Sometimes a smile says a thousand words.
Since the GWS Giants selected Aaron Cadman as the number one pick in the 2022 AFL Draft on Monday night the young Victorian has barely been able to wipe the grin off his face.
Despite starting in a mostly predictable manner, this year's draft featured a number of dramatic twists and turns that will add intensity to a number of budding rivalries.
As usual, prospects rose from nowhere to be picked by clubs, while some youngsters fell down the order — hoping to prove the other 17 clubs wrong in the years to come.
In all, 59 young men from around the country were chosen across Monday and Tuesday nights to join one of the AFL's 18 clubs. These players will soon join preseason training, and set out on their goals of bringing their new club premiership glory.
Where did they come from?
The 2022 Draft saw players called from right across this great land. Dozens of proud junior clubs were represented on the nights, from Coorparoo to Clarence, from Palmerston to Port Fairy, and from Griffith to Glenunga.
One in five draftees were from South Australia, with the state defying historical and population norms. Footy-mad, but lower-population, areas in the Northern Territory and Tasmania both had two draftees, as did Queensland through their two Lions-tied players.
Eleven Victorians were still chosen in the top 20, which is fewer than usual. Despite this, the top eight players all played in the Victoria-based NAB League this year.
Players from Oakleigh Chargers dominated the draft, with nine chosen including four in the first round. Sandringham and Gippsland both had five draftees. Sandringham had three Dragons going in the top 10. West Adelaide had a fine draft among non-Victorian clubs, with three Bloods tabbed.
A predictable top 10, followed by sliders and bolters
In the earlier years of the draft there was a lot of mystery as to who would go at the top end of the order. As the game has professionalised, so has list management and the reporting on which players clubs will recruit.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't surprises that play out across the draft.
Much interest at falls on players who rise through the predicted draft order, and the players who fall through the speculated ranks. But the draft exists in the real world, where the 18 different clubs often have 18 different viewpoints. Sydney list manager Kinnear Beatson elaborated on this issue to the media at the draft.
"A bolter in whose eyes? People that write phantom drafts or something like that. He's not a bolter on our list, again we go off a talent order, we rated him [Cooper Vickery] highly," Beatson said.
Sydney clubs were involved in selecting the two highest-ranked bolters of the draft. After forcing GWS to take Harry Rowston early, the Swans then used the freshly traded pick 27 to reach well into surprise territory for themselves.
The Swans used that pick to choose Cooper Vickery, a Hawthorn NGA prospect, from the clouds. Most experts didn't put him anywhere near the top 40 and assumed the Hawks would be able to match a post-40 bid for the young outside midfielder.
At the other end of the scale, Ed Allan slipping to 19 for the Pies was the first real slide of the draft. Allan, the son of former Hawk and Docker Ben Allan, was closely tied to West Coast partially because he played his junior footy out west.
Later on, North was able to snare a sliding Brayden George, while Carlton acquired a falling Lachie Cowan. Also notable was that after the earlier somewhat aggressive father-son bidding shenanigans, Essendon was able to match Alwyn Davey Jr at the later-than-expected pick 45, giving them a second live draft pick.
The highest-rated players to go undrafted were Dandenong midfielder Mitch Szybkowski, South Adelaide forward Jaiden Magor, and Claremont defender Sam Gilbey. All three were rated in the mid-30s heading into the draft but will be now hoping for a rookie list spot, alongside a host of other undrafted players.
Just one recycled player was drafted this year, with former Melbourne and North Melbourne midfielder Corey Wagner earning another chance at Fremantle after a strong season at Port Melbourne.
Father-son and academy shocks
The early father-son picks for Lions prospects Will Ashcroft and Jaspa Fletcher fell as predicted, but later on the Sydney Swans played the role of a chaos agent. The Swans issued a very early bid for young GWS Academy player Harry Rowston, almost an entire round higher than expected.
This bid occurred after the Swans allegedly initiated trade discussions with the Giants. The Giants refused to trade with the Swans, which was promptly followed by the Swans bidding on Rowston — causing this reaction.
The bid wiped out the Giants' next live draft pick, potentially costing them one of the players that they were targeting. The Swans followed this up by bidding on Adelaide father-son prospect Max Michalanney before trading the pick to Hawthorn.
The current academy and father-son bidding process is designed around making clubs pay "fair value" for young talent tied to clubs for reasons of sentimentality or game development. In recent years rumours have emerged that some clubs have used the bidding process as currency in trade negotiations.
This may be an issue that the new AFL CEO will have to address early in their term.
The short of it
At just 59 selections, the 2022 draft was as short as the COVID-affected 2020 affair, where clubs battled list size reductions and a lack of exposure on many of the talented prospects. Next year's draft is expected to break the constrained COVID times, with a strong prospective draft crop giving some teams early hope for next November.
None of the 2022 finalists used more than three draft picks, while the Suns only used one selection. At the other end of the scale, Hawthorn, West Coast and GWS used five picks each.
Not only was the draft short, but it also featured a lot of short players. The draft saw fewer true talls picked at the top end than normal.
At 175cm, Darcy Jones was the shortest player drafted, and is the same height as Shai Bolton and Dayne Zorko.
Max Knobel, son of former AFL ruck Trent, was the tallest player picked in the draft at 206cm.
