Draft Lottery Worth A Punt, Says Roos

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday August 8, 2006

Michael Cowley

SYDNEY coach Paul Roos believes the AFL might need to consider either a financial incentive scheme for teams out of finals contention or an NBA-style draft lottery to help the integrity of the competition as well as rewarding teams for winning.

Clubs out of top-eight contention at this time of year often give some of their senior or injured players the rest of the season off to have surgery on niggling problems, allowing them to recover for the start of the pre-season.

Under the draft, clubs select players in order of their ladder finish, from bottom to top, meaning the wooden-spooners get first choice (and teams with four wins or less get a priority selection), while seven teams get a draft choice ahead of the team that finishes ninth.

In the NBA, the US basketball competition, teams that miss the play-offs go into a lottery, and the order of their selection in the first round of the draft depends entirely on the order in which their ping-pong ball is drawn.

"I think from the club point of view, it's the sensible thing to do," Roos said. "I think maybe, if there is concern at AFL level - which I'm not suggesting there is - or the fans, or anyone watching footy, perhaps we could have a lottery draft system, rather than having the bottom team automatically getting the first pick. Or maybe there could be an incentive for finishing ninth rather than 12th ... a $1million prize pool or something like that.

"Maybe it's time to look at some of those things, but you can't blame the clubs at this time of year for not wanting to put 2007 in jeopardy when they can't make the finals in 2006. Collingwood did it last year and had great success with it and came out this year and have had a fantastic season.

"It's the smart thing to do, but I think if there is concern from the AFL then there are things you can put in place, more of an incentive to keep the better players on the field until the end of the season. Unless there are incentives, I don't think teams are going to do it.

"Every team has players at this time of year that perhaps should have an operation, and the incentive there is to either finish ninth and get pick seven or eight, or, maybe blood your young kids, look to the future, and OK, if you drop down the ladder, you get pick three. It's a bit of a no-brainer the way the system is now.

"There's not a lot of incentive to finish ninth and I can understand what the clubs are doing. They have seen it happen and seen it work with other clubs, and to have a really good 2007, you need players starting around November 10-15, so it gives them the opportunity to have a good season.

"I think the NBA lottery is very good, because no one knows who is going to get the No.1, and it is an incentive [to win games]. But obviously the reason the question gets asked, is because people are starting to get fed up with the back end of the season with so many players going in for operations."

In team news, Roos said there would probably be some changes for Saturday's game against Melbourne at the MCG, but it was too early to know who would come into the side, and if Nick Davis would be one of those promoted.

He said the signs were good in that he believed that Davis, Ben Mathews, Jared Crouch and Amon Buchanan - all missing from last Saturday's win over Essendon and clearly in the club's best 22 last season - were, when fit and healthy, still in the club's best 22 this season.

"We need to try and them get back in the side, but it's always predicated on form and fitness," he said. "We are assessing Nick along with everyone else - are they fit enough, are they in good enough form - and we'll pick our best 22 for next Saturday's game."

A rough conduct charge against Brett Kirk from Saturday's game was yesterday dropped.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home