CHANGES 2010 - AND NOW FOR THE ROOKIES

CHANGES 2010 - AND NOW FOR THE ROOKIES by The Oracle

Much of the limelight from the perspective of club recruitment in the AFL naturally centres on the National Draft. Melbourne's four draft picks have been well documented. The selection of four draftees all of them young and tall, over 190cm was a surprise to many but the icing on the cake was the revelation last week that young Jack Viney has agreed to come on board when eligible as a father/son pick in 2012.

The club's senior list has now been finalised as it made no further changes in its List Lodgement Three which therefore rules out a selection in the Pre Season Draft. The list now looks like this:-

SENIOR LIST:

Rohan Bail Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Jamie Bennell Sam Blease Lucas Cook Aaron Davey Troy Davis Lynden Dunn Jack Fitzpatrick James Frawley Colin Garland Max Gawn Jack Grimes Jordan Gysberts Jeremy Howe Mark Jamar Neville Jetta Nathan Jones Liam Jurrah Joel Macdonald Addam Maric Stefan Martin Tom McDonald Brent Moloney Cale Morton Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers Tom Scully James Strauss Colin Sylvia Luke Tapscott Jack Trengove Matthew Warnock Jack Watts Austin Wonaeamirri

VETERAN LIST Brad Green

ROOKIE LIST:

Michael Newton plus Rookie Draft selections 14, 31, 48, 63, 76 and 84.

This year's Pre Season and Rookie Drafts take place next Tuesday.

The former has attracted so few of the clubs that the entire operation should be over in less than a minute. I don't expect many surprises and, indeed, the only matter to reflect upon when it's over will probably be whether this draft will continue much further into the future. Various draft rules changes over the years have wiped the gloss off the attractiveness of the PSD and only six clubs have opted to take part this year.

For the record, the Herald Sun predicts the following PSD selections:-

1. Gold Coast - Cameron Pederson (Box Hill)

2. West Coast - Tim Houlihan (West Coast)

3. Richmond - Bachar Houli (Essendon)

4. Essendon - Jay Neagle (Essendon)

5. Hawthorn - Cameron Bruce (Melbourne)

6. Fremantle - John Anthony (Collingwood)

If two redrafted players and a 31 year-old is the best that this draft can produce and less than half of the clubs take part, then the death knells are certainly tolling.

The Rookie Draft that follows carries far more interest for dedicated football fans who understand its growing importance. This should be evident for all and sundry in an era where the skipper of the reigning premier is a former rookie lister. Retiring Melbourne captain James McDonald and All Australian Mark Jamar were both originally rookies and the Demons would no doubt be well satisfied with this year's upgrades from those ranks in Jordie McKenzie and Jake Spencer.

Some other current AFL players whose careers started on the rookie list are Matthew Boyd (Western Bulldogs), Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle), Dean Cox (West Coast), Brad Sewell (Hawthorn), Andrew Carrazzo (Carlton) and Collingwood premiership player Jarryd Blair.

The Rookie Draft is bolstered this year by the fact that so few recycled players were taken in November's National Draft and the fact that it's now open slather on mature age rookies. There's also a lot more interest in players from state leagues and other competitions following the success of players such as Michael Barlow, James Podsiadly and Alex Silvagni in 2010.

The other point of interest is that the Rookie Draft will feature Kevin Sheedy's Greater Western Sydney Giants for the first time. They have the first eight selections and are expected to take some of the more reasoned retreads to help give their otherwise very youngish initial side which competes next year in the new North East Australia competition a kick along.

Melbourne's first selection is at fourteen and I wouldn't hazard a guess as to who that will be but perhaps the AFL's Permission to Train List might be a pointer. The Demons have six rookie spots available but can defer a selection until after the NAB Cup.

There are more changes to come!