News AFL to overhaul draft on father-sons, academy picks

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Oct 8, 2004
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The AFL will overhaul the national draft to force clubs to pay a fairer market rate to secure father-son or academy players.
AFL head of football Laura Kane wrote to all clubs in October before the national draft, putting them on notice of the plan to review the system. The review of the draft – and suggestions for change – will be a top agenda item at a meeting between the AFL and club general managers of football on Thursday.

As part of the review the AFL will also revisit an alternative option already put forward by Collingwood’s head of football Graham Wright and Geelong’s then list manager Stephen Wells at the time the points system was devised.

Under the arrangement, if a bid comes for a father-son or academy player in round one, a club would have to use a first-round pick to match. If the club had bids on two players in the opening round, they would need to use two first-round picks, either by trading for an extra selection or by using their future first-rounder.
This alternative scenario required that a club matching a bid on a player would have to use a pick no more than nine selections (half a round) later than when a bid arrived. If, for example, a bid came for a player at pick two and the club didn’t have a first-round selection until pick 15, they would need to trade up the order to obtain a pick no later than 11. Or the club would need to use pick 15 and their second-round pick.

The Wright-Wells alternative was not pitched as a solution, but rather as framework from which a system could be fine-tuned.
A source with knowledge of another scenario, who did not wish to be named as they had not made the suggestion, said another option was to keep the basic points system but only allow clubs to use the points attached to two draft picks to match any bid on a player.

The AFL does not want to change academy rules, the priority access for the northern academies or father-son rules, but wants to simplify the system and require clubs to use picks closer to the initial bid.

 
I hope they bring in a points based system for drafting and trading, turning it into a currency based system rather than a barter based system but I am not holding by breath as the AFL does not like making big changes that would actually fix the system long term, preferring to make small changes to appease people but in the long term does not actually fix the issue.
 

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Not our fault Nick wasn't bid on at pick 1 bud

Sure…just rolling this around the mouth like fine wine.

Daicos for three picks after 35 or whatever it was
Gold Coast get to trade into the next year and get first round picks while picking up 4 first round kids for nothing picks.

Few years later, Jack Pav and Finn Mundy are good enough to get drafted and we have to give up two first rounders…with no possibility of trading into next year

Hmm tasty
 
Sure…just rolling this around the mouth like fine wine.

Daicos for three picks after 35 or whatever it was
Gold Coast get to trade into the next year and get first round picks while picking up 4 first round kids for nothing picks.

Few years later, Jack Pav and Finn Mundy are good enough to get drafted and we have to give up two first rounders…with no possibility of trading into next year

Hmm tasty

If Nick was bid on at pick 1, where he should have been, the cost would've been significantly higher.
 
The draft is becoming absurd. If it keeps on like this, why not scrap the draft and have an NRL style free for all?
Overall the NRL does player recruitment better than the AFL. But the draft televised over three nights, and the months of guff leading up to those three nights, shits all over the NRL in terms of creating media content to sell to the masses, which ultimately is what the AFL exists for.
So no
 

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Overall the NRL does player recruitment better than the AFL. But the draft televised over three nights, and the months of guff leading up to those three nights, shits all over the NRL in terms of creating media content to sell to the masses, which ultimately is what the AFL exists for.
So no
You are right in that the draft has turned into an event. I remember the days when it was televised on fta on a Saturday afternoon.
 
Under the arrangement, if a bid comes for a father-son or academy player in round one, a club would have to use a first-round pick to match. If the club had bids on two players in the opening round, they would need to use two first-round picks, either by trading for an extra selection or by using their future first-rounder.

If they do decide to go with this, we could have a draft or two that will be an anomaly when Tasmania comes in and the first round ends up in the late 20s again like the initial GC/GWS drafts. Trading down into the late 20s will still be considered a first rounder.
 
Until they revise free agency this is the lesser problem. That North can avoid paying Ben McKay something like a million bucks a year and then get doubly rewarded with pick 3 is insane.

Just because Essendon are idiots shouldn’t push everyone else down the draft order by a pick.
 
I hope they bring in a points based system for drafting and trading, turning it into a currency based system rather than a barter based system but I am not holding by breath as the AFL does not like making big changes that would actually fix the system long term, preferring to make small changes to appease people but in the long term does not actually fix the issue.

How would this solve the problem? All the top teams would trade out their over inflated depth for points and bid the totality of their hands at the start of the draft.
 

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News AFL to overhaul draft on father-sons, academy picks

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