List masterclass: The elite draft hit rate at Melbourne

Melbourne may have moved on from a number of their premiership stars, yet they remain well and truly in the September mix.

And according to Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne, much of their resurgence is a credit to their exceptional hit rate at the National Draft.

The Demons were considered far from a premiership chance heading into the 2026 season, with stars Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Steven May all departing the club off the back of a disappointing 2025 campaign.

However, under new coach Steven King, the Dees have won seven of their first 10 games, including a big win over the Hawks at the MCG to see them leap into the top five ahead of Round 11.

As Hoyne explains, their ability to succeed goes beyond King’s newly-implemented game style, dating back to their list management decisions over a strong seven-year span.

“I want to just give a shoutout to Jason Taylor, who is their head recruiter, and Tim Lamb, who is their list manager,” Hoyne told SEN Sportsday.

“It is a full footy club thing, to be able to get your team playing like Melbourne are, contending like the best do, and I can only imagine how challenging and how hard it is to actually get everything right to be able to have that ultimate success.

“If we just look at Melbourne at the moment and how they’ve been able to get to where they are at the moment, by maintaining their investment draft wise, and their creativity from a trading sense to invest in the draft.

“The top 30 selections over the last nine drafts, they have had 15 picks in the top 30, which places them about mid table. Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Collingwood have had 10 or 11 in that time, Gold Coast and GWS have had 24 or 25. Melbourne are about AFL average.

“But the creativity in what they’ve been able to do by getting in, is interesting. They have traded their way into nine of those 15 selections. It’s not just through finishing bottom six, bottom seven and naturally getting two of those picks every year.

“Think back to the 2019 trade period, they did a trade with Fremantle which was close to the definition of a win-win. They trade out their Pick 8 that Fremantle get, which is Caleb Serong. Tick for Freo, great result.

“They get Pick 12 back, which turned out to be Kozzy Pickett. Tick for Melbourne. They also get Pick 32, which is Trent Rivers. That’s a tick.

“A couple of years later, they put up their first-round selection again, which is what they do so often. They are willing to trade away their future first, which they do to Brisbane. They get Bailey Laurie and Jake Bowey into that team. Laurie is playing at the moment, Bowey is in as a premiership player.

“They trade that to Brisbane; Brisbane is a win-win as well because they get Kai Lohmann as a part of that.

“Luke Jackson – you can’t do anything with Luke Jackson. He’s gone, has to get home. What are you going to do? You have to trade your way in. They get two first-rounders, which is Caleb Windsor and Matthew Jefferson – who played, and looked good as a key forward.

“Then they trade their way in a couple of years later to get two first-round selections. They get Harvey Langford, who is playing the Ollie Dempsey role at the moment at Pick 6.

“Then they trade their way in with Essendon to get Pick 11, which is Xavier Lindsay, and he was playing in this team every week until injury as well.

“Then the Christian Petracca trade. You have to get creative, whatever you have to do to actually move on as a footy club to get best bang for buck. They’ve been able to get Latrelle Pickett in, who has almost played every game at the moment.

“Xavier Taylor, who looks really good defender/wing type behind the footy, and they’ve also got Gold Coast’s first round pick up their sleeve again. So, they’ve now got a couple of selections ahead of this year’s draft.

“You go to those 15 picks that they’ve had in this time – this is what it is. Charlie Spargo, premiership player. Tom Sparrow, premiership player. Luke Jackson, Kysaiah Pickett, Jake Bowey, premiership players.

“Bailey Laurie, Jacob Van Rooyen, Matthew Jefferson, Caleb Windsor, Koltyn Tholstrup, Harvey Langford, Xavier Lindsay and Latrelle Pickett – all a part of their best team at the moment.

“Xavier Taylor, and Thomas Matthews at Pick 30, we are not too sure on yet. 15 selections, 13 ticks, two that we’re not sure in.

“That is a huge return as a footy club, and I can only imagine how hard it is as a recruiting and list management team. I would have thought that if you were getting two out of three or two out of four selections right, your footy club is going to be in a pretty good spot.

“To get that, is a bit of a hats off to what that group has actually done.”

The Demons take on the Bulldogs this Sunday afternoon in a bid to remain in touching distance with the top four.