A series of bids on Academy players and father-son selections have left AFL fans with a bitter taste in their mouth following this year’s draft opener on Wednesday night.

As the top-10 picks unfolded, fans were mystified by the fact that the draft order was all over the place and certainly resembled nothing like the reverse ladder order it is supposed to follow.

The draft is the AFL’s equalisation tool, designed to help the bottom clubs strengthen their list. The guiding principle is the bottom club gets the best player with the No.1 pick, the second bottom team gets the second best player and so on ... but on Wednesday night that principle was just a blurry concept.

Bottom team West Coast did manage to get the first pick and name, as expected, Willem Duursma , but that’s about wh

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