The 2016 AFL Draft was held this last Friday in Sydney. In total, 77 players were taken by the 18 clubs. Unlike last year, there wasn’t a standout player, with Essendon holding the no.1 pick close to their chest. They ended up selecting Andrew McGrath, who is managed by Connors Sports Management.
The top 10 picks are represented by 4 different agencies, and can be seen below:
| Pick | Player | Agency |
| 1 | Andrew McGrath | Connors Sports Management |
| 2 | Tim Taranto | Stride Sports Management |
| 3 | Hugh McLuggage | McDonald Sports |
| 4 | Ben Ainsworth | Connors Sports Management |
| 5 | Will Setterfield | Stride Sports Management |
| 6 | Sam Petrevski-Seton | Stride Sports Management |
| 7 | Jack Scrimshaw | Connors Sports Management |
| 8 | Griffin Logue | Corporate Sports Australia |
| 9 | Will Brodie | Connors Sports Management |
| 10 | Jack Bowes | Connors Sports Management |
As you can see, Connors Sports Management had 5 players drafted in the top 10. A phenomenal achievement. Overall they had a total of 12 players drafted.
However, it was Stride Sports Management who had a more successful draft, with 17 players taken by clubs.
The results are determined by what position the draftee was taken. Working on a sliding scale, with the no.1 pick awarded 77 points (the total number of picks), and the last pick awarded 1 point.
I have also looked at how the agencies fared in comparison to last year’s draft. There were more selections this year compared to last (77 vs. 69), so I have scaled last year’s agency scores up accordingly, by 11.6%.
The results are as follows:
| Agency | Points | Draftees | 2015 Score (Scaled) | Change | Change (%) | |
| 1 | Stride Sports Management | 727 | 17 | 408 | 319 | 78% |
| 2 | Connors Sports Management | 676 | 12 | 252 | 424 | 168% |
| 3 | TLA (formerly Elite Sport Properties) |
322 | 8 | 421 | -99 | -23% |
| 4 | McDonald Sports | 298 | 7 | 471 | -173 | -37% |
| 5 | i50 Management | 97 | 4 | – | – | – |
| 6 | Phoenix | 76 | 2 | 256 | -180 | -70% |
| 7 | Precision Sports | 51 | 2 | 127 | -76 | -60% |
The draft was largely dominated by the top 2 agencies, with their 29 draftees accounting for 38% of the players taken.
Some other agencies did not fare as well as they had in 2015. Precision Sports had the no.1 pick in the 2015 draft, but their first drafted player was taken at no.44 this year.