AFL 2025: St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has taken aim at the inequity of the draft

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon wants two key access points for clubs scrapped from the first round of the draft to address inequity.

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has proposed his “simple solution” to making the draft more equal declaring father-son and national academy picks should be scrapped from the first round.

Geelong coach Chris Scott also says it’s “bizarre” the father-son rule exists given the equalisation purpose of the draft and questioned its ongoing viability.

After labelling Gold Coast the AFL’s “nepo baby” earlier this year amid his club’s ongoing war with the league over inequity in recruity, Lyon on Friday delivered an unprompted review of the upcoming draft at his weekly press conference.

His comments follow the vocal opinion of St Kilda president Andrew Bassat who criticised the AFL for letting reigning premier Brisbane draft top pick Levi Ashcroft, having already added his older brother Norm Smith medallist, Will, as father-son selections.

Collingwood star NIck Daicos is another recent walk-up No.1 pick who went to Collingwood at pick number four because of the father-son rule.

As Lyon spoke about the Saints’ ambition to become a premiership club before he pivoted to the draft and wants the changes made to reinstate “a pure” draft.

“We do want to excite our fans and for them to see a way forward and ultimately get to where we want to be, we want to be a premiership club,” he said.

“But that takes time, I listened to Greg Swann, he said, ‘Well, you’ve got to make hard decisions to get there’.

Ross Lyon wants father-son and academy picks scrapped from the first round of the draft. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

“It’s not about just handouts, talking about the whole competition, but within that we’re fighting for equity.

“There’s some inequity in the draft and people push back on it but the simple solution, maybe make the first round untouchable.

“Have that pure, the first round, take out father-sons, take out northern academy, take out NGA (next generation academy), first 18 picks just make it pure so the talent gets spread.

“Then that will really test if the aim is to make sure if we just want people playing.”

There’s a growing sentiment among clubs about the fairness of the father-son and academy products with to 30 of this year’s draft class potentially already be tied to a specific club.

Geelong has a long history of benefitting from father-one picks, including dual Brownlow medallist Gary Ablett junior, but questioned the long-term viability of a rule seen as more romanctic for the game than best practice.

“I’m not sure what my position is, except to say that I am very aware of how bizarre the rule is and in a highly equalised competition, is it right that teams one, two on top of the ladder have four players in their team – three of them absolute locks as number one picks, the other one probably a top five or 10 pick?” Scott said on Friday.

“So just on the surface of it, that seems strange, so that would be my observation.

Gary Ablett Jnr was a father-son pick for Geelong. Picture: Peter Ristevski

“Now, it’s incongruous that you get a discount because you’ve got a father son. If nothing else, you should have to pay a premium for these guys.

“The way (the AFL) do think about it, which is clearly we just want a close competition, this rule seems strange. And I think it’s a relic of the past where it was a nice romantic idea in the 70s when it wasn’t equalised.”

Fremantle CEO Simon Garlick earlier this month said the system “doesn’t feel right”.

“The father-son is just pot luck,” he told SEN.

“So from my perspective I just think when you’ve got players the like of the Ashcrofts, Sam Darcy – they’re generational players – and we’re all working towards trying to win flags by building great cultures, attracting and retaining talent, and doing things on an even playing field.

“It’s one that I don’t see as having a place in the contemporary game, albeit understanding it’s lovely from a historical perspective and the culture of the game. I get that. But it just doesn’t feel right to me.”