1986 VFL Draft

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The 1986 VFL Draft was the first formal draft to provide recruitment opportunities to clubs participating in Australian rules football's elite Victorian Football League. Held after the end of the 1986 season, it consisted only of the National Draft itself.

Contents 1 National Draft 1.1 Pre-Draft Selections 1.2 National Draft Selections 2 External links 3 References

[edit] National Draft

All twelve established clubs, along with one of the two teams set to debut in the competition, the Brisbane Bears, were given one pick in each of the five rounds, a total of 65 overall. Brisbane received the first selection in every round, and six pre-draft selections, as well as complete access to all players from Queensland.

The other new side, West Coast, was also granted similarly exclusive home-state rights. However, with the superior range of players available from the West Australian Football League, the club withdrew from the draft.

The order of the remaining picks was set in the reverse of the previous season's finishing positions.

In addition, the established Victorian clubs maintained sole recruitment options on players from the relevant Metropolitan and, for the last time, Country Zones. This meant that even before the draft had started, the most sought-after footballers from Victoria were already signed, and therefore unavailable for selection.

The restricted pool of available draftees meant the majority of those chosen in the 1986 National Draft came from South Australian and Tasmanian clubs. Meanwhile, although the minimum age for eligible players was 16, many were actually into their twenties, unlike the contemporary teenage selections. Also of note is the significant number of those picked either did not join the club that selected them at all, or at least did not do so straight away.

A prime example was the number one draft pick, Martin Leslie. Leslie served out the remaining two years of his contract with Port Adelaide, winning All-Australian honours at the Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival in the process. Only then did he moved to Brisbane, making his debut as a 26-year-old in 1989 and going on to play over 100 times during the course of seven seasons. In contrast, the second selection overall, the similarly aged Steven Sims, opted to remain in South Australia rather than join the St Kilda Football Club.^[1]

Although many other 1986 draftees never played in a senior match, several did go on to make their name as footballers, among them Melbourne's Steven Febey and Darrin Pritchard of Hawthorn. However, the most notable of the draft's recruits was Alastair Lynch, picked by Fitzroy at number 50 overall, who eventually passed the major milestone of 300 appearances, which included three victorious Grand Finals with the Brisbane Lions.

[edit] Pre-Draft Selections

Player	Recruited from	Club
Matthew Campbell	North Adelaide	Brisbane Bears
Stephen Connelly	Central District	Brisbane Bears
Ben Harris	Port Adelaide	Brisbane Bears
Neil Hein	Norwood	Brisbane Bears
Colin McDonald	Woodville	Brisbane Bears
Mark Mickan	West Adelaide	Brisbane Bears

[edit] National Draft Selections

Round	Pick	Player	Recruited from	Club
1	1	Martin Leslie	Port Adelaide	Brisbane Bears
1	2	Steven Sims	West Torrens	St Kilda
1	3	Steven Febey	Devonport	Melbourne
1	4	Richard Anderson	Norwood	Richmond
1	5	Michael Taylor	Port Fairy	Geelong
1	6	Richard Cousins	Central District	Footscray
1	7	Chris Lindsay	West Torrens	North Melbourne
1	8	Grantley Fielke	West Adelaide	Collingwood
1	9	Andrew Payze	West Torrens	Essendon
1	10	John Brinkkotter	Barooga	Sydney
1	11	Jason Taylor	New Norfolk	Fitzroy
1	12	Dominic Fotia	West Torrens	Carlton
1	13	Clayton Lamb	West Adelaide	Hawthorn
2	14	Scott Adams	Clarence	Brisbane Bears
2	15	Andrew Wickham	Latrobe	St Kilda
2	16	Matthew Febey	Devonport	Melbourne
2	17	Trent Nichols	Sandy Bay	Richmond
2	18	Mark O'Keefe	Warrnambool	Geelong
2	19	Matthew Mansfield	Glenorchy	Footscray
2	20	Brenton Harris	South Adelaide	North Melbourne
2	21	David Robertson	North Adelaide	Collingwood
2	22	Kieran Sporn	West Adelaide	Essendon
2	23	Lyndon Dakin	Lonford	Sydney
2	24	Mathew Armstrong	Hobart	Fitzroy
2	25	Doug Smart	North Adelaide	Carlton
2	26	Darrin Pritchard	Sandy Bay	Hawthorn
3	27	Adam Garton	Glenelg	Brisbane Bears
3	28	Darren Mansell	Penola	St Kilda
3	29	Craig Walker	North Hobart	Melbourne
3	30	Matthew Sexton	Sandhurst	Richmond
3	31	Glen Keast	North Gambier	Geelong
3	32	Wayne Mahoney	Port Adelaide	Footscray
3	33	Malcolm Shippen	Moulamein	North Melbourne
3	34	Craig Kelly	Norwood	Collingwood
3	35	Peter Reid	Sturt	Essendon
3	36	Donald Thompson	Albury	Sydney
3	37	Chris Duthy	Glenelg	Fitzroy
3	38	Simon Minton-Connell	North Hobart	Carlton
3	39	Matthew Queen	Glenorchy	Hawthorn
4	40	Stephen Williams	Port Adelaide	Brisbane Bears
4	41	Brett Jaffray	Latrobe	St Kilda
4	42	Anthony Lovell	Glenorchy	Melbourne
4	43	Andrew Gray	St Patricks, Ballarat	Richmond
4	44	Tim Britt	Dunnstown	Geelong
4	45	James Pyke	Norwood	Footscray
4	46	Gary Brooker	Casterton	North Melbourne
4	47	Brendan Hogan	Assumption College	Collingwood
4	48	Stephen Riley	North Adelaide	Essendon
4	49	Craig Elias	Eastlake	Sydney
4	50	Alastair Lynch	Hobart	Fitzroy
4	51	Andrew Herring	Wynyard	Carlton
4	52	Robin McKinnon	West Adelaide	Hawthorn
5	53	Michael Templeton	Woodville	Brisbane Bears
5	54	Paul Page	Kennington	St Kilda
5	55	Darren Jarman	North Adelaide	Melbourne
5	56	Greg Whittlesea	Sturt	Richmond
5	57	Michael Billman	Boort	Geelong
5	58	Perry Meka	Lemnos	Footscray
5	59	Wayne Morrissey	Northern United	North Melbourne
5	60	Wayne Tanner	Norwood	Collingwood
5	61	Andrew Underwood	Sturt	Essendon
5	62	Laurie Menhenut	Tocumwal	Sydney
5	63	Peter Winter	West Adelaide	Fitzroy
5	64	Darren Newlan	Golden Square	Carlton
5	65	Tony Symonds	Glenelg	Hawthorn

[edit] External links

• Official AFL Draft page

[edit] References

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