2008 AFL Draft

[Beno88]

Most St.Kilda supporters refer back to the missed drafting opportunities of 2001 - 2003 as the clubs worst recruiting blunders, but as the development of some young players progresses, 2008 is looking like the draft that is going to hurt us most.

While we did net Rhys Stanley with pick 48, and salvaged Tom Simpkin with rookie pick 29, neither is a certain starter in our best 22 at this stage, hopefully both will be an important part of our future spine.

We entered the draft with picks 13, 47, 48, 62, 74 & 83. Pick 31 had been traded to the Bulldogs for Farren Ray and pick 48, which at this point looks the right call, Jordan Roughead was taken by the Dogs at 31. Ray's value throughout the last three years probably outweighs the need for height Roughead would be currently easing.

The top ten in 2008 is proving to be excellent, Watts, Naitanui, Hill, Hartlett, Hurley, Yarran, Rich, Vickery, Ziebell, Davis. With Sidebottom at 11.

At 13 we took Tom Lynch. We got next to nothing out of him, despite limited opportunity. He may improve at the Crows, but he's a long way behind those mentioned above.

After Lynch came Mitch Brown, Schoenmakers, Blease, Shuey, Ballantyne, Jackson Trengove, Zaharakis, Jack Redden, Beams, Hannebery, Roughead, Sheils, Zac Clarke, Steven Motlop, Mitch Robinson, Todd Banfield, Liam Anthony, Matthew Broadbent and Rory Sloane. All have shown something at the top level and more than half are above average players, some even elite. Making our first pick a major fail.

At pick 47 we snapped up Stanley, can't argue with that. Immediately after at 48 we took Nick Heyne. Now while he is also still in the system, we got zero return. Following Heyne came Taylor Hunt, Jordan Lisle, Neville Jetta, Jarrad Redden and Aaron Cornelius. None are stars, but all have shown far more than Heyne.

Pick 62 was Alistair Smith and for a while he looked like he might be a good find, but in the end he played 3 games and was delisted. Pick 74 was Paul Cahill and Pick 83 was Colm Begley, they combined for one senior game. Making Stanley the only player to remain on our list, or to even play over six games. Add to that the fact that of our seven rookie picks, only Simpkin remains. That's 11 wasted picks from a draft only 3.5 years ago. Our first rookie pick was Zac Dawson who gave us three years decent service, but ultimately, he is gone now.

Players available at pick 62 were Rohan Bail, Shane Savage, Liam Jurrah, Tom Rockliff, Jordie McKenzie, Jeff Garlett, Robin Nahas, Matt De Boer, Jarryd Blair, Liam Picken, Luke Breust, Clancee Pearce, Mike Pyke and Lachlan Keefe. Even with pick 71 in the rookie draft we could have taken Greg Broughton, Sam Jacobs or Matthew Suckling!

I know a number of people will read this and say "here's just another draft rant that's so easy in hindsight" or "we picked players to fill voids on the list", but the point I'm trying to make is that the 2008 AFL draft will hurt us more than any going forward, not only because of poor selections, but because almost every club has picked up a future star or two while we missed so many great opportunities. Fourteen clubs still have four or more players from the 2008 draft on their list, we have two, equal least with Essendon, but their two are Hurley and Zaharakis. Recruiting has to be the toughest job in the AFL, but given the talent throughout the 2008 drafts, we should have done a lot better. With Pelchen now on board, we should start to see more draft success, just look at what he did for Hawthorn in that 2008 draft after they finished 1st!

Hopefully Stanley and Simpkin are the big ticks from 2008.

Players On AFL List From 2008 Draft
Adel 7 (Johnston, Lynch, McKernan, Sloane, Young, Henderson, Jacobs)
Bris 6 (Rich, Banfield, Lisle, Redden, Cornelius, Rockliff)
Carl 5 (Yarran, Robinson, Heyne, O'Keefe, Garlett)
Coll 5 (Sidebottom, Beams, Rounds, Blair, Keefe)
Ess 2 (Hurley, Zaharakis)
Frem 10 (Hill, Ballantyne, Suban, Clarke, Walters, Dawson, De Boer, Pearce, Van Berlo, Broughton)
Geel 4 (Brown, Gillies, Motlop, Hunt)
Haw 6 (Schoenmakers, Sheils, Lowden, Savage, Breust, Suckling)
Melb 8 (Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Bail, Jurrah, McKenzie)
NM 6 (Ziebell, Wright, Anthony, Delaney, Speight, Sireakowski)
Port 6 (Hartlett, Trengove, Broadbent, Banner, Stewart, Pfeiffer)
Rich 4 (Vickery, Post, Nahas, Browne)
StK 2 (Stanley, Simpkin)
Syd 3 (Hannenbery, Heath, Pyke)
WB 4 (Cordy, Roughead, Jones, Picken)
WCE 4 (Naitanui, Shuey, Swift, Smith)

*Phil Davis was pick 10, now at GWS as skipper.

[Middo]

Brisbane did well ...

[Spinner]

Really really really unhappy when we drafted Lynch. Was hoping for Trengove to fall but was sure Adelaide would pick him. I think they went for Davis and I was super pumped!

Then Trengove fell to like 22 or something. Bargain.



Lynch is a funny one. Had a knee reco that year (i think) and sort of came from no where to be a first round pick. Unusual....


Anyone else care to explain the selection? He played under Loewe didnt he?

[dragit]

Frem 10 (Hill, Ballantyne, Suban, Clarke, Walters, Dawson, De Boer, Pearce, Van Berlo, Broughton)

Shows you how young this team is in general… At least 7 would be in their best 22 & while we are still saying how young Stanley is, most of these guys have around 50 games experience - Hill with 78

You can't change the past, so we have to build upon what we already have.

It's why we have to play Stanley & Simpkin in front of Kosi and Blake, Same goes for Milera/Saad for Milne really, we have to fast track now or in 2 years we will have an entire team with under 50 games experience, which will get absolutely flogged by 17 other sides…

Beams would be handy right now, but then again, he may have only played 5 games so far if he was with us, instead of the 70 at colonwood

[gringo]

Every draft has some wins and loses, not a great one but you just have to front up to the next one with a better due diligence process and hope you got Franklin not Tambling in this one.

[stinger]

Really really really unhappy when we drafted Lynch. Was hoping for Trengove to fall but was sure Adelaide would pick him. I think they went for Davis and I was super pumped!

Then Trengove fell to like 22 or something. Bargain.



Lynch is a funny one. Had a knee reco that year (i think) and sort of came from no where to be a first round pick. Unusual....


Anyone else care to explain the selection? He played under Loewe didnt he?

think he topped the goal kicking for vic under 18's ....

[Kernal75]

Not sure our drafting has ever been that great. Yes we've picked up some greats but they were with High picks / compensation picks. When was the last time (execption J Gwilt) that we uncovered a diamond in the rough at the tail end of the draft. Our recruiters ar never mentioned as being the "best in the business" like some of our rivals (Geelong, Essendon, Collingwood).

Hopefully Pelchen and the team can start to write the wrongs of era's past and set us up for a future with some execptional talent outside of top 20 picks.

[BigMart]

It was not as bad as 2009.... So there's a positive

[ThePunter]

Through 2001-2004 we picked up some real productivity late in drafts (Montagna, Fisher, Gwilt). It was really from 2005-2007 that we dropped the ball, either trading away picks or picking poorly.

However, the 1st round pick for Fergus Watts may have been different if he had not have broken his leg (a spiral fracture). Same with Barry Brooks and doing his knee - these were impact injuries that had little to do with injury management. As such those trades ended up being failures.

The club surely should have known better with Andrew Lovett. That pick ended up at Port Adelaide and being Jasper Pittard, but the blokes picked later (in what was thought to be a reasonably weak draft) included Daniel Menzel, Nathan Fyfe, Luke Tapscott, Jake Carlisle, Mitch Duncan, Jack Gunston, Sam Reid (Syd), Allen Christiansen, Ben Stratton, Ben Sinclair, Michael Barlow, Alex Silvagni, Matthew Jaensch & James Podsiadly. This was a clear mistake that has taken 2 more years to amend (with the recruitment of Ahmed Saad and Terry Milera).

[dragit]

Nathan Fyfe, now that brings a tear to my eye, we don't even have a dud to whip instead…

It's true, at least we have 2 decent players from 2008, 2009 OMG what a friggin' disaster…

pick one - traded for nothing
2 - winmar
3 - jesse smith
4 - pattison
5 - johnson
6 - dawson
7 - miles

plus we lost ball for nothing,

…and gave away McGuire + we rookied leigh fisher, jarryd allen & tommy messiah…

[Spinner]

For the brilliant minds comparing 2008 with 2009.

Pretty sure we actually tried to draft young talent in 2008 and failed miserably.

2009 seemed like a lets get some project and backup players type of strategy.





Pretty clear the different types of strategies that were implemented.

[WinnersOnly]

Yeah I think the club has recognised there poor drafting record as an issue hence bringing in Pelchen etc. We cant change the past but we can improve the future - lets hope our drafting hit rate improves!

[saintspremiers]

It was not as bad as 2009.... So there's a positive

Which cabbages were in charge of our recruiting in 08/09?

[plugger66]

It was not as bad as 2009.... So there's a positive

Which cabbages were in charge of our recruiting in 08/09?

Peake.

[8856brother]

At least Lynch was a Saints supporter. Always a great reason to make sure we draft someone, even if it's about 30 picks sooner than where the player should go. Winmar similar but different.

Hard to stomach all those names around his that are genuine AFL players now. Some elite.

[hayes66]

A little harsh and still too early to judge 2008. If I have my facts right we picked up Ray , who has given solid service. A potential ruck/ forward with enormous upside at pick 47. A potential key back in Simpkin as a rookie. We also picked up another key back in Dawson. I wouldn't think it's the recruiters fault that Dawson left. So all up we had two key backs and a potential ruck/key forward. A lot of clubs would say those positions are pretty hard to fill.
As for Lynch he is still on a list at Adelaide, who are in the top eight and has shown some promise.
If my maths are right after pick 13 St Kilda had to wait 34 picks before their next pick. I wouldn't have thought their pick order was gold. And if Stanley does turn out alright did some clubs make a mistake by not picking him up earlier?
As for 2009 a disaster. No doubt, but I at the time i thought that getting Lovett was exactly what was needed. I don't know how you can foresee what happened in that particular case.
For mine 2007 given the picks was a solid draft. 2008 ditto, 2009 poor, 2010: solid.

[bobmurray]

Whilst the 2008 draft results were poor, we turned the 2009 draft into spudsville..
Glad that recruiter has moved on......What a flop...

[saintspremiers]

It was not as bad as 2009.... So there's a positive

Which cabbages were in charge of our recruiting in 08/09?

Peake.

Is he still in the AFL system?

[bobmurray]

Which cabbages were in charge of our recruiting in 08/09?

Peake.

Is he still in the AFL system?

Back at Geelong...bootstudder

[Austinnn]

Jesus wept.

That is horrific. Due some good luck next draft surely!

[saintly]

It was not as bad as 2009.... So there's a positive

Which cabbages were in charge of our recruiting in 08/09?

Peake.

and he is back at Geelong as head recruiter.

[plugger66]

Which cabbages were in charge of our recruiting in 08/09?

Peake.

and he is back at Geelong as head recruiter.

Steven Wells is in charge of recruiting at Geelong.

[saintspremiers]

Jesus wept.

That is horrific. Due some good luck next draft surely!

80% skill 20% luck using the good 'ol 80/20 rule!

[Animal Enclosure]

It just goes to show that if you spend the money (which we didn't have) you get the results.

The wealthy clubs are able to pay a wide network of scouts to find the best talent. For a long while our recruiting department was John Beverage & a handful of volunteer scouts.

The club now has a much better resourced network of recruiters, so you would expect that our strike rate would improve (the 2010 crop look very promising & the early indications are that 2011 are a pretty reasonable group too).