BY ANY measure, 2008 was a good year for Swan Districts, its colts comfortably winning the WAFL under-18 premiership and seniors finishing runner-up to Subiaco. The club's bitter-sweet reward came yesterday, when draft day dictated it must try to go one better in 2009 without its seven brightest young stars.

Having already contributed one more player to the national draft than the states of Tasmania and Queensland combined, Swan Districts could yet see its number of departees grow.

Senior coach Brian Dawson admitted there were a couple of others who would have followed yesterday morning's proceedings closely, and been disappointed their names weren't called. The pre-season and rookie drafts beckon. "There are still a few other prospects for two weeks' time," Dawson said.

Kevin Sheehan, the AFL's veteran guru of all things draft-related, harked back to the boom years of the Northern Knights in the TAC Cup, circa Anthony Rocca of 1994 vintage, for a similar dominance of proceedings by a single club.

He also noted that coupling Swan Districts with Sandringham Dragons — who had four players taken in the first 15 selections yesterday and six all up — meant two clubs accounted for 13 of the day's 79 selections. "They were the top two clubs in Australia."

It is the football club's great conundrum: pour your energy and resources into developing talent, then watch it get snatched away from you before you have a chance to reap the rewards. As Fremantle recruiting manager Phil Smart said yesterday, once a teenager is drafted, his club probably won't see him again until he's delisted or getting ready to retire.

Dawson admitted it didn't make life easy, but everyone at club level knows the score. "It's what a large part of the state-based competitions are about these days, it's part of what you're there to do. It's just a great day for the kids, terrific that so many of them got an opportunity. We're really pleased for them."

Dawson had five of the magnificent seven pass through senior ranks in 2008 — Nick Naitanui, Chris Yarran, Michael Walters, Todd Banfield and Neville Jetta — while Jarrad Blight and Jamie Bennell played only colts, under the guidance of former Eagle and Docker Greg Harding.

The latter pair was joined by Banfield and Jetta in the underage premiership, while Naitanui, Yarran and Walters all played in the senior grand final.

They formed a solid foundation for an overall Western Australian offering of 16 draftees, still a distance behind the 39 Victorians taken (25 metropolitan, 14 country), but more than Hawthorn recruiter and WA native Gary Buckenara could recall.

Endorsement of your strength as a breeding ground can puff out your chest only so far, Buckenara agreeing that the flipside for the likes of Swan Districts can have a souring effect. "What tends to affect them is we snip all the kids before they get a chance to play. You end up with a lot of middle-aged-type guys in the senior levels, and the talent's snipped out of the colts."

Smart, whose Dockers drafted three locals with their eight selections, said the number of West Australians taken overall was a nod to the professionalism of the staff working at WAFL clubs "who don't always get the opportunities at AFL level simply because there's only two clubs in Perth".

He predicted up to another dozen Sandgropers would be chosen in the rookie draft.

While Swan Districts might feel like someone else has just harvested its crop, there will at least be a cheque in the mail, so to speak. Every club that produces an AFL-listed player receives a financial dividend, which Sheehan said can build to around $50,000 if their career blossoms.