- 1990 AFL Draft
The 1990 AFL Draft was the 5th annual draft of
Australian rules football ers to the 14 clubs in theAustralian Football League . It consisted of the national draft held at the end of the 1990 season, the pre-season draft, held before 1991 AFL season and a mid-season draft.Clubs receive picks based on the reverse of the position in which they finish on the ladder during the season. This was introduced as an equalisation strategy in response to the increasing transfer fees and player salaries.
National Draft rules
The minimum draft age for the 1990 National Draft was 16. Other than the
West Coast Eagles , clubs were allowed to select only one West Australian player each and South Australian players were restricted to be only selected by theAdelaide Football Club which would join the AFL for the1991 AFL Season . Players inQueensland ,New South Wales and theAustralian Capital Territory could only be selected by clubs other than theBrisbane Bears and theSydney Swans respectively if the player was older than 19 and not required by the 'local' club. Faced with these restrictions the league reduced the number of choices from 8 to 6. In exchange for the SA moratorium, the Crows were excluded from the draft (they could pick any South Australian, but only South Australians).Background
The talent pool was clearly shallow and most clubs shied away from investing too much hope in the draft. A number of the Victorian clubs, notably Richmond and Fitzroy, couldn't afford to recruit established players so stuck with country footballers and young unproven youngsters. Clubs were believed to be looking to
Tasmania as perhaps the only recruiting ground which hadn't been ravaged.The Under-19's competition was still in operation and clubs had only to list players who had been drafted, and those over the age of 19. Essendon and North Melbourne at this point for example had very talented reserves sides drawn from their metropolitan zones (these zones would later provide the basis for theNorthern Knights Under-18 teams).Pre-Draft
Pre-draft picks included Brisbane taking
Darryl White from the Northern Territory which had become their 'zone'.Mitchell White andGlen Jakovich were fair additions to theWest Coast Eagles squad.There were a number of notable trades. Brisbane traded Mark Roberts to North Melbourne who also securedPeter Mann from the Eagles. Geelong gave up forwards David Cameron andShane Hamilton to get Brisbane's number 1 draft pick. The most noteworthy trade though was Hawthorn getting the rights toDarren Jarman , who turned down the chance to join theAdelaide Crows . Incidentally the Rohan Smith listed is the St Kilda one, not the Footscray one. Future Channel 7 commentatorRussell Morris left Hawthorn for St Kilda.Players
Richmond drafted Matthew Clarke and
Nick Daffy . Despite the restrictions on recruitingSouth Australia ns, Richmond skirted the rule because these two played inMount Gambier and were registered with clubs in theBorders League (VCFL).Melbourne draftedAllen Jakovich , who although aWestern Australian was playing forSouth Australian National Football League (SANFL) side Woodville, and Brisbane were able to draft twoWestern Australian Football League (WAFL) players inPeter Worsfold (John's brother) andDavid Ogg .Matt Clape , Jakovich,Todd Ridley , James Cook,Jason McCartney ,Scott Crow ,Matthew Young ,Stuart Anderson andPaul Sharkey were modestly successful.Matthew Burton ,Fabian Francis andDerek Hall would all find success at different AFL clubs.The only two definite successes were
James Hird andJamie Shanahan .Bits and Pieces
Jason McCartney kept a diary on behalf of the Age newspaper detailing the weeks leading up to the draft. In it he reveals the confusion and uncertainty that a young footballer feels. McCartney fromNhill in Victoria (near the SA border) was hesitant about moving toMelbourne . He went to Adelaide as a guest ofGlenelg Football Club and watched the AFL grand final on the big screen, as well as watching Glenelg lose the SA Grand Final the next day.With Sydney and Brisbane having the first draft picks he signed for Glenelg on a two year deal. When Sydney and Brisbane traded their selections his hopes lifted. Geelong told him that they would take Hooper first and would be attempting to get the second pick to take McCartney. Geelong were unable to manufacture a trade and Carlton ended up with the selection (they swapped ruckman
Warren McKenzie to Sydney).Ian Collins ,Geoff Walsh ,Bruce Comben andKinnear Beatson all drove up to Nhill to meet with McCartney, and the next morningDavid Parkin rang him to ask if everything went well.On draft day Carlton opted for Tasmanian James Cook. Parkin said that he felt that Cook had the potential to be an even better player. Collingwood drafted him and McCartney openly admitted he was devastated and that Collingwood was last on his list of clubs.The trades which made the above possible were Carlton swapping McKenzie to Sydney for 2 pick overall, and Collingwood swappingTerry Keays to Richmond for 4th pick overall. One recruiting officer commenting about the decision making of Sydney and Richmond said, "those clubs deserve to be in the position they are in if they are going to make choices like that".Preseason
Michael McLean joined the
Brisbane Bears after having been not encouraged to stay with Footscray. Sean Simpson switched from St Kilda to Geelong and the Cats again demonstrated their ability to revive careers.David Cloke was encouraged to saddle up for one more season at Richmond who was finding recruiting a ruckman nearly impossible. Kevin Dyson was recruited to Melbourne. Collingwood audaciously recruited the recently retiredGerard Healy in the hope of persuading him to play on, but he didn't.Pre-Draft Picks
References
External links
* [http://www.comcen.com.au/~weaver/ The Complete AFL Draft]
* [http://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/NABAFLRisingStarsProgram/NABAFLDraft/tabid/282/Default.aspx Official AFL Draft page]
* [http://www.thedrafter.net AFL Draft]
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