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1986 VFL draft

Draft for the Victorian Football League

The 1986 VFL draft was the third formal draft to provide recruitment opportunities to clubs participating in Australian rules football's elite Victorian Football League. Held on 26 November 1986 after the end of the 1986 VFL season, it consisted only of the national draft itself, without a subsequent rookie or pre-season draft. It was the first draft to be held since two initial drafts in 1981 and 1982, and as drafts have been held every year since, it is considered to be the first of the modern drafts.

National draft

All twelve established clubs, along with one of the two teams set to debut in the competition, the Brisbane Bears, were given one pick in each of the five rounds, a total of 65 overall. Brisbane received the first selection in every round, and six pre-draft selections, as well as complete access to all players from Queensland.

The other new side, West Coast, was also granted similarly exclusive home-state rights. However, with the superior range of players available from the West Australian Football League (WAFL), the club was excluded from the draft.

The order of the remaining picks was set in the reverse of the previous season's finishing positions.

In addition, the established Victorian clubs maintained sole recruitment options on players from the relevant Metropolitan and, for the last time, Country Zones. This meant that even before the draft had started, the most sought-after footballers from Victoria were already signed, and therefore unavailable for selection.

The restricted pool of available draftees meant the majority of those chosen in the 1986 national draft came from South Australian and Tasmanian clubs. Meanwhile, although the minimum age for eligible players was 16, many were actually into their twenties, unlike the contemporary teenage selections. Also of note is the significant number of those picked either did not join the club that selected them at all, or at least did not do so straight away. Players were aligned to their drafted club for three years, but could choose to remain playing for their current club outside of the VFL.

A prime example was the number one draft pick, Martin Leslie. Leslie served out the remaining two years of his contract with South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club Port Adelaide, winning All-Australian honours at the 1988 Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival in the process. Only then did he move to Brisbane, making his debut as a 26-year-old in 1989, winning the club's best-and-fairest twice and going on to play 107 games until his retirement in 1995. In contrast, the second selection overall, the similarly aged Steven Sims, opted to stay in the SANFL rather than join the St Kilda Football Club.

Many of the 1986 draftees never played in a senior VFL/AFL match, including 4 of the top 10 selections and all of Geelong and St Kilda's picks. Several did go on to make their name as footballers, among them Melbourne's Steven Febey and Darrin Pritchard of Hawthorn. However, the most notable of the draft's recruits was Alastair Lynch, picked by Fitzroy at number 50 overall, who eventually passed the major milestone of 300 appearances, which included three victorious Grand Finals with the Brisbane Lions.

Pre-draft selections

Player	Recruited from	League	Games with new team
Matthew Campbell	North Adelaide	SANFL	79
Stephen Connelly	Central District	SANFL	0
Ben Harris	Port Adelaide	SANFL	14
Neil Hein	Norwood	SANFL	15
Colin McDonald	Woodville	SANFL	0
Mark Mickan	West Adelaide	SANFL	48

National draft selections

Round	Pick	Player	Recruited from	League	Games with new team
1	1	Martin Leslie	Port Adelaide	SANFL	107
1	2	Steven Sims	West Torrens	SANFL	0
1	3	Steven Febey	Devonport	TFLSL	258
1	4	Richard Anderson	Norwood	SANFL	0
1	5	Michael Taylor	Port Fairy	Hampden FL	0
1	6	Richard Cousins	Central District	SANFL	60
1	7	Chris Lindsay	West Torrens	SANFL	0
1	8	Grantley Fielke	West Adelaide	SANFL	16
1	9	Andrew Payze	West Torrens	SANFL	0
1	10	John Brinkkotter	Barooga	Picola & District FL	5
1	11	Jason Taylor	New Norfolk	TFLSL	7
1	12	Dominic Fotia	West Torrens	SANFL	18
1	13	Clayton Lamb	West Adelaide	SANFL	0
2	14	Scott Adams	Clarence	TFLSL	0
2	15	Andrew Wickham	Latrobe	North West FU	0
2	16	Matthew Febey	Devonport	TFLSL	143
2	17	Trent Nichols	Sandy Bay	TFLSL	75
2	18	Mark O'Keeffe	Warrnambool	Hampden FL	0
2	19	Matthew Mansfield	Glenorchy	TFLSL	32
2	20	Brenton Harris	South Adelaide	SANFL	2
2	21	David Robertson	North Adelaide	SANFL	17
2	22	Kieran Sporn	West Adelaide	SANFL	72
2	23	Lyndon Dakin	Longford	Northern Tasmanian FA	0
2	24	Matthew Armstrong	Hobart	TFLSL	132
2	25	Doug Smart	North Adelaide	SANFL	0
2	26	Darrin Pritchard	Sandy Bay	TFLSL	211
3	27	Adam Garton	Glenelg	SANFL	3
3	28	Darren Mansell	Penola	Western Border FL	0
3	29	Craig Walker	North Hobart	TFLSL	0
3	30	Matthew Sexton	Sandhurst	Bendigo FL	0
3	31	Glen Keast	North Gambier	Western Border FL	0
3	32	Wayne Mahney	Port Adelaide	SANFL	0
3	33	Malcolm Shippen	Moulamein	Kerang & District FL	0
3	34	Craig Kelly	Norwood	SANFL	122
3	35	Peter Reid	Sturt	SANFL	0
3	36	Donald Thompson	Albury	OMNFL	0
3	37	Chris Duthy	Glenelg	SANFL	3
3	38	Simon Minton-Connell	North Hobart	TFLSL	19
3	39	Matthew Queen	Glenorchy	TFLSL	0
4	40	Stephen Williams	Port Adelaide	SANFL	4
4	41	Brett Jaffray	Latrobe	NWFU	0
4	42	Anthony Lovell	Glenorchy	TFLSL	0
4	43	Andrew Gray	St Patricks	APS	0
4	44	Tim Britt	Dunnstown	Central Highlands FL	0
4	45	James Pyke	Norwood	SANFL	0
4	46	Gary Brooker	Casterton	Western Border FL	0
4	47	Brendan Hogan	Assumption College	APS	0
4	48	Stephen Riley	North Adelaide	SANFL	0
4	49	Craig Elias	Eastlake	ACTFL	0
4	50	Alastair Lynch	Hobart	TFLSL	120
4	51	Andrew Hering	Wynyard	North West FU	0
4	52	Robin McKinnon	West Adelaide	SANFL	0
5	53	Michael Templeton	Woodville	SANFL	0
5	54	Paul Page	Kennington	Bendigo FL	0
5	55	Darren Jarman	North Adelaide	SANFL	0
5	56	Greg Whittlesea	Sturt	SANFL	0
5	57	Michael Billman	Boort	North Central FL	0
5	58	Perry Meka	Lemnos	Goulburn Valley FL	0
5	59	Wayne Morrissey	Northern United	Warrnambool	0
5	60	Wayne Tanner	Norwood	SANFL	0
5	61	Andrew Underwood	Sturt	SANFL	12
5	62	Laurie Menhenut	Tocumwal	Murray FL	0
5	63	Peter Winter	West Adelaide	SANFL	0
5	64	Darren Newlan	Golden Square	Bendigo FL	0
5	65	Tony Symonds	Glenelg	SANFL	3

References

(27 November 1986). "VFL clubs release draft list Swans swoop on Eastlake's Elias.". [[The Canberra Times]].
Quayle, Emma. (2006-11-17). "When the draft blew in". The Age.
Paton, Al. (28 October 2013). "Draft rewind: We rewrite the top 10 of the 1986 and 1987 AFL drafts". News Corp Australia Network.
Nicholson, Rod. (22 November 2008). "The hidden gems of the draft". Sunday Herald Sun.

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