The Last Draft by Whispering Jack

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THE LAST DRAFT by Whispering Jack

Later this week, the Melbourne Football Club will go into the AFL's National Draft meeting holding many of the aces. It has the first two selections (almost certainly Tom Scully and Jack Trengove) as a consequence of finishing last and winning not more than four games in the season recently concluded. It has four picks in the first eighteen and will choose two more players before passing on its final selection which will enable it to take the first player in December's Pre Season Draft who will most likely be former Brisbane Lion defender Joel Macdonald.

The decisions that are about to be made are crucial. With a solid base of emerging young talent already at the club, the half dozen or so about to join the ranks are expected to bolster a reshaped Melbourne Football Club list that will lead it into a promising new future - a future that includes two brand new interstate clubs and a limited capacity to introduce fresh young blood for a number of years to come. In many ways, this is our club's last chance to get things right.

One decision that the Melbourne Football Club needs to get right is whether it chooses disgruntled former Saint Luke Ball in this week's draft. The likelihood is that he will be available at pick 18 but there's a major dilemma about whether the club should take him.

When the exchange period ended, Ball and his management had failed to secure a trade that would have seen him cross to his preferred club Collingwood. Many observers regarded this as a complete botch up on the part of all concerned. Ball was left in limbo and expressions of interest in the midfielder started flowing from a number of areas including the Melbourne camp. Here was someone who was a quality player who would not only add football skills, experience and great deal of know-how in the team's engine room as a hardnosed inside midfielder but he was also a leader of men. The complete package.

Melbourne originally hoped to use its position as first cab off the rank in December's Pre Season Draft to snare the Saints midfielder but its hopes were dashed when it became clear that Ball didn't want to have a bar of the wooden spoon club of the AFL competition.

Ball is a sensational footballer when at his best and, even at 75% capacity, he would fit nicely into most AFL teams so the Demons persisted. They waited for him to come back from his end of season overseas trip. And they waited ... and they waited ... and when Ball returned, he made himself scarce. In the end, he didn't even want to talk to the club although coach Dean Bailey made it clear that if he was told to his face that a player didn't want to come to the club, it would be a short conversation.

All the while, there was a bizarre streak to Melbourne's courtship of a reluctant Ball because the former Saint is, in reality, not by any stretch of the imagination a perfect package at all. In recent seasons his body has been affected by osteitis pubis and a severe hamstring injury and, this year, question marks about his fitness saw him consigned to several games in the VFL. On his return for the finals Ball was tracking at around about 50% game time and even less than that in the grand final. A prolific possession winner in the wet conditions on that one day in September, the problem was that he moved at a snail's pace and couldn't kick over a jam tin. Even his staunchest supporters were conceding that the 25 year old's body was looking more like that of a 30 year old. Little wonder then, that Ball himself (and his bevy of advisers) considered it inadvisable to go to a club that might not be a finals contender in the short term.

Ball's quality as a footballer is not in question. The concern is whether his body is capable of holding up in a game that requires ever- increasing degrees of fitness and pace. Given the right mix of rest and the appropriate training regimen, Ball's fitness might return to acceptable levels but we don't know for sure - he's not talking to anybody and isn't submitting for a medical.

So is the wooden spooner in the middle of a youth-focussed rebuild prepared to take such a risk given its limited resources on a player who might again crumble physically when the heat is turned up?

Where would he fit in Melbourne's game plan where speed, strength and precision kicking of the short and long variety were going to be essential?

And what of the recruiting edict issued last year about shunning potential recruits with injury concerns?

Does one make an exception for a wounded 25 year old whose best days might be behind him, just because he's supposed to be of good character?

Demons' football manager Chris Connolly has no doubts that Ball is a likely candidate for either his club's third or fourth selection and is undeterred by Ball's clear preference to play elsewhere. He told the Sunday Age that Ball "is going to be strongly considered because he's just a class player and a class person and he'll be a great role model for our young players." On Ball's refusal to talk to the club Connolly is adamant that this was not even taken into the club's consideration.

"We know if we choose him that he'll commit to play 100 per cent because that's his character. We're not even discussing that aspect of it," he said.

Connolly would have been buoyed by the Channel Ten vision of Ball training alone on the tan late last week looking fit and rippled but it was, after all, a twenty second grab. And the cynics are claiming that it's all a ploy. A recruiting bluff to confuse all comers.

Recruiting guru Colin Wisbey agrees with Connolly's views on drafting Ball, stating on the Extreme Black 'n' White website that in the Ball scenario, the "Demons would be making the professional decision". In his view, "when a player wants to go to a particular club, most other clubs respect the players' wishes during trade week" but after that, "a club should select on draft day whoever it thinks is the best player for them at each pick."

Wisbey maintains that AFL clubs "have to be focussed on building the best lists they can. Part of that means drafting the best players available where possible. An AFL club is a business, not a benevolent philanthropist." He concludes that if a lowly club bowed to each player's wishes who wanted to play for a stronger club then "they would overlook a large chunk of the best prospects in the draft pool and be rightly ridiculed."

Whilst agreeing with those sentiments, I'm not convinced on Ball for reason of the doubts listed earlier. My own personal opinion remains that the club should not become a repository for players from other clubs who are not quite right and I would therefore be looking elsewhere.

Of course, the decision in this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario rests with others. If the Demons' football department is prepared in its wisdom to make the call and take the risk, then Ball will be a Demon on Thursday night.

Whatever the case, the AFL will almost certainly be forced to deal with the issues that the Ball dilemma has highlighted. This could well herald the approach of free agency and, with it will probably go the Pre Season Draft which has been emasculated as a result of changes in the rules regarding the eligibility of these players.

So enjoy Thursday night's National Draft, Demon fans because it will be your night and probably the last opportunity for three or four years before there will be much for fans of the existing AFL teams to cheer about at draft time. Thanks to the introduction of the new expansion clubs and thanks to the botched Luke Ball trade deal, this will most likely be the last of the drafts as we know them.

FOOTNOTE:

The 2009 AFL National Draft can be viewed almost live on Fox Sports2 at 6:30pm on Thursday 26 November.

There's also time to join your fellow Demon fans at the MELBOURNEfc 2009 Draft Event Presented by Mates of Melbourne at the G to find out who we select and to discover the fate of Luke Ball. Will he become a Demon, a Bomber, a Lion or a Magpie or will someone else select him?

Jack Watts will be there to give his insights on life as the number 1 draft pick, and subject to AFL timing obligations, the number 1 and 2 picks will be presented after their selection. Mates of Melbourne need you to be there to welcome our young recruits into the Melbourne Football Club family, and show them what a great club they joining.

Visit matesofmelbourne.com.au for more details.