Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Football
Netball
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
đź“» How to tune into Sport Nation
“That’s outrageous”: Whateley’s major problem with the AFL Draft
Andrew Slevison •  November 20th, 2025 4:50 pm
Gerard Whateley has a bone to pick with the AFL. And it relates to the National Draft.
The first part of the 2025 draft took place on Wednesday night with 25 selections going down on opening night.
Somehow, to Whateley’s chagrin, the Gold Coast Suns were able to snag two high-quality Academy kids in Zeke Uwland with Pick 2 and Dylan Patterson with Pick 5 despite entering the draft with just two picks in the top 20.
The dreams of 25 young men came true and some of the stories that surround them are just brilliant, as Whateley points out, but the compromised nature of the draft is something that needs to be looked at seriously.
“I love the stories of the kids, the emotion and the fulfilment, making lists of what you want to do as an eight-year-old and then being drafted - I love all of that,” Whateley said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“But what happened last night is a team with Picks 14, 18, 24, 28, 33, 35 and 36 got 2, 5, 17 and 18, and still have points to spare.
“That’s outrageous. It shouldn’t (work that way).
“The draft is so compromised in a competition that now has a schism right through the middle of it. This team, just by chance, is one that made a Semi Final and got 2, 5, 17, 18, and still have points to spend.
“The AFL’s lack of willingness to do anything about the compromise within it’s fundamental mechanism for equalisation is truly disturbing.”
Will it blow up even more if the Suns become a dominant force? Whateley says perhaps, but insists it should never get to that.
“Of course it will,” he said succinctly. “But it’s too late then.
“There’s been years worth of warning signs as to what this is. They’ve tinkered around the edges, but the refuse to actually deal with a chronic compromisation of the draft.
“It should change by next year, and it should have changed last year, and the year before that.
“It’s part of my dismay with some of what happens out of headquarters at the moment. This is a major problem for the game and other than tinkering… they said they’d fix the points system - they didn’t.”
The second night of the 2025 AFL Draft takes place on Thursday with North Melbourne set to kicks things off with Pick 26.
The Suns hold three more picks at this stage - 48, 49 and 72.
