Clubs will be allowed to trade draft picks two years in advance under mooted AFL changes that could come in as soon as this year.
Clubs are also expected to be able to trade salary-cap space for draft picks, but that is almost certain to come in next year.
Western Bulldogs star Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and father-son pick Sam Darcy.Credit: AFL Photos
Changes to the national draft points system are also unlikely to change in time for this year’s draft, meaning Carlton’s ability to secure the Camporeale father-son twins or the Brisbane Lions selecting Levi Ashcroft will not be impacted.
Changes to the draft’s points system – the draft value index or DVI – are likely to come in for next year. Picks with points attached will continue until pick 54 – or three rounds of draft choices – before dropping off in the fourth round, which currently carry points.
Two club sources who were in the briefings and spoke on condition of anonymity said the league was not definitive on any changes but gave strong indications on some changes. It was flagged it was likely that the bidding rules around next-generation and Indigenous academy players who are tied to clubs would change again – unlikely for this year, but still a possibility – and return to the previous arrangement, where clubs had an unlimited ability to match bids on their academy players.
The AFL changed the rules after the Western Bulldogs secured academy prospect Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at pick one in 2020, giving clubs free access to match bids on their academy players if the bid came in after pick 40. That rule change meant Melbourne was unable to match a bid on Mac Andrew, whom Gold Coast snapped up with pick five in the 2021 national draft.
Clubs expected the quarantining of bids inside 40 would be scrapped altogether.
The information day, which divided the 18 AFL clubs into three groups of six for three successive meetings, was largely an update session, giving clubs one last chance to offer feedback before decisions are finalised and recommendations are put by the executive to the AFL Commission at a meeting in early August.
The pick-purchasing system is not dissimilar similar to the salary dump that Gold Coast and Geelong engaged in over the trade of Jack Bowes. Gold Coast added pick seven to a trade involving Bowes to entice the Cats to do the trade and accept Bowes’ $1.6 million, two-year contract.
Salary dumping of this type is still permissible but the pick-purchase option will allow clubs to buy and sell salary-cap space and not need to tie a player into the deal.
Under pick purchasing, essentially any club with a large amount of salary cap space, which is generally lower-ranked clubs, can trade some of that salary cap space to another club in exchange for a draft pick.
So, for example, a club with $1 million in salary-cap space next year could trade some or all of that in cap space to a club struggling to get under the salary cap and get an extra draft pick back.
Future trading for two years is designed to help clubs free up more picks and provide flexibility for trading, especially around matching of bids for free agents, father-sons and academy players.
The mechanism for free-agency compensation will be changed to include the length of term of the contract, not just the amount of money the player receives.
A national reserves competition, which is being push by WA and SA clubs, was not approved and there will be no change before at least 2026.
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