History

When the competition was known as the Victorian Football League (VFL), the league introduced the first incarnation of a draft system in 1981, where teams had two selections each of interstate players determined by reverse finishing position order. This was introduced as an equalisation strategy in response to the increasing transfer fees and player salaries at the time, which in combination with declining attendances, threatened to derail the league. It was also a result of the failure of country zoning, introduced in the late 1960s, which had led to a systematic inequality whereby the clubs with the best zones, like Carlton and Hawthorn, could dominate over clubs with poorer zones like Melbourne.

In 1986, the first VFL Draft was held. The draft saw players tied to zones based on their location of residence, with each club having first call on players falling within that zone. The West Coast Eagles received access to all West Australian players, while the Brisbane Bears received 6 concessionary picks before the other clubs.

Draft Rules

The minimum draft age was 16. Clubs were allowed to select only one WA player each and South Australia was off-limits because of the introduction of Adelaide. Players in Queensland and NSW/ACT could only be selected by clubs other than the Brisbane Bears and Sydney Swans respectively, if the player was older than 19 and not required by the 'local' club. Faced with these restrictions the league reduced the number of choices from 8 to 6. In exchange for the SA moratorium, the Crows were excluded from the draft (they could pick any South Australian, but only South Australians).

Background

The talent pool was clearly shallow and most clubs shied away from investing too much hope in the draft. A number of the Victorian clubs, notably Richmond and Fitzroy, couldn't afford to recruit established players so stuck with country footballers and young unproven youngsters. Clubs were believed to be looking to Tasmania as perhaps the only recruiting ground which hadn't been ravaged. The Under-19's competition was still in operation and clubs had only to list players who had been drafted, and those over the age of 19. Essendon and North Melbourne at this point for example had very talented reserves sides drawn from their metropolitan zones (these zones would later provide the basis for the Northern Knights Under-18 teams).

Pre-Draft Picks

#	Player	Recruited By	Recruited From
1	Jason Ball	West Coast	Swan Districts

Pre-Draft Trades

Player	Recruited By	Recruited From
Colin Alexander	Brisbane	Collingwood	5
Russell Jeffrey	Brisbane	St Kilda	8
Rod Owen	Brisbane	Melbourne	9
Brendon Retzlaff	Brisbane	Collingwood	15
Ron De Iulio	Carlton	North Melbourne	104
Earl Spalding	Carlton	Melbourne	102
Greg Williams	Carlton	Sydney	109
Brad Hardie	Collingwood	Brisbane	2
Gary Pert	Collingwood	Fitzroy	70
Brad Rowe	Collingwood	Brisbane	51
Tony Woods	Collingwood	Fitzroy	18
Sean Denham	Essendon	Geelong	142
Russell Evans	Essendon	North Melbourne	0
Shane Strempel	Essendon	Brisbane	0
Paul Abbott	Fitzroy	Hawthorn	26
Brad Boyd	Fitzroy	Collingwood	70
Dale Fleming	Fitzroy	Hawthorn	13
Ashley Mathews	Fitzroy	Carlton	6
Peter Sartori	Fitzroy	Carlton	23
Tony Campbell	Footscray	Melbourne	35
Darren Morgan	Footscray	Sydney	0
Ricky Jackson	Footscray	Melbourne	0
Bernard Toohey	Footscray	Sydney	40
John Barnes	Geelong	Essendon	144
Colin Gasden	Geelong	North Melbourne	0
John McNamara	Geelong	North Melbourne	0
Geoff Miles	Geelong	West Coast	20
Jason Taylor	Hawthorn	Fitzroy	80
Michael Pickering	Melbourne	Richmond	015
Tim Bourke	North Melbourne	Geelong	0
Richard Dennis	North Melbourne	Carlton	13
Steven Jackson	Richmond	West Coast	21
Steve O'Dwyer	Richmond	Melbourne	5
Todd Breman	Richmond	West Coast	25
Craig O'Brien	St Kilda	Essendon	52
Adrian Fletcher	St Kilda	Geelong	22
Darren Flanigan	St Kilda	Geelong	8
Lawrence Bingham	St Kilda	Hawthorn	22
Darren Kappler	Sydney	Fitzroy	59
Gavin Rose	Sydney	Collingwood	55
Stuart Wigney	Sydney	Footscray	1
Simon Minton-Connell	Sydney	Carlton	46
Paul Gow	West Coast	Footscray	0
Paul Harding	West Coast	St Kilda	43
Trent Nicholls	West Coast	Richmond	4
David Regan	West Coast	Richmond	4

National Draft

#	Player	Recruited By	Recruited From	Games with new team
1	John Hutton	Brisbane	Claremont	18
2	Marcus Seecamp	Fitzroy	East Perth	51
3	Darren Kowal	Melbourne	Claremont	74
4	Andrew McGovern	Sydney	Claremont	29
5	Jason Norrish	Melbourne	Claremont	20
6	Paul Burton	Sydney	Claremont	0
7	Jeremy Guard	Fitzroy	Claremont	68
8	Michael Symons	Essendon	Subiaco	77
9	Stephen O'Rielly	Geelong	Swan Districts	36
10	Andrew Lamprill	Melbourne	Hobart	33
11	Leigh Willison	Geelong	East Perth	3
12	Rob Malone	St Kilda	Claremont	0
13	Shane Crawford	Hawthorn	Finley (VCFL)	305
14	Fabian Francis	Brisbane	Southern District (NT)	22
15	Kieran O'Dwyer	Hawthorn	Barooga (NSW)	0
16	Daniel Metropolis	West Coast	Subiaco	108
17	Anthony Cole	Sydney	North Hobart	0
18	Mathew Hogg	Carlton	Footscray	114
19	Phil Gilbert	Melbourne	Claremont	25
20	Brett Cook	Fitzroy	Broken Hill (NSW)	25
21	Willie Dick	Essendon	Perth	7
22	Simon Crawshay	Hawthorn	Hawthorn	19
23	Mathew McKay	Melbourne	Hawthorn	0
24	Kane Morphett	West Coast	East Fremantle	0
25	Steven Davies	West Coast	Subiaco	0
26	Ben Herrald	Hawthorn	Hawthorn	0
27	Terry Board	Brisbane	Fitzroy	0
28	Cale O'Keefe	Carlton	South Launceston	0
29	Mathew Connell	West Coast	Subiaco	3
30	Kane Purcell	Collingwood	North Shore (T)	0
31	Hayden Kilmartin	Melbourne	North Hobart	0
32	Micah Berry	Melbourne	Melb. Gr. (APS)	0
33	Paul Morrish	Fitzroy	Essendon	20
34	Tim Leng	Nth Melbourne	Nth Melbourne	0
35	Darryl Donald	Geelong	Wangaratta (VCFL)	0
36	Jason Dullard	Melbourne	Essendon	0
37	Ryan O'Connor	Essendon	Ulverstone	63
38	Jamie Rundle	Footscray	Dandenong (VFA)	0
39	Richard Taylor	Hawthorn	Hawthorn	4
40	Nick White	Melbourne	Richmond	0
41	Todd Curley	Collingwood	West Perth	3
42	Peter Freeman	Sydney	St Kilda	0
43	David Strooper	Sydney	Fitzroy	32
44	Brett Sholl	Carlton	Nth Melbourne	35
45	Gary Barrow	Footscray	Essendon	6
46	Bruno Italiano	Collingwood	South Fremantle	0
47	Glenn Manton	Essendon	Essendon	21
48	Kevin Mitchell	Essendon	Claremont	0
49	Todd Hawes	Richmond	Swan Districts	0
50	Bruce Hando	Nth Melbourne	St Arnaud (VCFL)	0
51	Shaun Brooker	Richmond	Sydney	0
52	Mathew Henderson	Hawthorn	Morwell (VCFL)	0
53	Alistair Gray	St Kilda	Carey Grammar (APS)	0
54	Leigh Snooks	Carlton	Derinallum (VCFL))	0
55	Glenn Hoffman	Richmond	Essendon	0
56	Andrew Dunkley	Sydney	North Launceston	217
57	Anthony McDonald	Carlton	Carlton	0
58	Justin Pickering	Footscray	Richmond	0
59	Greg Turner	Collingwood	South Fremantle	0
60	James Billington	Essendon	Subiaco	0
61	Michael Addison	St Kilda	Carey Gr. (APS)	0
62	Peter Maclean	Geelong	Seymour (VCFL)	0
63	Brendan Bower	Essendon	Richmond	3
64	Chris Barrett	Fitzroy	Geelong	4
65	Heath Shephard	Brisbane	Burnie Hawks (T)	4
66	Nick Roney	Richmond	North Launceston	0
67	Shane Ellen	Footscray	Footscray (VCFL)	11
68	Mathew Bell	Sydney	Sydney	0
69	Brad Sholl	North Melbourne	North Melbourne	2
70	Jon Lister	Collingwood	Sandy Bay (T)	0
71	Luke Chambers	Brisbane	Brisbane	0
72	Michael Shields	St Kilda	St Kilda	0
73	Cameron Burke	Geelong	Warragul (VCFL)	0
74	Brendan Krummel	West Coast	East Fremantle	9
75	Travis Edmonds	Hawthorn	Swan Districts	0
76	Mathew Rendell	Brisbane	Fitzroy	13
77	Jay Burton	Richmond	Subiaco	0
78	Mathew Dickson	Carlton	Sandhurst (VCFL)	0
79	Bevan Smillie	Carlton	Essendon	0
80	Damian Ryan	Footscray	Coburg (VFA)	0
81	Brendan Barrows	Collingwood	Claremont	0
82	Scott Morrison	St Kilda	Nth Melbourne 0
83	Peter Jacks	Geelong	Ballarat YCW (VCFL)	0
84	Alistair Burke	Hawthorn	Hawthorn	0
85	John Kennedy	Richmond	Hawthorn	0
86	Jamie Madigan	Footscray	Footscray	0
87	Sam Jones	Sandy Bay	3
88	Aiden Bussell	Hawthorn	Whorouly (VCFL)	0
89	Paul Dimattina	Richmond	Richmond	0

References

External links

• The Complete AFL Draft
• Official AFL Draft page
• AFL Draft