WELL, I've been copping it a little this past week from our media manager, Kevin Diggerson.

You see my NBA team, the Detroit Pistons, were knocked out of the title race at the second-last hurdle from Diggers' team, the Boston Celtics.

I'm a fanatical Pistons fans but I never really knew Diggers was a Celtics fan … until now. He reckons he's a Celtics fan, anyway.

I love most American sports and it was a few weeks back, while watching the NBA's draft lottery, that I thought the AFL should consider bringing in the same system over here.

The draft lottery was live on telly and a few of the Geelong boys were watching it.

I know I was, along with Jason Davenport and a couple of others.

It was while watching that a few of us commented just how good something like that would be for the AFL.

Towards the end of a year you get all this talk of tanking and all that kind of crap, it takes up so much focus in the media.

If we put the bottom half of the AFL's teams in a lottery, with the bottom sides having more balls and therefore a greater chance of getting the number one pick, I believe it would be a far better system.

It would be a great idea and great for the fans.

When my teammates and I were watching a few weeks back, the Chicago Bulls ended up with the No.1 Draft pick after going into the lottery with a 1.7 per cent chance of getting it.

Things like that don't happen often, as the lottery is weighted to give those lower on the ladder a better chance.

But, if introduced here for example, a team that finished ninth would have a chance.

That's another thing – it would give those teams that just missed the finals a chance of a reward.

I know the years we've just missed the finals we've never been close to having a top pick; we've always been around the middle of the pack.

The years that you just miss the final you'd at least like an opportunity to be in that lottery and, like the Chicago Bulls, get lucky and get the first pick.

Near the end of the season all teams down the bottom would know that and there would be greater incentive for clubs to keep winning and finish their seasons on a positive note.

These days, clubs are smart. It's probably not 'tanking' as sides are still trying to win. But if teams know they can't make finals they're blooding young guys and putting players in early for surgery.

If we changed the system, maybe we wouldn't have all this talk of teams tanking at the end of the year.

I'm sure the AFL is happy with the system it's got in place and if they were to ever consider a change it would be long after I've hung up my boots.

I can never see myself playing at any other club, so I was rapt when I recently shored up my future at the club.

There were no hassles in doing so, with the club and my manager sorting it out in a pretty short time.

I'm now signed up through until 2011, which will make me an old man at 32 when this contract finishes.

I've turned 29 this week, and the body still feels great.

Whether I'll be able to play on beyond that, well, who knows?

I guess the position I play means I don't have to run around as much as midfielders and guys like that.

But with AFL football, you never know. You have to make each day count.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL