Has any club benefited from the AFL’s socialist draft system more than Carlton? Cheat the salary cap, stuff the list with overpaid ageing stars and suffer years of on-field ineptitude as a result.

Don’t worry about it; the AFL will bail you out with a series of early draft choices year after year whereby the club with the worst record will receive the earliest national and pre-season draft choices.

The fact that two of those early draft choices were wasted on Dylan McLaren and Cain Acland, taken with the number one selections in the pre-season drafts of 2005 and 2006, is irrelevant. With their off-field mismanagement and shoddy on-field performances at the heart of their ills, the Blues would be Leeds United if they were in an open market.

Hopefully the events of yesterday are the start of Carlton getting what they truly deserve, with the club paying well above the odds for Fremantle’s Robert Warnock.

For a man that’s played only 21 games in three seasons, Warnock’s market value in this post season was astonishing, with talk of potential suitors offering a first-round pick in exchange for a man who has never had more than 16 possessions in a match found himself behind Kepler Bradley in the ruck pecking order, which is a remarkable achievement for anyone with two arms.

The Blues did manage to weasel their way down to pick 24 in exchange for Warnock, but Fremantle, perhaps wary of a prior trading record which could only be described as professionally negligent, asked for more and incredibly got it with Carlton handing over pick 56 as well.

Considering the Adelaide Crows have used pick 56 to draft the handy Robert Shirley and Chris Knights in recent years, the Dockers seem to have, for the very first time, got the better of another party at the negotiating table.

In an attempt to diffuse the expectation on Warnock from Carlton supporters, coach Brett Ratten has implored them not to expect too much from the former Docker next season. Given the last two ruckman recruited from other clubs to Optus Oval were McLaren and Acland, that is a fair enough warning but may be a little hard to swallow considering what has been given away and the fact that all Warnock is expected to do over the next decade is provide a contest for the 10 minutes every game when future superstar Matthew Kreuzer needs a spell.

How someone of Warnock’s standing can command such a hefty price can only be attributed to what Best Clubman calls the Troy Simmonds Syndrome, whereby clubs climb over each other to recruit the best available big man in that year’s trade period no matter how bad he may be.

Richmond amazingly offered Simmonds a five-year deal on big money in 2004 simply because the alternative was another year of watching Greg Stafford go around, which is unforgivable in an age where video tape of Simmonds’ performances can be easily obtained.

According to Ratten, Warnock is “a young player still in the development phase so I think everyone’s going to put a lot of pressure on him. We think in his first year whatever he does will be a bonus for the club,” which suggests that if Warnock repeats his 2008 season highlight of pummelling St. Kilda’s Luke Ball while his eyes were on the footy, then this will be fine with Ratten.

As for Fremantle, they seem to just be happy to have walked away from a trade week still wearing a pair of pants and holding a few extra draft picks. “It’s the best group of picks we have had since 2003,” football manager Chris Bond said. “Our strategy all along was to get a better position in the draft, and we are really happy we have been able to do that.”

Considering the Dockers drafted Ryley Dunn (pick 10), Adam Campbell (pick 27) and Brett Peake (pick 43) with three of their choices in their so-called “best group of picks” in recent memory, hopefully this year’s selections turn out to be the year the Dockers finally get their drafting and trading right.

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