Each year AFL clubs decide their list strategies and assess whether a strong draft hand is likely to yield benefits comparable to the trade assets the picks are worth.
As clubs push higher up the draft board they gain the security that they can draft the players they rate the highest before other clubs and, consequently, increase their chance of securing successful long-term recruits.
Nonetheless, this strategy is not foolproof and hindsight exposes the difficult reality of ranking the ability and potential of players before they have been introduced to an AFL environment.
In this list, the first round of the 2016 National Draft will be reassessed with the benefit of six years of AFL data.
Below is the original 2016 first round:
- Andrew McGrath
- Tim Taranto
- Hugh McCluggage
- Ben Ainsworth
- Will Setterfield
- Sam Petrevski-Seton
- Jack Scrimshaw
- Griffin Logue
- Will Brodie
- Jack Bowes
- Oliver Florent
- Jy Simpkin
- Daniel Venables
- Harry Perryman
- Jordan Gallucci
- Todd Marshall
- Jarrod Berry
- Sam Powell-Pepper
- Tim English
- Isaac Cumming
- Will Hayward
In this draft year, a number of players were taken as father-son and academy selections (eg. Will Setterfield, Jack Bowes, Harry Perryman). The nominal draft order will be adjusted to reflect what clubs would have actually taken into this hypothetical draft.
Where these players are selected it will be assumed that the clubs that matched their bids in the original 2016 draft will continue to do so regardless of where they land in this order.
5. Pick Five: Luke Ryan - Carlton (Original position - Pick 66)
Luke Ryan is one of the biggest bolters in this re-draft, rising 61 positions after impressing during his time at Fremantle.
Ryan was selected at 20 years of age in 2016 and is therefore one of the older players of this crop, but the 26-year-old is in the prime of his career and would benefit a Carlton side that is looking to push into the top four.
His ability as a defender would have been of particular benefit to Carlton in 2022 as they faced a key-defender crisis following injuries to key personnel and the premature retirement of Liam Jones.
Ryan has won a best-and-fairest and All-Australian selection while at Fremantle, and the club has rewarded him with a contract extension that will make him a Docker until at least 2027 after another sublime season in Perth.
