could be a year to rival the 2001 draft of Luke Hodge, Chris Judd and Luke Ball for elite talent.
Gibbs, at 16, has already been playing senior SANFL football for Glenelg across half-forward for two years and is averaging more than 20 possessions a game.
"He is absolute silk, a superstar," Kangaroos recruiting manager Neville Stibbard said yesterday.
"He is about 187 centimetres and he just never wastes the footy, he is quick, has the perfect build for AFL and he has been playing senior footy for two years in the SANFL, which is the best comp outside the AFL."
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