The opening night of the AFL draft was indeed a chaotic one, with a flurry of picks being traded in live deals ands bids for players flying around all over the place.
At one stage Geelong used a pick to bid on a player and then, practically without a breath, traded the very same pick to Essendon.
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Sydney also caused chaos, using their first selection to force two clubs to throw a bunch of picks at two young players after back-to-back to bids.
Earlier, Gold Coast had to match a bid from North Melbourne on their Academy star Jed Walter.
Walter has been likened to gun Carlton forward and Coleman Medal winner Charlie Curnow.
North Melbourne had two selections in the top 10, Pick 2 and 3, and used Pick 2 on Tasmanian midfielder Colby McKercher before calling out Walter.
But one media outlet wondered why North didn’t use their first pick on Walter, which would have forced the Suns to use more draft collateral to match the bid.
Fox Sports said “the AFL draft’s greatest flaws was exposed yet again”, and also suggested the two clubs had been involved in a “wink-wink” deal.
The media outlet suggested if they were bidding for the player with Pick 3, there was “absolutely no reason” why they should not have done it one pick earlier.
The suggestion that some sort of behind-the-scenes arrangement had been made when the club’s traded picks in October certainly incensed Gold Coast and their new coach Damien Hardwick.
Hardwick was so annoyed he responded to a tweet that said Gold Coast had landed four first round prospects for “very little”.
“Be better,” was his instruction to the media outlet, with an emoji of begging hands and face-palming.
That was the Dimma backhander before the club came along with the king-hit.
After careful consideration, they eventually joined the conversation the following day.
“Death, taxes and Victorians having a whinge,” they wrote.
They also used a salt shaker for an emoji.
To be fair, it’s not the first time North Melbourne have had an opportunity to bid for a player tied to a rival club, but preferred to give their player the prestige of the higher draft pick.
In fact, North could have used their Pick 1 in 2021 to call Collingwood’s father-son Nick Daicos, but instead opted not to force the Magpies’ hand and make their man – Jason Horne-Francis – the No.1.
But that didn’t stop the debate from erupting on social media with most fans suggesting Gold Coast were handed “gifts”.
But others told Hardwick – the triple premiership coach of Richmond – to get used to a Victorian bias from the AFL media.
“Get used to the Vic biased media, Dimma,” one fan wrote.
“The Suns are the media’s punching bag. We can’t do anything right at the SUNS without the media twisting it to write a negative story!”
Another fan wrote: “Well said coach, the academy has started working and now the complaints about it are starting.”
And another: “Everyone wants to whinge in AFL. There are never any positive stories written. This is such a great story for the AFL to have four players on the Gold Coast good enough to be drafted. Great day for the national game.”
And another: “VFL media. I’m sure when Geelong landed all those F/S’s (father-son picks) you were screaming ‘it’s good for footy’.”
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