For some people, the off-season proves to be more exciting than any of the 27 weeks of the fixtured year.
Player movements and rumours get everyone excited – us included – as they offer clean slates, new leaves, and a myriad of other clichés for fans and footballers alike.
Every club will contemporarily claim that their trade and draft hauls are of an elite standard, however, time and statistics are the true revealers of quality.
Although some teams are notoriously poor drafters and have a penchant for purchasing players well beyond their use by date, you won't find any of them on this list.
With many thanks to the statistical records of Draftguru, here are, by year, the top ten best recruitment class from clubs in the AFL era based off averaged games played across respective crops.
For example, Hawthorn's 2004 crop of Lance Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Jordan Lewis is weighed down by five players from the same draft class playing a combined five matches.
7. Geelong (2001)
| Number of Players Recruited | Combined Games Played | Average Games |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | 1337 | 103 |
Many pundits call this the greatest off-season class of all time and with names like Jimmy Bartel (305), James Kelly (273), Steve Johnson (253) and of course, Gary Ablett Junior (247) making their way to the Cattery, there is cause for their claims.
However, these superstars are somewhat offset by the collective shortcomings of Alistair Lord (25), Matthew McCarthy (22), Will Slade (17), Brent Grgic (13), Adam Chatfield and Andrew Carazzo (both zero).
The Cats do find themselves further up the list due to David Johnson (79), Henry Playfair (52) and Charlie Gardiner (51) all notching north of 50 games in blue and white hoops.
