I’m pretty ignorant about how drafts works tbh.
so teams get allocated a order in which they get to pick a rookie or off contract player and that player just has to go there?
What’s the incentive for clubs to develop young players? Nothing? Then who is responsible for funding youth systems and pathways?
I think it entirely removes the tribalism of the game and removes one of the very few actual motivations to support one team or another. Though with the NRL deciding to not tie the Dolphins to a geographical area I assume they don’t really care about this aspect of the game. It’s literally becoming support the team who’s animal picture you like the most.
This is showing that you don’t understand it and that’s fine, all of these points are factored in and I’ll try and explain a complicated system as best as possible but one thing to remember, the AFL is excellently and professionally governed, their attention to detail is excellent, this is why it works well.
The key points:
The Draft
1. The AFL draft is organised in reverse order of finish, so bottom club gets pick 1, premiership winner gets 18 (last spot) repeated each round.
2. If a club develops a player through their academy or NGA, they get the chance to match a bid by accumulating draft points by lower order picks (each pick is worth a certain amount of points) - this is too complicated to go into detail with but basically if your kid is picked at 1, you can match but then your next picks likely drop down the order
3. Each kid is signed for two years minimum
Trade Period
4. The trade week happens before the draft so you can trade players or draft picks
5. If the player wanting a trade is under contract for the following season, you do not have to trade him unless you get an offer of picks / players that you think is fair
6. If the player wanting a trade is not contracted but has been in the AFL system for less than 7 years, you will receive a compensation pick from the AFL if the player leaves, if he is a gun player, you might receive a draft pick in the top 5, so you still get something out of it if another club signs the free agent
7. If the teams cannot come to an agreement and the player goes into the draft period unsigned, he then enters the rookie draft
The Rookie Draft
8. This draft period follows the kids draft mentioned earlier and is in the same order as the national draft except this one is for overage players / free agents / delisted players
9. If a gun player goes into this draft, the team with the first pick is of course going to pick him up, otherwise the player could go to whoever he wants for nothing
This system provides incentives to get deals done but also allows the current club of a player to retain some power in the market, it is designed to safeguard against a free for all
So basically, for it to work in the NRL, a lot of other structures would need to be implemented and carefully policed, and this is why it will never work.
