This article appears in the December 2017 issue of SEN Inside Football. On sale now!

If there is one thing we can forecast confidently about season 2018, it’s that the “T” word will be back in the football lexicon.

Tanking hasn’t really been part of the AFL vocabulary for much of the past decade, but if it is ever going to rear its head again, it’s next year.

The 2018 draft crop has already received plenty of press, and for good reason. It looms as perhaps the best yet.

If we turned back time and recruiters were able to select 17-year-olds in the 2017 draft, you could make a strong case that any one of seven “bottom agers” would have been the No.1 pick.

Headlining that crew are Jack Lukosius (Woodville-West Torrens) who booted four goals on SANFL league debut in a preliminary final, the magical Izak Rankine (West Adelaide), key forward Max King (Sandringham Dragons), the electric Ian Hill (Perth), as well as Connor Rozee (North Adelaide), Ben King (Sandringham Dragons), Tarryn Thomas (North Launceston) and Sam Walsh (Geelong Falcons), who has similar traits to Joel Selwood.

If things played out that way, this year’s No.1 pick Cam Rayner could still have been on the board for St Kilda at pick 7, while someone as talented as Luke Davies-Uniacke might have dropped out of the top 10. Such is the quality available next year.

Throw in the likes of Jack Bytel and Curtis Taylor (Calder Cannons), Zane Barzen (Murray Bushrangers), Bailey Williams (Dandenong Stingrays), Jye Caldwell (Bendigo Pioneers) and Jackson Hately (Central District) and the quality of depth is evident.

Some clubs can already start planning their futures due to having a handful of highly rated academy prospects.

The pick of that crop is Thomas, who is in North Melbourne’s Next Generation Academy and shapes as a possible top-five pick, while Fremantle has first dibs on Jason Carter (Claremont), Collingwood has rights to Isaac Quaynor (Oakleigh Chargers) and Hawthorn is tied to the magnificently named livewire forward Irving Mosquito (Gippsland Power).

There are some handy father-son prospects too.

Mason Fletcher (son of Dustin) could join Essendon’s list just three years after his dad retired. Oscar Brownless (son of Geelong great Billy) looms as the next in a long line of father-son prospects for the Cats, while Adelaide has Zach Hart (son of Ben) on its books.

Brisbane has Jake Bradshaw – (son of Daniel) and James Rendell (son of Matt) and Casey Voss (son of triple premiership captain, Michael) as possibilities, Collingwood will pay close attention to Will Kelly (son of Craig) and North Melbourne has its eyes on Joel Crocker (son of Darren).

There is also another Silvagni on the radar with Ben (son of Carlton legend Stephen) showing lots of promise, while the Blues also have first dibs on Will Hickmott (son of Adrian) and Oskar Manton (son of Glenn).

Rhylee West (son of Scott) will be looking to follow in his dad’s footsteps at the Western Bulldogs while Nick Blakey (son of John) is eligible as a father-son for both Brisbane and North Melbourne, as well as an academy prospect for Sydney, and Bailey Scott (son of Robert) is a father-son for Geelong and North Melbourne, but also part of the Gold Coast academy.

Unfortunately for Fremantle, Dillon O’Reilly (son of Stephen) isn’t eligible as his dad fell two games shy of the 100-game qualification.

During this year’s trade period clubs were loath to hand over future picks (Melbourne reluctantly gave up its 2018 first rounder to land Jake Lever) and most tried to position themselves as favourably as possible for 2018.

This made West Coast’s call to hand over its future first-round pick in exchange for a couple of second rounders this year and one next year all the more intriguing.

That said, recruiters will caution that the following year’s draft crop can sometimes be overrated due to the lack of focus that is put on each player when they are ineligible for that season.

But now that the spotlight is on this class, we will soon find out whether the hype is warranted.

And whether any club will be tempted to t-t-t-tank for them.