AFL national draft to become two-day event after major shake-up of the off-season

THE AFL national draft will be moved to two days and the trade period held over nine days, with a prime time 8:30pm finish, under a shake-up of the off-season period.

THE AFL national draft will be moved to two days on November 22 and 23 and the trade period held over nine days under a shake-up of the off-season period.

As revealed by the Herald Sun last November, a two-day draft period allows the league to celebrate its star picks before the rest of the draft commences the next day.

The first round of the draft will be held on the evening of Thursday November 22 in a draft that will be held at Etihad Stadium.

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The next day the rest of the draft will be completed, followed by the pre-season and rookie drafts.

The AFL’s free agency period starts on Friday October 5 and runs until Friday October 12, a period in which Gold Coast’s Tom Lynch will find his way to a Melbourne club.

The overlapping AFL trade period runs from Monday October 8 at 10am until Wednesday October 17, finishing with a prime cut-off at 8.30pm.

The league believes there is significant appeal in the last hours of the trade period, as clubs frantically try to get deals done.

The AFL had attempted to sell the draft interstate again but it will instead be in Melbourne for the first time since 2009.

Clubs had told the AFL their officials would have remained in Melbourne “war rooms” planning their moves anyway and sent a welfare officer to pick up the players drafted.

Jaidyn Stephenson was drafted in the first round last year. Picture: AAP Images

So with the event instead in Melbourne they will be in Etihad Stadium super boxes with the main event televised on the Docklands surface.

Clubs will be able to trade picks throughout the national draft for the first time.

So if Adelaide was keen to secure Jack Lukosius and he had not been taken at No.5 in the draft order, they could trade with the club that held that pick to ensure they selected him.

Clubs will not be allowed to trade for a player once he has already been selected by a club.

Once the AFL’s trade period finishes clubs will still be able to swap picks only as they try to rearrange their draft hands to help build the points for father-son selections and try to swap high picks for multiple lower selections.

When the draft starts clubs will have a certain amount of time — perhaps five or six minutes — to either select a player or field offers for that draft pick from other clubs.

Clubs will be able to use picks in the current draft or selections in the next year’s draft to trade for higher draft picks.

In the NFL clubs can also trade players during the national draft but that will not be allowed in this year’s national draft.

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