Shrinking talent pool for AFL clubs

Kurt Tippett is hoping he survives until pick No.11 in today's pre-season draft so he ends up at his preferred destination at Sydney. Picture: Sarah Reed Source: adelaidenow

FOOTBALL insiders call today the Kurt Tippett draft, because the biggest question is whether Tippett will last to No.11 in the pre-season pick to end up with Sydney.

Apart from that, the focus is on the shrinking drafts.

Both the pre-season and rookie drafts will be completed within an estimated 30 minutes this morning, with only 20-odd untried players likely to join the system through the rookie draft.

Clubs now have room for four rather than six rookies and many are re-committing to players they had to cut to take part in the national draft.

Two prominent South Australians are in that category: Nick Joyce will be picked up by the Crows after being temporarily axed and Dean Brogan is expected to be re-drafted by Greater Western Sydney, which dropped him to have a crack at departed Crows forward Tippett.

AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan said although tight, the rookie draft still offered hope for younger players.

And with the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney established, Sheehan expected there would be more hope for players over the age of 20 to be snapped up.

Clubs were likely to look wider for ready-made talent in state competitions, he said.

Players such as Steven Morris, who made it to Richmond after winning West Adelaide's best-and-fairest and Central District premiership player Ian Callinan, who made it on to the Crows' list in his late 20s, are likely to be part of the game rather than an aberration.

"It looks like half of the players who are new talent will be mature-age players and the other ones will be the younger ones," Sheehan said.

"But there's only 20 or so players to be taken - maybe a dozen or so young ones and a dozen older ones.

"I think the rookie list was only as big as it was because of the (league) expansion and now it's come back into what it was originally.

"Normally there's an average of over 50 taken and it looks like half of that will be taken in this rookie draft. So it makes it pretty tight."

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