Priority draft pick

The Priority draft pick is a term used in the Australian Football League's AFL Draft.

Brief outline of the AFL Draft

At the conclusion of the AFL season, selections in all three AFL drafts (the National Draft, Pre-Season Draft and Rookie Draft) are taken in the reverse order of final ladder placings. The selections are arranged into "rounds," with each team having one selection per round. Selections are usually taken in reverse-ladder position order to help the poorer-performing teams.

Priority Round

In the early 1990s, the AFL decided to provide extra help to teams performing consistently worse than others; the Sydney Swans, who finished last in 1992-1994 are a key example. To provide this help, the "Priority Round" was introduced into the National Draft. The Priority Round was positioned at the beginning of the draft, before the First Round.

Teams would gain a selection in the Priority Round only if they finished the season with fewer than 20.5 premiership points (wins are worth four points, draws are worth two points).

Selections in the Priority Round are arranged in the reverse order of ladder position with the following exceptions:
* A ballot was used in 1988-1992 and 1995.
* Fremantle were given the first draft pick in 1994 as they were to compete for the first time in 1995.
* West Coast were given the first draft pick in a ballot for 1996 as Fitzroy, who had finished last, had ceased to exist after their merger with the Brisbane Bears.
* Fremantle traded their first pick to Hawthorn in 2001.
* Carlton were barred from the draft in 2002 for salary cap breaches; as a result, St. Kilda, who had finished 15th of 16, received the first pick and selected Brendon Goddard.
* Richmond actually finished last in 2007 but Carlton got the first pick.

Rule Changes

In the early 2000s, it became apparent that a team with reasonable prospects could have an isolated bad season through injury, and finish with five wins, 'inappropriately' earn a player-list boosting priority draft pick. This was deemed to be unfair since the initial "raison d'etre" of the priority picks was solely to help consistently poor teams to rebuild.

As a consequence, several changes were made to the rules in 2006:
* The Priority Round was shifted, so that it was held between the First and Second rounds of the draft.
* Teams would receive a Priority Selection only if they finished the season with fewer than 16.5 premiership points.
* If a team finished with fewer than 16.5 premiership points in two consecutive seasons, then their Priority Selection is taken before the First Round.

Tanking

With the AFL defining a numerical cut-off point for the priority pick, there is annual speculation that teams deliberately lose games to retain the extra selection, referred to as "tanking." This is difficult to prove as teams who have won only two or three of their first twenty games cannot be expected to win their last two, so their lack of performance is hardly evidence of tanking. However once a team is well out of finals contention and on 16 points (4 wins) there may be a temptation to avoid a further wins - Carlton found themselves in this ridiculous position in 2007, where a win would have cost them the priority selection #1 draft pick.

Media commentators point to the trialling of young players and the resting of champions with niggling injuries as an indication of subtle tanking, but while others point out that these practices make perfect sense for a team with nothing to play for. By shifting the Priority Round from before to after the First Round, the AFL has reduced, but not eliminated, the incentive to tank. Some members of the media have called for a draft lottery, but Andrew Demetriou has stated that there will be no change to the priority system, despite frequent calls for it from media. [ [http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22162607-23211,00.html Do Blues need a win, or a Riewoldt? - AFL - Fox Sports ] ]

References