Nine years on from their inaugural draft, the Gold Coast Suns will get the chance to hit the reset button after the AFL confirmed the struggling club will hold the top two picks in this year’s draft as part of an “assistance package.”
The Suns already held the No.1 choice due to finishing at the bottom of the ladder, but will now hold the first two selections, along with the first pick of the second round – currently pick 20.
Gold Coast will receive a mid-first round pick in the 2020 draft and the first pick of the second round in the 2021 draft. They will be able to trade their picks but are expected to at least retain pick one and two.
“We presented to (the AFL) 12 months ago and we said we need to reset this club and, in part, that means that we’re looking for a second coming,” chief executive Mark Evans said on Monday.
“In 2014 it looked like the club had made some good solid progress, and over the last four or five years we’ve had difficulty retaining players because of the lack of success.
“This is a second chance for us to come at that with good young players, some mature players and some good programs wrapped around that. I’m really confident we’ll make every post a winner.”
That starts in this year’s draft, when Gold Coast are expected to take Victorian duo Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson first-up.
The pair are largely rated as the best two prospects in this year’s pool and the fact they are close friends is seen as a huge boost to Gold Coast’s retention prospects.
The last time a club held pick one and two – apart from the original concessions handed to Gold Coast and GWS between 2010 and 2012 – was when Melbourne drafted Tom Scully and Jack Trengove in 2009. Richmond took Dustin Martin at pick three.
Every club’s selections will be pushed down the order as a result but it is the 17th-placed Demons and Adelaide who will suffer the most.
Adelaide hold Carlton’s first-round pick as part of a trade involving a future draft pick completed last year, with that selection now bumped down the order from No.3 to No.4.
“We’ve spoken to those clubs today and they understood the decision and they accepted it,” AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon said.
The Crows released a statement but stopped short of publicly questioning the decision, saying they supported an “appropriate” assistance package.
“We have spoken with the league on several occasions in recent times and clearly and firmly expressed our view,” chief executive Andrew Fagan said.
“Whether the allocation of a priority pick to the Suns has any impact on our club is unlikely to be known until the national draft itself.”
Dillon said the Crows had “accepted” the AFL’s call and emphasised the decision to run the Suns’ concessions over three years was to “provide certainty for the clubs” future trade and draft windows.
The Suns will also receive expanded academy player access for the next three years, including the provision of the Darwin region as an academy zone, the ability to pre-sign the club’s academy player without matching bids from opposition clubs and an increased rookie list of up to 10 players.
The package will also include support from the AFL in the form of operational and strategic services as the Suns look to improve player retention.
It’s a genuine bumper set of concessions that, if capitalised upon, should set up the Suns for the long-term.
Crucially, Dillon emphasised the expansion club were “here to stay”.
Now it’s on the Suns to make the most of their second coming.
