Don’t disregard the AFL rookies

Every club has access to it, but do they use it effectively? One of the most consistently overlooked tools in constructing a premiership list, the annual AFL rookie draft, took place last week.

It barely registered a blip on the radar – you might not have even realised that it happened.

But at least a few of the young men listed last Wednesday will become key contributors to their teams, and some may even go on to become crucial components of a premiership winning team.

It is understandable that a draft in which the most widely known players selected are either a reality TV show winner or making their return from a performance-enhancing substance ban may fail to capture the imagination of fans and media alike. But it’s time we all started taking notice.

For so long, the rookie draft has been neglected by footy fans, media and maybe even some recruiting departments. Not all that long ago, the rookie list was merely an afterthought and the players involved were very rarely given the opportunity to show what they could do at AFL level.

Rookies were essentially treated as a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ back-up plan, only emerging from the depths of the state leagues when a club was overwhelmed with injuries.

In a league that at times seems to be more interested in trumpeting equalisation failures as loudly as the breathtaking exploits of its athletes, it appears that one of the great equalisers was put to waste by a number of clubs for far too long.

It wasn’t until Collingwood began to find some succes in the rookie draft that teams started to recognise that they could no longer afford to treat the list with such contempt. The Pies were able to find consistent AFL contributors such as Nick Maxwell, Heritier Lumumba and Alan Toovey (to name just a few), providing the platform for their stingy backline that led them to the premiership in 2010.

In fact, Collingwood’s premiership winning team that year featured no less than seven players who started their career on the rookie list.

Moreover, every premiership team since 2005 has included at least one former rookie, and with the exception of Geelong in 2011, they have each included several former rookies.

Of course, there are always a number of reasons why certain players fall out of the national draft and into the rookie draft. Whether it’s off-field character concerns, doubts about ability to play at AFL level, or that the player simply needs time to develop, no one drafted as a rookie will step in immediately and be the saviour.

What a rookie listed player can do, however, is play a role for a successful team and shore up a glaring weakness. Take Richmond for example. Early in the season, the Tigers were being dismantled by the opposition at winning the ball and clearing it from stoppages. With the injection of the rookie listed Anthony Miles in the second half of the season, the Tigers suddenly transformed into a much improved stoppage team.

Miles can’t be the sole recipient of credit for this, but it is no coincidence that once he started getting regular playing time, Richmond made its miraculous run to September.

Twelve months ago, only maniacal Tigers supporters would even have been aware of Miles’ existence, and even then they most probably wouldn’t have known his backstory. Now, the former Giant is locked in as a member of Richmond’s best line-up, and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

In more recent times, the rookie list has developed into a fantastic mechanism by which clubs can recruit talent from alternative pathways, be it from different sports or even from overseas, and this has allowed clubs to wait patiently while these AFL converts learn the game.

Who would ever have imagined that a steeplechaser could transform into a viable AFL player? Through use of the rookie list, Geelong’s Mark Blicavs has been able to become exactly that, with his combination of size, agility and aerobic capacity making him the prototype for the modern day second ruckman.

Athletes like Blicavs represent the ultimate low-risk, high-reward bargains available to clubs if they use the rookie list effectively. The Cats have essentially plucked a best 22 player from nowhere, and other clubs are rushing to sign AFL newbies in the hope of emulating Geelong’s success with Blicavs.

So much emphasis is placed on a club’s big ticket free agency and trade acquisitions, not to mention the fawning over unproven kids who are barely old enough to legally drive, at the nationally televised national draft. We are so fixated on sexy names and arguing over who is the ‘winner of the off-season’ that we too often disregard the impact that someone who has had to battle and grind just to make it to the AFL can have on the field.

Let’s face it, every club has top-end talent, but it’s the clubs that can do more with less that end up reaching the greatest heights.

The draftees from last week might not be able to capture attention and grab headlines, but they may very well turn out to be the less heralded but equally important cogs in a team that tastes the ultimate success.