AFL Rookie Draft 2024: Every pick and all the reaction as clubs again use it to their advantage

The AFL Draft is now complete, with nine new faces realising their dream in the pre-season and rookie drafts on Friday – but surely it’s time to change the name, writes CHRIS CAVANAGH.

After enduring two agonising nights waiting for their names to be read out in the national draft, hundreds of AFL hopefuls would have pulled up the live stream of the rookie draft on Friday afternoon with their fingers crossed.

Richmond’s recruiters were enjoying a well-earned break after already filling the club’s list for 2025, leaving North Melbourne with the No.1 pick.

The Kangaroos selected … Toby Pink.

Pink’s drafting came just 23 days after North Melbourne announced it was delisting the 26-year-old defender, with the promise of re-drafting him as a rookie.

The rookie draft – and rookie list – was once a place for clubs to take a gamble on potential gems.

These days, it is little more than a list management tool, used in part as a workaround to the league’s drafting rules.

SCROLL DOWN TO RECAP ALL THE ACTION AND EVERY PICK

Toby Pink was the first pick in Friday’s rookie draft. Picture: Brendon Thorne/AFL Photos

Between the pre-season and rookie drafts on Friday, 15 AFL players were re-listed by their current clubs after recent delisting’s, while two further AFL players found new homes.

There were only nine new players who received a chance to make it at the top level.

These types of numbers weren’t a one-off, either.

Of 19 picks made in last year’s rookie draft, 10 were used on players already in the AFL system – including eight who returned to the same club.

This year’s ‘rookie’ draft selections included St Kilda’s Brad Crouch, who has played 161 AFL games across 10 years.

Collingwood premiership player Oleg Markov was also called out, as was Greater Western Sydney veteran Lachlan Keeffe – who is 34 years old and has had 11 years in the system.

Outspoken football commentator Kane Cornes has slammed the situation for years and had another crack last month.

“Make the rookie list for rookies and give those players the opportunities, not players that have been at multiple clubs, are 28 years of age and have been delisted from their club and will be re-rookied,” Cornes said on SEN radio.

“The rookie list rules continue to be the biggest farce in football.”

Archer Day-Wicks was one of nine new faces to find an AFL home in the rookie draft. Picture: Rob Lawson/AFL Photos

League rules require clubs to have at least three senior list vacancies in order to take part in the national draft, which is a key reason why these de-listings and re-listings are occurring so often.

Players placed on the rookie list also have a lower minimum wage and shorter minimum contract lengths.

Rookies are signed to one-year deals, while those selected in the national draft receive mandatory two or three-year contracts depending on the pick they are selected at.

In the 2017 rookie draft, West Coast selected Drew Petrie at pick 29.

Yes, the same Drew Petrie who had just been delisted by North Melbourne after 316 AFL games across 16 years.

But at least the No.1 pick that year was a genuine rookie, with Essendon plucking ruckman Sam Draper out of South Adelaide in the SANFL.

The AFL has no intention of tinkering with the current rookie list rules, which are likely here to stay until at least the end of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2027.

But maybe we could at least change the name, because Brad Crouch is no football ‘rookie’.