The mid-1990s have proved an exceptional vintage for perpetuating AFL bloodlines.
Last week’s national draft and Wednesday’s rookie selection have featured an unusually-large number of players whose dads also played senior football.
There were six official father-son picks – well above the average of 2.5 – and another six teenagers who also have a direct AFL lineage.
The league’s talent manager Kevin Sheehan said there were no trends or reasons at play.
“It’s an extraordinary number, no doubt,” he said.
“It’s a little bit random – the chances of these dads having boys, rather than girls.”
“That’s what the draft can be, a little bit of luck.”
The father-son bidding system meant Collingwood had to use their No.9 pick on Darcy Moore, whose dad Peter won two Brownlow Medals.
Billy Stretch will follow in Steven’s speedy footsteps at Melbourne and Michael Long, one of Essendon’s most revered figures, was rapt this week when the Bombers confirmed his son Jake would also play for them.
The other official father-son selections were Zaine Cordy (Brian, Western Bulldogs), Alec Waterman (Chris, West Coast) and Josh Clayton (Scott, Brisbane via Fitzroy).
It is one of the AFL’s great traditions, which started with Ron Barassi at Melbourne and Brownlow Medallist Kevin Murray at Fitzroy.
Stars like Gary Ablett, Matthew Scarlett, Tom Hawkins and Travis Cloke all came into the AFL as father-son picks.
To qualify for father-son, the Dad must have played 100 senior games for a Victorian club.
State-based rules also apply for the WA and SA clubs because they are so much younger, while Sydney have been able to take the sons of South Melbourne players and Brisbane have had the same access with Fitzroy.
The rules meant Brayden Maynard fell four games short of potentially becoming Adelaide’s first father-son pick.
His dad Peter needed to play 200 games at SANFL side Glenelg for Brayden to qualify, but he was dropped for the 1990 finals series and ended on 196.
Instead, Collingwood snapped up Brayden with pick No.30 in the national draft.
This year’s official father-son picks
Darcy Moore (father Peter played 172 games for Collingwood)
Billy Stretch (Steven 164 games for Melbourne)
Zaine Cordy (Brian 124 games Footscray, to Western Bulldogs)
Alec Waterman (Chris 177 games West Coast)
Josh Clayton (Scott 160 games Fitzory, to Brisbane)
Jake Long (Michael 190 games Essendon)
Martin
Roar Rookie
This father-son rule could be abused without some DNA testing. let's hope the AFL do some sort of verification..
Perry Bridge
Guest
Correct - It was never going to be perfect especially during the transitional phase. As it is - the start up clubs generally got other benefits and for many of the original (pre - AFL era) clubs (read as 'Victorian') - there was a positive weighting on F/S. However - it's still a little hit and miss and clubs now have to pay a decent price. Geelong did well out of it and got absolute bargains. My club North missed on Jesse Smith only due to injuries - Luke McDonald 1 year in looks okay - but beyond that not a massive amount of activity.
andyl12
Guest
With time, the SA and WA clubs (and Sydney and Brisbane) will have as good a chance of getting father-son picks as Victorian teams do. GC and GWS might have to wait longer, but that's why they've been given other draft concessions to balance things out. Not a big deal IMO.
Casper
Guest
So what should have been the rule for the SA and WA clubs then? You can't make the games number too low, or they would have too many to pick from.
Franko
Guest
Let's not forget Jonathan Browns fathers 51 games for Fitzroy granting him F/S. Father-Son is a great rule, it'd just be great to see it rolled out in an equitable manner.
johno
Guest
Yep, so far Freo has had 1 father son (Peake), West Coast 5 (McIntosh, Cousins, Morton, Waterman, Brennan), Port Adelaide (1 - Ebert) and Adelaide (0). To think that these extremely powerful football states have managed 6 F/S picks in 25 years just shows how rigged the F/S is for Victorian teams Around 80 players have been drafted under the F/S rule. Cousins was available to be taken by Geelong under the rule even though his dad had only played 67 games for them. He was taken by West Coast even though Perth was aligned to Fremantle in the F/S rules. For the Saints David Sierakowski got drafted under the F/S rule even though his dad only played 70 odd games for the Saints. Adelaide should have had Bryce Gibbs and Maynard. Both had fathers who played 190+ games under the rules. It really is another form of inequality in the AFL.
Don Freo
Guest
Agree.
Franko
Guest
Crows got done on Maynard, his SANFL + Crows games should have been enough. See Geelongs litany of father-sons under 200 games.