Should AFL revive mid-season draft?

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ADELAIDE'S season was virtually sunk just a month into the premiership campaign last year when key forward Taylor Walker collapsed to a serious knee injury that put him out for 12 months. St Kilda was exposed before the mid-season break in 2013 with the loss of lead ruckman Ben McEvoy and his back-up Rhys Stanley.

PORT REFINES ART OF DEFENCE

Brisbane's campaign — which already has tested novice coach Justin Leppitsch with a heavy injury count — is seeking life support with the season-ending knee injury of ruckman Trent West. Lead ruckman Matthew Leuenberger still has two months on the injury list with his own knee problems.

Port Adelaide's mission to maintain its league-leading pace hinges on prayers for the long-term safety of lead ruckman Matthew Lobbe. His back-up specialist ruckmen, Jarrad Redden and Brent Renouf, are both on the sidelines recuperating from season-ending knee surgery.

Matthew Lobbe and Ben McEvoy. PIC SARAH REED. Source: News Corp Australia

And so the question looms again: Why is the AFL the only major football competition without a mid-season draft or an in-season trade window that allows coaches to secure an insurance policy or quick fix from a rival club or from other leagues?

It is 21 years since the AFL discarded the mid-season draft that lasted just four seasons, 1990-1993. These were not always fruitful drafts. In 1991, in the league's second mid-season draft, there were 44 picks. Only four draftees played an AFL game. The most played was key position player Steven Handley who was on a journey from Queensland league football, reserves games with the Brisbane Bears and was at WAFL club Swan Districts in June 1991 when Geelong called him to Kardinia Park with pick No. 24 in the mid-season draft.

Handley had five seasons with Geelong, playing 73 games including two grand finals. But his AFL debut was not until the opening round of the 1992 AFL season, making his call-up in a mid-season draft far from an emergency need for the Cats. Malcolm Blight could have waited until the 1992 national draft in November to sign Handley.

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Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is eager for the mid-season draft or trade option to return to the AFL calendar.

"For the AFL to move forward, we need something, whether it is a trade period where, for example, your player list is not fixed until mid-May — that is a good option for us," Hardwick says. "We certainly need a working party or a summit of some sort to actually work through it.

"Most clubs have list managers — and we certainly are looking at players all the time. If you can get them to your club sooner rather than later, there's certainly a need for (a mid-season adjustment to lists). It definitely should be looked at."

Hardwick acknowledges there are difficulties such as "the salary cap and how many players come on and off lists ... how would it work?"

Also, what happens to players who are contracts and want their agreements honoured while changing clubs? Is there enough talent in the state leagues to immediately answer the needs of an AFL club in the middle of the season. The gap between the SANFL and AFL has certainly widened from the day in 1993 when utility Tony Lynn left the Central District Football Club in the SANFL as the No. 6 pick in the mid-season draft to join Carlton where he, like Handley, had to wait until the start of the 1994 AFL season to get the first of his 27 games as a Blue after six with Brisbane in 1988.

Darren Cresswell was a successful mid-season draft pick. Source: News Limited

The notion that a mid-season draft gave AFL teams instant answers to on-field problems did not stack up by the end of 1993.

The AFL did change its system after abandoning mid-season drafts by introducing rookie lists where clubs could keep as many as six "insurance" policies or long-term prospects in training to cover players with long-term injuries. This adjunct to the player list is far less messy than restoring the mid-season draft ... but just because something is difficult does not mean it should be kept in the "too hard basket".

SEARCHING FOR A QUICK FIX

AFL clubs had the chance to find answers to the unexpected with a mid-season draft from 1990-93. Should it be reinstated along with a mid-season trade period?

MID-SEASON DRAFTS

1990

45 picks

Best — Pick No. 2: Dale Lewis (Sydney from North Ballarat) 182 games

No. 18: Scott Turner (Richmond from Ararat) 144 games

1991

44 picks

Best — Pick No. 24: Steven Handley (Geelong from Swan Districts) 73 games

1992

55 picks

Best — Pick No. 17: Matthew Febey (Melbourne from Rochester) 143 games

Pick No. 39: Darryn Cresswell (Sydney from North Hobart) 244 games

1993