AFL draft 2023: Young gun Lance Collard’s rapid rise sparks push for rule overhaul

Collard tested brilliantly at the National Draft Combine to top off a spectacular finish to his WAFL Colts campaign and is now considered a possible first round pick at the draft.

He will almost certainly be taken before wooden spooner West Coast, the club whose Next Generation Academy he had been a part of, have a chance to match any bid for him.

Under current rules, clubs can only match a bid for an NGA prospect taken outside of pick 40.

The rules stand in contrast to father-son rules and Northern Academy rules with Gold Coast this year gathering first round draft picks in a trade with the Western Bulldogs to match bids for their highly touted prospects – forward Jed Walter, ruckman Ethan Read and midfielder Jake Rogers, with bids for all three expected to come inside the first round of the draft.

Two years ago, Fremantle were unable to pick South Fremantle NGA prospect Jesse Motlop when Carlton took him well inside the threshold at pick 27 overall.

Motlop, still a teenager now, has already played 33 games for the Blues including 21 of their 26 this year plus all three of their finals.

Earlier in the year, the lightning quick Collard was viewed as a player who would fall somewhere between the middle of the second and third rounds, putting him right on the cusp of where the Eagles might have access to him.

But he kicked 32 goals in 11 games for the Subiaco Colts, rattling home with brilliant performances in finals against West Perth and East Fremantle when he kicked five goals in both games.

He then tested fourth fastest in the 20 metre sprint at the draft combine with a time of 2.923 seconds and won the agility run with a time of 8.157 seconds.

The traits exhibited are considered critical tools for an AFL small forward to have in their kit bag. And quality small forwards who can kick goals are becoming increasingly fashionable at AFL level with Collingwood’s Bobby Hill winning this year’s Norm Smith Medal.

Other Magpies Beau McCreery and Jamie Elliott also played key roles in Collingwood’s premiership push while runners up Brisbane had explosive pair Zac Bailey and Charlie Cameron at their disposal.

One AFL club recruiter on Tuesday said he would now view Collard as a first round and potential top 10 talent.

Locally talent managers have him behind only Claremont’s Daniel Curtin and alongside fellow Subiaco product Koltyn Tholstrup purely for talent.

Curtin is considered a certain top 10 pick while Tholstrup is expected to be taken in the top 25.

“He is certainly in our top couple in terms of talent,” state talent manager Adam Jones said of Collard. “The stuff that he can do is as good as any.”

“From a pure football traits perspective – speed and skill – that is a pretty fair statement.”

The question mark, Jones said, would be whether Collard could learn to adapt to the extra heat and attention he will cop at AFL level. He had been prone to reacting to niggle and close checking but had shown signs he was improving that side of his game towards the end of the season.

“It is just that on field resilience and emotional stability. Once he gets a bit older you would expect him to be a lot better in that area. From an off field perspective we haven’t had any dramas with him. It was bloody good to see him test well at the weekend,” Jones said.

The inequities between draft conditions for different AFL draft criteria like the Northern Academies and father-son picks were raised by Port Adelaide’s head of football Chris Davies on Trade Radio this week.

In South Australia, sons of SANFL players only qualify for father-son selections by the SA clubs if their fathers played 200 games for their SANFL clubs as opposed to 100 games for VFL/AFL father-son prospects.

Father-sons Josh and Nick Daicos finished first and equal second respectively in the Collingwood premiership team’s best and fairest while a third father-son Darcy Moore captained the team. All three were All-Australian this year.

“The AFL have got some decisions to make with regard to what they want the draft to actually look like, whether it be issues about the northern academies, father-son situation,” Davies said.

“To us, we still can’t believe it’s 100 games in the VFL and 200 games in the SANFL.

“I think it should (change). The AFL have got some real decisions to make right now.

“This year and the next few are going to be highly compromised.”

Jones said there was clear inconsistency in the way different draft categories were treated.

“The fact that the North East seaboard clubs get full access to their academy players I feel there should be a little bit more lenience potentially (for NGA picks). Potentially a top 20 threshold which gives the clubs the incentive to put development into these kids. It is a good carrot for our young Indigenous kids and multicultural boys to work towards,” he said.

“Where it manifests with us is when we have got rural Indigenous kids – you need to relocate them and the AFL clubs are a great resource in terms of getting help with their work and things like that. It really is beneficial to make it as attractive to our local AFL clubs as you can.”

West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett said the club’s list manager Rohan O’Brien had raised the issue several times with AFL officials.

“I think Rohan has been talking to the AFL on a consistent basis on the NGA rules as compared to Northern states rules, all the other rules that go along with this draft,” he said.

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“They (Northern clubs) can match bids at any time. They don’t have to be NGA players – just academy players. Outside 40 is just extraordinary.”

“We have been liaising with the league and we have written to them a number of times to see whether there is an opportunity to change the rules. It needs to be changed. There is such a disparity between the rules now, between the categories – it needs to change.”

He said non-Victorian clubs had always been at a disadvantage to Victorian clubs when it came to father-son picks because of their shorter histories.