History made as AFL club snubs entire 2025 Draft
For the first time in 30 years of the AFL Draft, one club has turned its back on the whole thing in bizarre scenes.
For the first time in 30 years of the AFL Draft one club has walked away empty handed.
Port Adelaide officials have flown home from Melbourne without a single selection from the 60 players recruited during the two-day cattle carve-up.
Jokes have been flying across cyberspace in the wake of Port Adelaide’s snub — with the club itself leading the line of jesters.
Port Adelaide recruiting boss Geoff Parker has moved to explain the club’s bizarre strategy, but it hasn’t stopped jokes flying.
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The club started the night with a sole draft pick at No. 49, however, that slid all the way back to Pick 61 as a result of a pick swap, academy selections and father-son selections.
The club accepted its fate 12 months ago when it made aggressive moves during the 2024 Trade Period.
The club secured three picks during the 2024 draft, recruiting Joe Berry (15), Jack Whitlock (33) and Christian Moraes (38) — inside the first two rounds.
The Power are also prioritising the 2026 and 2027 drafts, with academy and father-son ties to Dougie Cochrane (2026), Louis Salopek, Tevita Rodan and Zemes Pilot (all 2027), foxsports.com.au reports.
Cochrane is expected to be one of the top picks in 12 months’ time.
It was a bizarre week for the football club.
Around 10 members of its football department flew into Melbourne only for the club to make one move.
The club on Night 1 traded away its No. 46 pick to the Gold Coast in exchange for the Suns’ future third rounder.
Fans on social media were not kind to the club.
“In all fairness, this is by far Port’s greatest ever draft,” one X user commented on the club’s Instagram post.
Channel 7’s AFL account on X posted: “Hopefully Pass and Bid Pending both have stellar careers”.
Parker and Power officials are trusting in the process.
“We definitely came into this draft with a list of players to pick so there was never a thought that we weren’t going to pick,” Parker said.
“We had a list of players and when you come in at pick 58, you need a long list. So by the time it got to our pick, they’d disappeared.
“We had the three mid-season picks so we brought in some talent there. So we look at that as we’ve already got three new players on our list really and if we were going to get another one tonight, we would have, but unfortunately it didn’t work that way.
“It’s been a focus (to trade into next year’s draft) and it’s been spoken about since trade period. Our focus was to try and get some capital in next year’s draft.
“There is a lot of footy to be played. We know (Cochrane) is talented, (but) whether he’s the number one, we don’t know yet. The football the boys play next year will decide that.”
Port Adelaide has three selections in the rookie draft.
Originally published as History made as AFL club snubs entire 2025 Draft
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