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Saints fans love it, but Bassat missed the mark with latest AFL rant
Sam Edmund • April 5th, 2025 8:57 pm
There’s no rallying cry quite like a sticking it-to-the-man-style rant.
Thumbing one’s nose at the establishment, drawing a line in the sand or taking a stand.
Indeed, nothing gets the rank and file going like a William Wallace-inspired sermon.
“But they’ll never take…”
Andrew Bassat is no freedom-fighting Scottish knight, but the St Kilda president has proven willing to wield his voice and status in the game like a sword.
The father-son rule. Northern Academy access. The raging injustice of it all.
And if you’re a Saints supporter, you love it.
Bassat this week told Gerard Whateley he was “unrepentant” over last year’s best and fairest speech in which he tore into the AFL for its “rubbish” drafting system.
“I back up some of the issues around the fair price not being paid for father-sons and academies,” Bassat told Whateley.
“If anyone wants to say that Daicos for 38 our Levi Ashcroft for 40 is fair price then I’d love to see them mount the supporting argument for that.
“The truth is everything I’ve said is accurate.”
Except it’s not.
The simple fact is Josh Daicos went at 57 because no other club bid on him. Didn’t the Pies pay market value given that’s what the market decided?
Levi Ashcroft at 40? Ashcroft went at pick 5 last year after, you guessed it, a rival bid came in.
And in order to get Ashcroft to the Gabba, the Lions orchestrated seven different trades with seven different clubs.
In simplistic terms, the Lions gave up their first pick - pick 18 - a future second-round pick and Harry Sharp for Levi Ashcroft and Sam Marshall, while picking up two additional future third-rounders.
They don’t just get him with pick 40.
But that’s not enough, you say.
Bassat has stated he would scrap the father-son rule if it was up to him, but he has also long argued that if it is to exist, a fairer price must be paid.
He told Whateley the tightening of the father-son and academy bidding process “clearly” had not gone far enough.
Under this year’s revised Draft Value Index, to match pick 5, you would need to have pick 7.
Or look at it this way. If Brisbane finished second this year and a bid for Ashcroft came at five, the Lions would need more than their first, second and third-round picks. They would have to go into deficit and hand over some of the following year's draft capital.
Isn’t that far enough?
Bassat referenced Gold Coast’s “unbelievable bounty” and “winning games easily”.
This is a club that has yet to play finals in its 14 complete seasons, mind you.
We’re assuming he was referring to the Suns’ academy-rich 2023 national draft in which they took Jed Walter at 3, Ethan Read at 9, Jake Rogers at 14 and Will Graham at 26.
This column is not long enough to go over the years of pick-swapping the Suns orchestrated to make this happen.
And without exaggeration, without the northern academies, these players might not ever get to this level. Most would not be playing, because they weren’t before the academies.
Before their introduction, how many kids were drafted out of Queensland?
And if these kids aren’t there, then the Suns take the Tobie Travaglia’s of the world and further stress the talent pool.
And if these kids aren’t there, then the Suns take the Tobie Travaglia’s of the world and further stress the talent pool.
What is often overlooked is the picks the northern academy clubs farm off to match bids on draft night go back into the system.
The Gold Coast gave pick four to the Western Bulldogs in 2023.
Melbourne, Adelaide and North Melbourne also benefited.
While Bassat plays William Wallace, it’s worth going back to 2018. That year, when Gold Coast drafted Ben King – two selections after St Kilda took twin brother Max at No.4 – the Saints tweeted: “Ben, if you ever want to come home,” complete with a wink-face emoji and a photo of the brothers.
The Suns were in the grip of a player exodus crisis at the time, with Dion Prestia, Josh Caddy, Jack Martin, Jaeger O’Meara, Tom Lynch and Steven May among those picked off by rival clubs.
So, Gold Coast invested in its academy to attract homegrown talent and protect itself.
Unbelievably, they’re now being criticised for it.
