Now I enjoyed yesterdays win as much as anyone but it has cost us big time imo.
As we all know the draft is there to try and even up the competition but whether you win the premiership by 100 points or come stone motherless last with no wins, you get a pick inside the first 16. So the difference in most cases is minimal at best. Any first round pick has a better than average chance of being a very good footballer for his club.
That said the AFL realises that this isn’t enough to try and make up the difference between first and last. This is where the priority picks comes in.
Andrew D and his cronies from the AFL can sit back and say there is no tanking, but deep down they know there is but why change a system that is working. As Andrew states every time he gets asked the tanking question- every club has played in a prelim final in the 10 or so years. And fair enough to say that, the system works on paper.
In simple terms getting a priority pick gets you an extra pick inside the top 20. Basically two really good young footballers instead of one. Simple math will tell you that gives you a really big advantage over any team that only gets one.
Teams like Melbourne who don’t take advantage of the priority situation this year would be crazy. Because they have been terrible for a few years now they get the opportunity to pick up the best two kids in the country if they decide not to win a couple of “meaningless” games from here to seasons end. What would you as a Melbourne member/supporter want from here on in?
IMO if this happens they will go ahead of us in terms of chances of winning a premiership. Sure we may play finals before them but making finals and having a side that can challenge for a premiership are two totally different things.
Remembering half the compition play in finals every year.
A good example of a club that knows this is West Coast, they won a premiership 3 years ago and could maybe still be playing finals but to their credit they new they didn’t have the side to win another so they decide to go down and picking up some good young kids and challenge again in another few years. A club run like a business not a footy club run like our footy club. Maybe it’s because they are a young club and haven’t got the history or the pride to ‘win at every cost’ like our club but I bet you they win their next premiership before we do.
The win against Essendon on Sunday will cost our club going forward like it has done for as long as I can remember- winning games late in the season when we are out of finals contention. Giving away the only real chance of getting an advantage over the other clubs above us by picking up an extra young kid come draft day. To make the win even worse is the fact that the new clubs are coming into the compition starting next year and the drafts will be compromised making it even harder to make ground on the top sides.
It’s ironic that today after a great win on the weekend I feel the worst I have all year. IMHO I cannot see any real light at the end of this really, really long tunnel. I would have preferred us to sign Jade to coach us next year and told him to lose every game until the season was over and given him next year to prove he was worth keeping. But ensuring we got 3 picks inside the top 20 this year. Worse case scenario we’d be looking for a coach next year but with an extra potential superstar on our list in the last uncompromised draft for years.
I really hope you ‘winning culture’ people enjoyed yesterday’s win because they will be few and far between for a long time!
