AFL Now: Latest updates, injury lists, tribunal and team news on Monday ahead of round 6

The AFL is set to head to America to find a new batch of talent to bring to the game. But there is a catch that might just show where footy is headed in its next evolution.

The AFL will this year attempt to find the next Mason Cox at a mid-season draft combine of American athletes restricted only to sportsmen who measure at least 203cm.

The league’s changes to rookie rules will now allow clubs to keep project players on their lists longer and mean teams will again be prepared to invest in left-field targets.

AFL executive football boss Laura Kane told the Herald Sun that clubs would be invited to a June combine in Dallas with players from across American college sports likely to be targeted.

American Pie Cox came to Australian football from a college soccer background and became a Collingwood premiership in 2023 who can also attest to having turned a preliminary final in 2018 as the Pies lost the Grand Final to West Coast.

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Cox has played in two grand finals since making the jump to footy. Picture: Mark Stewart

The height limitation shows the changing face of AFL football where ruckmen are mostly over two metres tall but key position talls also measure about that height.

Western Bulldogs star Sam Darcy (208cm), Geelong’s Sam De Koning (204cm) and Shannon Neale (203cm), Ben and Max King (202cm) and Mac Andrew (202cm) are among the dozens of players to measure over the two metre mark.

Kane told this masthead the league was keen to find more ways to incentivise left-field recruiting at the same time as clubs are putting more effort into NGA players given they can match bids on them anywhere in the draft.

“It came about because we have been looking at different ways we can get a spike in talent from the talls perspective and we feel like there is some opportunity over there,” she said.

It will be 203cm and above with transferable skills in the first intake. There will be some kind of pre-screening situation before you can get to the combine itself. We are looking at all the college sports and making sure we attract the best of the best.

“We have observed the transferable skills from here to there with the uptick in Australian players going from here to there with the AFL to the NFL and we want to look at trying to find the next Mason Cox.

“We have encouraged clubs to persist with talls and players from other sports and we have enabled them to have two extra years (on the rookie list) to develop.”

The game’s key position stars keep growing. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

There will be a skills day for clubs to attend with on-field testing and then a second day of time trials.

Clubs will also be able to visit professional development at the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks with one of the Dallas Universities to host the AFL staff.

Kane lauded Cox as an ambassador for the game and for Australia after being wowed by watching the Cox family spread the AFL gospel at an AFL tournament two years ago in America.

Clubs are again ramping up their interest in Irish players with Oisin Mullen making strong ground at Geelong and Liam O’Connell playing well in defence for St Kilda.

The Category B rookie list allows clubs to list players from international or indigenous backgrounds and give them time to thrive with strong coaching and development.

Originally published as AFL Now: Latest updates, injury lists, tribunal and team news on Monday ahead of round 6