Recruiters will no longer read out the names of their Club’s newest recruits at the AFL National Draft.
With the introduction of live bidding for father-son and academy prospects under the new points-based system, the AFL has revamped draft night. Clubs will use new, purpose-built technology to lock in their selections at the national meet in Adelaide on Tuesday night, November 24.
Club representatives won’t even be sitting in the main arena this year. Instead, they will be located in a back room at the Adelaide Convention Centre, partitioned off from the other clubs.
Each club will have access to the electronic application that is central to the new draft night, which has been developed by Champion Data and the League over several months.
Recruiters will type in the name or draft identification number of the player they wish to select and press ‘submit’. The question 'Are you sure?' will flash up before they finalise their selections. The shifts in structure have been designed to make it more of a TV event.
Using last year's draft as a guide, once the meeting officially commenced St Kilda's recruiters would have had two minutes to choose its No.1 selection (Paddy McCartin). Clubs can request an extra two minutes to make a selection or match a bid, but will be alerted their time is running out by the clock at the top of the app's screen, which changes colour as the deadline approaches.
The selection would then be sent through to the central AFL base, which would tick off on the pick before allowing the broadcaster to reveal the player. The AFL has determined each selection will be shown on television by broadcaster Fox Footy. The League expects the draft to run for about the same length as previous years.
A feature of this year's draft will be the fluid nature of the draft order.
For the first time, clubs will enter the draft with a set of picks that will likely change in positions several times by the end of the night, some shifting forward and others moving back.
For instance, if Melbourne had bid pick two for Sydney Swans academy midfielder Isaac Heeney under the new system last year, the whole draft order would have changed.
To match it, the Swans would have leapt from No.18 to pick No.2, but their next pick (No.37) would have shifted to No.61 to account for the points required to pay for Heeney. Their next two picks would also have moved to the back of the draft.
In doing so, other clubs' selections would jump up. The draft this year has been made more dynamic and adjustable so that clubs pay closer to market value for top-end father-son and academy talent.
The bidding system has also been built so that if bids come for players from the second round onwards it should not leave clubs in a points deficit the following year.
This year the Brisbane Lions have several academy candidates, including Ben Keays and Eric Hipwood, who seem likely first-round picks. However, if a bid comes later in the draft a club will be able to just simply match it by using their next pick, in what may in some cases be a cheaper alternative than the previous system.
The live bidding system and sophisticated program seems a forerunner to eventually trading picks during the draft, which happens in drafts overseas.
Callum Mills (Sydney Swans), Matthew Kennedy and Jacob Hopper (GWS) are likely top-10 picks tied to academy clubs. Jack Silvagni (Carlton), Bailey Rice (St Kilda) and Josh Dunkley (Sydney Swans) are the leading father-son candidates who attended the national draft combine.
