AFL Draft: Do the Melbourne Demons even need anything from this year's draft?

Mick Stirling

AFL Draft: Do the Melbourne Demons even need anything from this year's draft? image

In the days leading up to the AFL draft Sporting News is taking a look at each club’s selections, needs, likely draftees and historical performance on draft day.

Do they like to load up on youth, or prefer to trade away early picks?

Will they lean towards home-grown talent or trust their systems to stop homesick kids leaving in a couple of years’ time?

MORE: Melbourne's 2018 AFL season review

And what’s on this year’s shopping list: talls, midfielders or a creative small forward?

MELBOURNE DEMONS

Draft picks after the trade period: 23, 28, 54, 62, 91

What Melbourne needs

The Demons have about as complete a list as any club in the competition.

A young midfield is starting to emerge as one of the best in the league, the defence is strong and has just been given a big boost with Steven May’s recruitment, and the AFL’s premier ruckman has gained a better-than-handy understudy in Brayden Preuss.

#steven may

The one possible area wanting attention is the forward line with star full forward Jesse Hogan moving home to Fremantle, but in reality Hogan had slipped behind Tom McDonald as Melbourne’s main target and Sam Weideman looks promising.

Melbourne’s likely draftees

Coming in to the draft with pick 23 (at the time of writing) will see the best on-ball talent gone, so the Demons will be well advised, and well served, to concentrate on talls.

Bailey Williams will be in a few clubs’ sights around this time as the best big man on the open market, but Melbourne will almost certainly have a chance to snatch him with their first selection. The Dandenong Stingray is a 198cm key forward whose elite athleticism and amazing leap makes him very capable of helping out in the ruck.

Bailey Williams

The Demons may need to use their second choice at pick 28 to pick up Melbourne Next Generation Academy runner Toby Bedford, a line-breaking forward who could be re-fashioned as a creative half-back as Neville Jetta heads into his winter years.

Melbourne’s draft history 1986 – 2017

Number of top-20 selections: 45

Average games played at the Demons by top-20 selections: 79.2

Most games played for the Demons by a top-20 selection
271 Adem Yze (pick 16, 1994)
264 Nathan Jones (pick 12, 2005)
258 Steven Febey (pick 3, 1986)

Adem Yze

Most games played for the Demons by later selections
224 Cameron Bruce (pick 64, 1999)
150 Matthew Whelan (pick 50, 1999)
146 Nathan Brown (pick 66, 1997)

Cameron Bruce

Most games played by rookie draft selections:
264 James McDonald (1997)
228 Russell Robertson (1997)

James McDonald

In AFL draft history Melbourne has …

… not had a great run with the number one pick. The Demons have stood up first on three occasions, and while none of the choices have been failures, they all moved to other clubs. Travis Johnstone (1997) played 160 games for Melbourne, but only at a level that justified being traded to Brisbane for pick 14 at the end of 2007. Jack Watts (2008) went even cheaper after nine much-maligned seasons, crossing to Port Adelaide for pick 31. Hopes were high for Tom Scully (2009) but he was lured to GWS by a lot of money and, quite possibly, his keenness to avoid the heavy scrutiny Demons fans tend to put on their top picks.

In fact, between 2003 and 2012 Melbourne had seven top-five selections, none of which served out their time in red and blue. Colin Sylvia (pick 3, 2003), Brock McLean (pick 5, 2003), Cale Morton (pick 4, 2007), Jack Trengove (pick 2, 2009) and Jimmy Toumpas (pick 4, 2012) all moved after falling short of the red-and-blue masses’ expectations.

Cale Morton

Mick Stirling