Wednesday 26 November 1986 was a landmark day in AFL history. It was the first AFL National Draft, and armed with the very first pick were the fledgling Brisbane Bears.
And, although they didn’t know it at the time, they would end up with the best pick.
The Bears delegation, headed by inaugural football boss Shane O’Sullivan, joined representatives from the 12 traditional clubs in the main function room on the third floor of the old VFL House on Jolimont Road, around the corner from the MCG.
It wasn’t the game’s first dalliance with a draft system – that had failed in 1981-82 – but it was first step towards a system which governs player recruitment and movement today.
In 1981 each of 12 clubs in the then VFL chose two players from players interstate.
There were 15 from the SANFL, seven from the WAFL and two from the NTFA in Tasmania.
Perth wingman Alan Johnson was pick #1 to Melbourne, where he would play 135 games and win two best & fairest awards in a career that earned him a spot in the Demons Hall of Fame.
📸: Coach Stephen Newport and Player Alan Johnson of the Melbourne Demons
Sturt centreman Neil Craig was pick #2 to Footscray. He never played in the VFL but later coach Adelaide and Melbourne in the AFL to earn inclusion in the South Australian Hall of Fame.
📸: Neil Craig at his first training session as senior coach
The draft was repeated in 1982 when the first three Queenslanders were drafted – Gary Shaw, a Sherwood/Wests junior who was playing at the time with Claremont in the WAFL, went to Collingwood with Mayne’s Carl Herbert, and Kedron’s Mark Housley – although listed as ‘Rousley’ on the official list - went to Richmond.
The 1982 split of draftees saw 11 from the SANFL, eight from the WAFL (including Shaw), two from the QAFL, and three from Tasmania.
But the initial draft system fell apart after it was challenged in court by Silvio Foschini.
A pocket-sized rover originally from Clayton, in suburban Melbourne, Foschini played 17 games with South Melbourne in 1981 and 21 games with the relocated Sydney Swans in 1982.
But, unhappy in the NSW capital, he joined St.Kilda without a clearance. He took the matter to court, where he argued the VFL’s clearances rules breached restraint of trade laws – and won.
📸: Silvio Foschini of the Saints
Thereafter, the fledgling draft and the long-established zoning system were abolished, and the then VFL went back to the drawing board.
It was four years later, ahead of the expansion of the competition, they rolled out a new system convinced all was in order.
The West Coast Eagles, who would join the new competition with the Bears in 1987, had already chosen their inaugural playing list from West Australians already playing in the east, and the strong WAFL competition, and were excluded from the draft.
It all unfolded on 26 November where, at the front of the room, League officials manned a white board armed with a black marker pen to list players as they were chosen.
Each of the 12 Victorian clubs and Brisbane each would select five players, with Brisbane having first pick in each round, followed by the other clubs in the reverse finishing order of the 1986 season.
It was Brisbane, St.Kilda, Melbourne, Richmond, Geelong, Footscray, North Melbourne and Collingwood, followed by the five 1986 finalists – Essendon, Sydney, Fitzroy, Carlton and premiers Hawthorn.
With pick #1 Brisbane chose Port Adelaide centre half back Martin Leslie. He’d played at SANFL level since 1981, had won the club’s 1986 best & fairest at 24, and was a fixture in the South Australian State of Origin side.
In the prime of his career, he put off his move to Brisbane for two years after he’d won All-Australian selection after the 1988 Bi-Centennial Carnival in Adelaide. But the draft as it’s known today was up and going.
📸: Martin Leslie of the Bears in action during the 1994 round 15
The Eagles had exclusive rights to all of Western Australia, and the Bears likewise in Queensland. And established Victorian clubs maintained rights to players from their metropolitan zones and, for the last time, their country zones.
This meant that even before the draft most high-demand Victorian players were taken, and from the restricted pool the majority of 1986 draftees came from SA (29) and Tasmanian clubs (17).
At the time the minimum draft age was 16, and players chosen were bound to their drafting club for three years.
No less than 39 of the 65 draftees in 1986 never played a senior VFL/AFL match, including four of the top 10 selections and all of Geelong and St Kilda's picks, while 26 draftees played a total of 2548 games.
James Pyke, drafted from SANFL club Norwood to Footscray without playing AFL football, did play State cricket for South Australia.
Thirty-eight years on the biggest success story from the 1986 Draft is one of Brisbane’s all-time favourites - 306-game Fitzroy draftee and three-time premiership star Alastair Lynch.
Aged 18 at the time and playing with Hobart in the Tasmanian Football League under fellow Tasmanian great and ex-Hawthorn superstar Peter Hudson, Lynch was the fourth of Fitzroy’s five picks at #50 overall.
Fitzroy had earlier taken New Norfolk’s Jason Taylor at #11. He played seven games with the club before 80 games at Hatwhorn and four at Collingwood.
At #24, in what ultimately would be another Brisbane connection, Fitzroy took Lynch’s Hobart teammate Mathew Armstrong. He played 132 games with Fitzroy and 43 games with North Melbourne, and was assistant-coach at the Gabba under Leigh Matthews in his first year in Brisbane in 1999.
At #37 Fitzroy drafted Glenelg Chris Duthy, who played the first three games of 1987 and never again due to injury, ultimately returning to the SANFL, and at #63 Fitzroy chose Peter Winter from West Adelaide. He never played at AFL level.
There were four 200-gamers from the Draft Class of 1986 - Steven Febey (258), Darren Jarman (230), Darrin Pritchard (211) and Michael Sexton (200) - and seven 100-gamers - Matthew Febey (143), Mathew Armstrong (132), Craig Kelly (122), Andy Lovell (121), Simon Minton-Connell (121), Trent Nicholls (112) and Leslie (107).
Remarkably, Jarman did not play for Melbourne, who drafted him in 1986, or Brisbane, who drafted him in 1989, and split his career between Hawthorn (109 games) and Adelaide (121).
The Bears got a total of seven AFL games from their subsequent four draftees in 1986.
Glenelg’s Adam Garton, drafted at pick #27, played three games, and Port Adelaide’s Stephen Williams, drafted at #40 and brother of first signing and inaugural vice-captain Mark Williams, played four games. And Clarence’s Scott Adams, pick #14, and Woodville’s Michael Templeton, pick #53, did not play.
TOMORROW …. The full Brisbane draft history.
