AFL hoping to make draft night more exciting with live bidding similar to NFL

THE AFL believes its live bidding technology will be ready for draft night as it seeks to replicate the razzamatazz of the NFL’s Draft Day.

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson presents number one draft pick Patrick McCartin with the St Kilda guernsey during the 2014 AFL Draft at the Gold Coast Convention Centre . Picture: JERAD WILLIAMS

THE AFL believes its live bidding technology will be ready for draft night as it seeks to replicate the razzamatazz of the NFL’s massive Draft Day.

The league will likely put the 18 club recruiting teams in separate rooms at the Adelaide Convention Centre as they consult over the dozen or so father-son and academy selections.

Those clubs might have to give up multiple picks to select young stars including Jacob Hopper, Matthew Kennedy and Callum Mills.

When the clubs have made their selection it will be conveyed to a club representative in the main arena, with AFL boss Gillon McLachlan likely to publicly call out each selection.

The new live bidding app trialled by the AFL will be ready for the draft on November 24, adding a layer of excitement but also confusion for the general public.

Clubs will have to decide in minutes whether to bid for players, match bids and change plans as their selections shuffle up and down the draft order.

Roger Goodell poses with Johnny Manziel at the NFL Draft.

That app will instantly calculate how many points a club must spend to recruit a player, affecting the entire draft order if a club pulls the trigger on that father-son or academy selection.

It means they will need privacy and potentially more time between picks, allowing their discussions to be taped for later broadcasting.

Clubs were previously allowed two minutes per draft selection and could ask for more time, but might be allocated even more time to scrutinise their next picks.

Adelaide yesterday was announced as the winning bidder after Gold Coast launched a late counterbid to again host the draft.

In the NFL clubs can also trade draft selections during the national draft, with Kevin Costner’s hit film Draft Day a cult classic among AFL recruiters.

The league hopes to recreate that atmosphere, with 5000 people watching in Selection Square as clubs phone their picks in to a representative there.

The NFL has celebrities, former players and even members of the public reading out club’s selections in a three-day draft, but the league will not follow that path this year.

Clubs were told in recent weeks the new app calculating the price of father-son and academy selections would likely be ready for November 24.

Originally published as AFL hoping to make draft night more exciting with live bidding similar to NFL