PORT ADELAIDE has added to its hand for next week's NAB AFL Draft, but how will the club spend its assets and how does its record at the draft stand up?
The big question now is whether List Manager Jason Cripps and Recruiting Manager Geoff Parker and their team can work miracles two years in a row. And how the draft talent of 2019 compare with previous years.
After the exchange with Brisbane in which the club secured selection 16 in this year’s National Draft, Messrs Cripps, Parker and Co. will take three first-round picks (12, 16 and 18) into the Draft on 27-28 November.
It will be the fourth-best set of early picks since the club had picks 6-7-9 in their first draft in 1996.
The recruiting brains trust will now look to emulate the phenomenal results of 12 months ago, when Port Adelaide snared Connor Rozee (pick 5), Zak Butters (12) and Xavier Duursma (18).
The teenage trio played a combined 61 AFL games in their first season – Rozee (22), Butters (19) and Duursma (20) – to re-write the club record books.
This was more than twice as many first-year games as the club’s three first picks from any other year.
The previous best was in 1998 when Chad Cornes, Nick Stevens and Danny Morton, drafted with selections 9, 25 and 41 in 1997, played 30 games.
Next best previously was in 2017, when Todd Marshall, Sam Powell-Pepper and Joe Atley, recruited with picks 16, 18 and 32, played 25 games.
Rozee’s 22 game debut season is equal second highest in club history behind Ollie Wines’ 24-game first season in 2013, which included two finals, and equal with Powell-Pepper’s 22 games in 2017.
Duursma is fourth on that list, ahead of Butters and Chad Wingard (19) and Jarman Impey (18).
Rozee, Wines and Powell-Pepper are the only draftees in Port history to play every game in their first season at Alberton.
The highest combined game tally for the club among the first three selections is 488.
This belongs to the Class of 2008 which comprised selection 4 Hamish Harlett (164 games), pick 22 Jackson Trengove (153) and pick 38 Matthew Broadbent (171).
Details of the club’s first three picks in the draft each year, together with games played in their first year with the club and overall, are as follows:
| PORT ADELAIDE FIRST THREE PICKS IN EVERY DRAFT | ||||||||||||||
| Year | 1st Pick | Player | Games | 2nd Pick | Player | Games | 3rd Pick | Player | Games | Total Games | ||||
| Year 1 | Overall | Year 1 | Overall | Year 1 | Overall | Year 1 | Overall | |||||||
| 1996 | 6 | John Rombotis | 9 | 9 | 7 | Bowen Lockwood | 13 | 50 | 9 | Mark Harwood | 0 | 30 | 22 | 89 |
| 1997 | 9 | Chad Cornes | 0 | 239 | 25 | Nick Stevens | 17 | 127 | 41 | Danny Morton | 13 | 20 | 30 | 386 |
| 1998 | 5 | Michael Stevens | 2 | 17 | 7 | Josh Carr | 0 | 124 | 37 | Adam Morgan | 0 | 3 | 2 | 144 |
| 1999 | 12 | Paul Koulouriotis | 3 | 3 | 27 | Cain Ackland | 0 | 12 | 28 | Brent Guerra | 10 | 65 | 13 | 80 |
| 2000 | 12 | Shaun Burgoyne | 0 | 157 | 20 | Kane Cornes | 7 | 300 | 35 | Allan Murray | 0 | 1 | 7 | 458 |
| 2001 | 15 | Barry Brooks | 0 | 0 | 62 | Damon White | 0 | 55 | 76 | Jared Poulton# | 24 | 54 | 24 | 109 |
| 2002 | 6 | Steven Salopek | 9 | 121 | 16 | Stephen Gilham | 0 | 1 | 42 | Brett Ebert | 0 | 166 | 9 | 288 |
| 2003 | 15 | Troy Chaplin | 1 | 140 | 30 | Brad Symes | 1 | 20 | 34 | Luke Peel | 0 | 0 | 2 | 160 |
| 2004 | 11 | Adam Thomson | 2 | 28 | 19 | Ryan Willits | 0 | 3 | 34 | James Ezard | 0 | 4 | 2 | 35 |
| 2005 | 30 | Nick Lower | 3 | 20 | 44 | Alipate Carlile | 1 | 167 | 58 | Hugh Minson | 0 | 0 | 4 | 187 |
| 2006 | 5 | Travis Boak* | 14 | 264 | 23 | Paul Stewart | 0 | 101 | 39 | Nathan Krakouer | 11 | 69 | 25 | 434 |
| 2007 | 16 | Matthew Lobbe | 0 | 92 | 28 | Marlon Motlop | 2 | 5 | 33 | Matthew Westhoff | 3 | 6 | 5 | 103 |
| 2008 | 4 | Hamish Hartlett* | 11 | 164 | 22 | Jackson Trengove | 0 | 153 | 38 | Matthew Broadbent | 3 | 171 | 14 | 488 |
| 2009 | 8 | John Butcher | 0 | 31 | 9 | Andrew Moore | 7 | 55 | 16 | Jasper Pittard | 0 | 126 | 7 | 212 |
| 2010 | 16 | Ben Jacobs | 12 | 26 | 35 | Ben Newton | 0 | 4 | 36 | Aaron Young | 0 | 76 | 12 | 106 |
| 2011 | 6 | Chad Wingard | 19 | 147 | 45 | Brendon Ah Chee | 0 | 27 | 51 | Nathan Blee | 4 | 6 | 23 | 180 |
| 2012 | 7 | Ollie Wines* | 24 | 141 | 29 | Tom Clurey* | 0 | 81 | 30 | Mason Shaw | 0 | 0 | 24 | 222 |
| 2013 | 21 | Jarman Impey | 18 | 75 | 46 | Mitch Harvey | 0 | 0 | 52 | Darcy Byrne-Jones* | 0 | 86 | 18 | 161 |
| 2014 | 56 | Dougal Howard | 0 | 45 | 69 | Logan Austin | 0 | 13 | 78 | Jesse Palmer | 0 | 3 | 0 | 61 |
| 2015 | 37 | Riley Bonner* | 1 | 42 | 45 | Aidyn Johnson | 0 | 11 | RE | Sam Gray | 17 | 79 | 18 | 132 |
| 2016 | 16 | Todd Marshall* | 3 | 20 | 18 | Sam Powell-Pepper* | 22 | 57 | 32 | Joe Atley* | 3 | 4 | 28 | 81 |
| 2017 | 47 | Sam Hayes* | 0 | 0 | 51 | Kane Farrell* | 5 | 12 | 58 | Jake Patmore* | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 |
| 2018 | 5 | Connor Rozee* | 22 | 22 | 12 | Zak Butters* | 19 | 19 | 18 | Xavier Duursma* | 20 | 20 | 61 | 61 |
| 2019 | 12 | ??? | 16 | ??? | 18 | ??? | ||||||||
Notes
- #Jared Poulton was originally drafted in the 1999 Pre-Season Draft and played 34 games in 1999-2000-2001. He was de-listed and -re-drafted with selection 76 in the 2002 National Draft. So games listed for his 'first year' here were from 2002, and his 'overall' games listed here are those from 2002 onwards. He played a total of 88 games for the club.
- Total games for Nathan Krakouer include 29 from his second stint with the club in 2015-16 after he spent 2011 with Gold Coast and 2012-13-14 out of football.
- In 2015 Port's third pick in the National Draft was Sam Gray's rookie elevation. He had played 17 games in 2014-15 so numbers listed here are from 2016 onwards.
- *denotes players still list at Port. Games listed are to the end of 2019.
