Some Fun Facts From the Draft

08.29.2024

With the MLR Draft finally done, we can look at a few and background facts.

A previous post on GRR spoke about how many minutes drafted players get.

Op-Ed; What Draft Data Says About Elite College Player Development

We also touch on it in this video:

The upshot is this: over the last four years only two or three drafted players have started more than 10 games in their rookie season. Only four players have played in every game in their rookie season. A total of 13 players over the four years played more than 640 minutes (40 minutes per game) in their rookie season.

Of the 166 players drafted or signed post-draft from 2021-2023, 11 have come from D1AA, 15 played their college rugby in Canada, 94 played D1A rugby, and 46 played for NCR teams. The number of players who played more than 320 minutes in their rookie season (an arbitrary number meaning 20 minutes per game) breaks down this way:

D1AA: 1
Canadians: 2
D1A: 22
NCR: 7

These stats are a little bit rough on NCR because several of the NCR signings were D2 players local to a Major League Rugby team.

Most minutes played for a collegiate rookie:

Tavite Lopeti (Saint Mary's), 1,238
Sam Golla (Cal), 1,234
Collin Grosse (Army), 1,051
Rick Rose (St. Bonaventure), 1018
Junior Gafa (Brown), 998
Albert O'Shaughnessy (CWU), 966
Conner Mooneyham (Life), 926
James Rivers (Arizona), 923
Andrew Guerra (NDC), 884
Jack Shaw (Arkansas State), 736
Eric Naposki (UCLA), 723
Cael Hodgson (Lindenwood), 717

This list includes the last four rookies of the year: Guerra, Lopeti, Golla, and Gafa. It also includes the last four #1 picks: Mooneyham, Naposki, Golla, and Rose.

So what do we take from that? This year's draft follows a trend that we've seen over time, with more D1A players being drafted and fewer players outside of D1A and NCR D1. The count was zero players from D1AA, one player from D2 (Ray Santiago of RPI), three players from Canadian universities, four from NCR D1 teams, and 28 from D1A teams.

Why the split (which CRAA wasted little time in pointing out)? Competition level has something to with it, as evidenced by the fact that the vast, vast majority of NCR D1 draftees are from the Rugby East, which is probably the toughest conference. But there's also just the number of 15s games played that might be a factor.

Op-Ed: The 15-a-Side Difference in College Rugby

Or it just might be cyclical.

Judging from the draft we will probably see the most minutes and the Rookie of the Year come from the top five draftees.

Can you get minutes coming from lower drafting spots? Yes you can. Grosse, O'Shaughnessy, Guerra, James O'Neill, Aaron Gray, Isaiah Kruse, Connor Burns, and D'Montae Noble all logged significant minutes as rookies despite being drafter in the second or third round.

Junior Gafa was an undrafted free agent.

So it can happen.

High Schools

Every now and then a draft class sees more than one high school program produce picks. Whether that happens or not, we at GRR World Headquarters like to look at where these players who are drafted learned their rugby. Here's what we found:

Of the 36 draftees:

Two learned their rugby in college

Three played their HS rugby in Canada

Eight played HS rugby overseas

23 played HS rugby in the USA

Only ONE HS program has more than one player drafted, which is pretty amazing. Here's the list:

De La Salle, Granite Bay, CK McClatchy, Marin, Charlotte Tigers, Avon Indiana, Eastside Lions, Carlisle HS, Herriman HS, Bishop Shanahan, San Joaquin Memorial, Wellington Fla., Withrow HS, Toledo Celts, Santa Monica, Chuckanut, Layton Christian, Danville, OMBAC, Santa Monica, Royal Irish, Greenwich HS.

San Joaquin Memorial in Fresno, Calif. has two.

Some Fun Facts From the Draft

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