Tanking - A Global Phenomenon

[Pruitt]

Apparently an Australian Rules Football Team did NOT intentionally lose games in order to get a higher draft pick.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-02-1...to-be-revealed

However, the size of the penalties and this comment from the Age newspaper

The probe uncovered that Bailey, having regard to Connolly’s comments, had acted in pre-game planning, in a manner considered prejudicial to the interests of the AFL.

leads me to believe that the official "not guilty" verdict is just so much window dressing.

I realize that Aussie Rules is at best a curiosity over here, but this sounds serious. Certainly, any NBA fan has seen things that would lead him to believe that this goes on here.

[wxwax]

I see in your linked report that the league has since changed its procedures, in order to not reward tankers.

Here it is, per Wiki. It's really complicated, much more so than a simple lottery.

In the 2012 pre-season, the AFL, with the unanimous support of the 18 clubs, removed the provision for priority picks automatically based upon finishing results, and with the AFL commission retaining the power to award priority picks on a discretionary basis.

To allow for this situation, a formula has been developed that takes into account such factors as:

premiership points that a club has received over a period of years (with greater weight to recent seasons),

a club's percentage (points for/points against x 100) over a period of years (another indication of on-field competitiveness, with greater weight to recent seasons),

any finals appearances that a club has made in recent seasons,

any premierships that a club has won in recent seasons, and

a club's injury rates in each relevant season.

To eliminate tanking, the formula for priority picks is kept confidential by the AFL Commission. No priority picks were required for the 2012 season.