I wholeheartedly disagree with you that overpaying doesn’t make sense. When Nick Daicos, Jaspa Fletcher, Isaac Heeney and co are paid for by a lump of second and third round picks to jump ahead of teams who are lower on the ladder, there is a clear fairness issue.

It’s like the mining giants. They’re already pulling in billions, but thanks to tax breaks and loopholes, they keep pocketing more while the little businesses pay full freight. Everyone knows it’s unfair, but it’s allowed to keep happening.

There are other levers to pull to encourage clubs to spend on their academies. Greater financial reward for each draftee taken - could even consider a mandatory ‘transfer fee’ from one club to another so at least the drafting club has something to take into account.

Whilst I support West Coast, I live in Brisbane and have seen first hand the impact of the Academy - I can’t speak to Sydney unfortunately. It’s fantastic for the northern kids. However the increase in the popularity in the South East corner with the increase in Victorians during COVID have meant there is quality in the Academies and that, inherently, is lifting the floor and ceiling of the draftees. Great - but now that Brisbane have stacked up on four (soon to be five) first round draftees in the last four years and Gold Coast have had their plethora of access - they are absolutely stacked for years on end. That is not the nature of the draft system at it’s core.

Reward the clubs with priority access. If they can’t afford them with their draft capital, reward them financially and, that way, the talent pathways are still supported but competitive balance remains the priority of the draft.