Draftees Heading Interstate Can Be A Lottery

as seen on The Roar

You could see the emotion etched on young indigenous player Lewis Jetta’s face the moment it was announced he was heading to Sydney as pick number 14 in last week’s AFL Draft: “I’m leaving home, not for the home of footy, but the rugby-loving big smoke of Sydney?”, seemed to be his stunned initial reaction.

Indeed, it’s a tough system the AFL Draft, but these youngsters know exactly what they’re getting themselves into when they put their names up for selection.

In Jetta’s case, it had been touted in the Perth press that the Swan Districts product could be picked up by local club West Coast with their first pick at number 7, but after that didn’t occur the 20-year-old might have hoped to head to Victoria where his first cousin Neville and second cousin Leroy currently play with the Demons and Bombers respectively.

Instead, he’s been swiftly flown off to Sydney away from family and friends to join the Swans.

And Jetta faced the media on Monday for his first session in the spotlight where he confidently claimed he was always better than cousin Neville and that Sydney’s gameplan would see him use his lightning-fast pace to feed off mentor Adam Goodes.

It was all lighthearted stuff but it clearly showed this was a youngster with a lot to learn.

But he’s not alone with over 30 youngsters having to head interstate from this year’s national draft.

The 2009 Rising Star winner Daniel Rich is an example of someone getting it right, but there are many less-publicized examples of those who couldn’t handle it and some rather more-publicized examples of those who headed home after a few years.

Indeed, Chris Judd is the obvious case, while there’s many more such as Scott Thompson, Jason Gram, Des Headland, Tyson Stenglein, Daniel Chick, Adam McPhee, Stephen Gilham, Robbie Warnock, Bradd Dalziell, John Meesen, Nick Davis, Henry Playfair and Daniel Motlop.

On the other hand, there are obviously many more examples of players who’ve settled interstate and gone onto enjoy fruitful careers at that club.

And actually during Foxtel’s draft coverage there was a story on Brisbane’s Victorian-born midfielder Luke Power, where his parents spoke about his initial years at the Lions and how he phoned them daily telling them how he desperately wanted to come home.

Instead, he toughed it out, broke into the Brisbane team and went onto play a major role in their three premierships before becoming a co-captain at the Lions in 2007.

Nevertheless, the point is young players getting homesick does happen and it is a risk at the draft table with these youngsters getting whisked away at such an early age.

And while Nathan Buckley’s now infamous new kicking test at the draft camp measures the skills of youngsters, there is no such test for homesickness. Indeed, it is something you can’t predict.

So it is about clubs helping these youngsters settle in and adjust to life away from family and friends.

These draftees obviously need somewhere to live for a start, but then there’s also finding new friends and hobbies to keep them busy, as well as the adjustment in terms of independence.

Brisbane are a club who’ve been successful in this department with the aforementioned duo of Rich and Power along with West Australian Simon Black and Victorian Jonathon Brown, who’ve both had trade attention from other home-state clubs at times in their careers.

It’s a problem non-Victorian clubs inevitably face a lot and there have been salary cap concessions in the past for these clubs to ensure they can retain non-local players.

Nowadays a lot of those concessions have been drawn back, so clubs must find new resources outside the salary cap to face this challenge.

I’m led to believe in the case of Jetta, who has lived in Bunbury (175 kilometres south of Perth) all of his life, his parents will make the move to join him in Sydney but that isn’t always possible.

Indeed, clubs must tackle these challenges otherwise they risk wasting a pick at the draft table should they let a talented interstate player cruise along frustrated and longing for home in their early AFL years.

That in itself poses the question of the wisdom of drafting players from interstate and whether clubs should prioritize selecting locals, although that’s another debate altogether.

But the main thing clubs want is to see talent reach its full potential under their guidance.

And obviously that is a challenge but just one of many challenges for clubs in the curious system that is the AFL Draft.
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