The Demons' signing of a delisted free agent in Port Adelaide's Ben Newton during the week brought to nine the number of players already with AFL experience who have come on to the list over just one-and-a-half off-seasons.

When Roos returned from his break to take training during the week, he spoke enthusiastically about what the likes of Heritier Lumumba and Jeff Garlett could add to the mix.

Asked then about Melbourne's No. 2 and No. 3 selections in the national draft, Roos was far more equivocal, his philosophical outlook taking precedence over this particular draft prospect or that.

"For too long those players have been seen as saviours … The pressure can't be on young kids coming into footy clubs," he said. "I think Melbourne players have been short-changed here and we're changing that, and we want to make sure that doesn't happen again."

The Demons are certainly still dealing with the fall-out of trying to build an entire future on the back of teenagers.

Indeed, Roos also addressed some of that consequence, the delicate subject of former skipper and No. 2 pick in the 2009 draft Jack Trengove, whose whole career is on the line after re-injuring the navicular bone in his foot.

Had a routine medical not picked that up and scuttled a trade deal, Trengove would now be a Richmond player, joining the No. 1 pick in that same 2009 draft, Tom Scully, as a former Demon. Melbourne's third pick in that draft, Jordan Gysberts, is no longer even in the AFL system. And its fourth, Luke Tapscott, was de-listed a week ago.

That's a decent casualty list. And perhaps it's also one that is helping drive what appears to be a more measured approach to the fruits on offer each year come draft time, not only from clubs, but the wider football community.

Roos the other day wouldn't be drawn on just who Melbourne might take on November 27 with the second and third selections, dependent upon who St Kilda takes with the first pick, the Saints at this stage tipped to plump for TAC Cup midfielder Christian Petracca.

Petracca doesn't sound like the sort of kid who'll be fazed by the spotlight. "I'm able to play multiple positions, and it might sound arrogant, but I sort of do have a bit of X-Factor, I can kick those clutch goals," he recently told the Herald-Sun.

But there doesn't seem to be quite the same level of hype around the "who's going to be No. 1?" discussion this year, certainly compared to the reams written about the likes of Scully and Trengove five years ago, or, say, Jack Watts and Matthew Kreuzer prior to that. Which might be just as well for Petracca.

It's going to take something pretty extraordinary from either Watts or Kreuzer over the second halves of their careers to change the popular perception of potential not fully realised. It's taken Kreuzer's Carlton teammate Bryce Gibbs fully eight seasons to do so.

And, really, there's routinely been inordinate pressure on the early draft picks to make an immediate and significant impact on entire clubs' playing lists ever since that "super draft" of 2001 which delivered Luke Hodge, Luke Ball and Chris Judd into the AFL system.

Brendon Goddard and Daniel Wells suffered from it for several seasons each before finding the levels justifying those expectations. The likes of a No. 3 pick in Colin Sylvia and two No. 4 selections in Richard Tambling and Cale Morton have been (and were in the case of the latter, now former AFL pair) much-pilloried because of that number.

And the fluid nature of the list of new club Greater Western Sydney has seen a No. 1 and No. 2 pick of the past two years in Tom Boyd and Jono O'Rourke already move on to greener (or richer) pastures. The pressure on Boyd particularly might ramp up a level again from what he's already faced in just nine AFL games.

But perhaps this year's crop of first-timers might be cut a little more slack as the value of experience, and clubs' preparedness to invest in it, balances out the sometimes crushing burden of potential.

Several factors are at play here. Free agency has clearly re-written the recruiting rule book at the top end of the playing list.

But it might also have persuaded more players who haven't qualified yet for a leave pass and even without the same lofty reputations as Lance Franklin and co, of the virtues of taking the plunge elsewhere and look for a trade. De-listed free agency, meanwhile, has already given one cast-off, Hawthorn's Jonathan Simpkin, a premiership medallion.

And the Hawks, like their 2014 grand final opponent Sydney, have become the model for recruiting, shrewd trade-ins at an even greater premium than talented kids. This year's grand final featured no fewer than 13 players from either side who'd started their AFL careers elsewhere.

But the "old is new again" bent, while it may mean a bit more competition for would-be AFL aspirants coming out of junior football, is probably in the long-term actually doing many of them a favour.

It might well be them a few years from now on the outer or tipped out altogether from their first club, looking desperately for a second to offer them another chance. And those more highly-rated to begin with could surely all do with a little less weight of expectation.