AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon earlier this week<\/a> said any priority selection calls would be left to the discretion of the AFL Commission. But he hinted it was an unlikely prospect, pointing to Adelaide\u2019s rise as a \u201cblueprint\u201d to return to premiership contention.<\/p>\nWhile West Coast has remained tight-lipped publicly around whether it intends to ask the AFL for list help, Ralph said the club would unlikely pitch for a pointy, top-end selection if they ultimately approached league headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey won\u2019t be asking for the pre-draft priority pick \u2013 No. 1 overall \u2013 and they\u2019ll of course get (a free agency compensation pick) Oscar Allen when he departs, which will be No.2. So they\u2019ll have the first two picks anyway,\u201d Ralph told Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle.<\/p>\n
Andrew McQualter, Senior Coach of the Eagles. Picture: Sarah Reed\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ll ask for extra rookie picks, I think they\u2019ll ask for extra selections that would allow them to secure the points for some of those NGA kids from WA. They want to get them on their list, which is the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ralph then highlighted the lack of top-end talent on West Coast\u2019s list, which could be a key part of any prospective draft assistance pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe talent drain is extraordinary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at their list \u2013 and I think this is part of the submission they\u2019ll put in \u2013 there\u2019s two top-10 picks right now on their list, seven players taken in the top 20. Gold Coast has 10 top-10 picks, North 10, you look at that list it\u2019s extraordinary \u2026 GWS has 19 top-20 selections to their (the Eagles\u2019) seven.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo at some stage there the AFL has to intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n
NUMBER OF TOP 10 PICKS ON AFL LISTS<\/p>\n
10 \u2013 Gold Coast Suns, North Melbourne<\/p>\n
9 \u2013 Essendon<\/p>\n
8 \u2013 Fremantle, GWS Giants, St Kilda<\/p>\n
7 \u2013 Carlton, Melbourne, Richmond<\/p>\n
6 \u2013 Adelaide Crows, Brisbane Lions, Western Bulldogs<\/p>\n
5 \u2013 Collingwood, Port Adelaide, Sydney Swans<\/p>\n
4 \u2013 Geelong Cats, Hawthorn<\/p>\n
2 \u2013 West Coast Eagles<\/p>\n
One of Curnow, McKay or Walsh to leave? | 01:30<\/p>\n
The Kangaroos in 2022, after winning just 12 of their previous 84 matches, received two end-of-round future draft picks that had to be used to trade in players, while they were also given two extra list spots.<\/p>\n
Fox Footy commentator Corbin Middlemas said the Eagles deserved a similar deal to what the Roos received three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would give them an end-of-first-round pick but put a rider on it that they must trade it to another team,\u201d Middlemas told Midweek Tackle.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with the hope of getting an experienced Western Australian player back who ordinarily might be worth Pick 30 or something, but because you\u2019ve got Pick 20, you use that as a bargaining tool, price someone out and hopefully it\u2019ll make them more competitive immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever the assistance ultimately looks like, Herald Sun reporter Lauren Wood said the AFL needed to act fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to do it sooner rather than later too. We can\u2019t let this drag on like has happened in years gone by, it\u2019s a drain on the comp,\u201d Wood told Midweek Tackle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An \u201cextraordinary\u201d top-10 pick ladder proves why the AFL must provide West Coast with draft assistance this off-season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[9126,638,15840,2095,12259,8406,15829,64,63,689,55,15824,639,15825,3423,15827,3237,1129,10133,15841,15830,15839,15834,15832,13659,2105,2485,9130,12417,15820,681,15631,15822,15819,15835,647,7198,2041,2067,677,15836,15837,6082,15838,15826,15828,15818,15833,15821,701,6858,15823,1124,85,1122,7200,15831,11236,2614,660,4899,7067],"class_list":["post-14407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-afl","tag-agency-compensation-pick","tag-america","tag-andrew-dillon","tag-andrew-mcqualter","tag-approached-league-headquarters","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-football-league-commission","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-bargaining-tool","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-bottom-three-ladder-finish","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-consecutive-bottom-three-ladder","tag-corbin-middlemas","tag-draft-assistance","tag-draft-assistance-pitch","tag-draft-picks","tag-geelong-cats","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-jack-graham","tag-jamie-cripps","tag-jon-ralph","tag-lauren-wood","tag-list-help","tag-list-spots","tag-list-turnover","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-willson","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-oscar-allen","tag-pick-ladder","tag-port-adelaide","tag-pre-draft-priority-pick","tag-premiership-contention","tag-priority-pick","tag-priority-pick-pitch","tag-priority-selection-calls","tag-prospective-draft-assistance","tag-queensland","tag-richmond","tag-rookie-picks","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-sydney-swans","tag-talent-drain","tag-trade-news","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-virginia","tag-west-coast-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}