2019: Mid Season Rookie Draft

[bulldogtragic]

afel.com.au

Reporting the AFEL introducing a mid season rookie draft. Each team can add in one rookie mid season, presumably from state leagues. State leagues not happy. Not sure why this is happening.

[The Adelaide Connection]

afel.com.au

Reporting the AFEL introducing a mid season rookie draft. Each team can add in one rookie mid season, presumably from state leagues. State leagues not happy. Not sure why this is happening.

What a nightmare. I am sure players will jump at the chance, but the reality is some may be poached mid year due to their good form only to sit in the twos as emergency depth (or with an eye to the future). Most of these players have day jobs and will be relocating at a moments notice.

I can’t imagine the clubs they are coming from will be happy either. Will there be a cap on how many players can be taken from a team? This is going to compromise seasons and will at some stage cost a team a premiership. It just stinks of the AFL having little regard for the lower leagues.

[bulldogtragic]

Pretty much what the WAFL & SANFL have said. They’re pretty angry. I don’t see the tiny benefit to a team outweighing plundering the state leagues and that damage. As a stand alone VFL team, I assume Footscray players can go at any pick before ours too. Surely the smallest damage to Footscray would be ensuring dogs can get them.

[Throughandthrough]

Absolute contempt towards the Sanfl etc in this decision. How’s this for an example, let’s say Glenelg is in the top 5 half way through the year, then Port decide to rookie draft our star centre half forward. He quits his day job, goes to port, plays for the magpies against glenelg for the rest of the season, neither glenelg nor Port make the Sanfl finals, he doesn’t play an afl match, then gets cut at 5he end of the year.

[bulldogtragic]

Absolute contempt towards the Sanfl etc in this decision. How’s this for an example, let’s say Glenelg is in the top 5 half way through the year, then Port decide to rookie draft our star centre half forward. He quits his day job, goes to port, plays for the magpies against glenelg for the rest of the season, neither glenelg nor Port make the Sanfl finals, he doesn’t play an afl match, then gets cut at 5he end of the year.

This is the exact problem. The state leagues have just been possibly made to be nothing more than AFEL play things. But I'm not sure what they can do about it, and the AFEL probably knows it.

[Topdog]

Actually what would happen in that scenario? I assume the SANFL would need to allow the transfer for the player to play in ports sanfl affiliated side?

Will the players me given guaranteed 1.5 year contacts?

[bulldogtragic]

Actually what would happen in that scenario? I assume the SANFL would need to allow the transfer for the player to play in ports sanfl affiliated side?

Will the players me given guaranteed 1.5 year contacts?

Just a guess, but I'd think so. I was just thinking about the players. Take a guy like Will Hayes. Mid year he's tracking along at maybe polling really well in the JJ Liston and the BnF. So impressive he may get onto a senior list. But he's desperate for the opportunity so he nominated for the mid season rookie draft. He's taken by an interstate team. He gets put into a side with different players (to learn voices, running patterns etc), structures, coaching, environment etc. If he stagnates or doesn't impact at the level he was, then he doesn't get that senior list opportunity. It seems like a difficult choice for the players; stay and keep playing well and maybe get picked up at the national draft (a maybe), or take the certainty of a rookie spot at the risk of not getting to a main list. I'm not sure there's any clear winners, even the club's aren't huge winners. A state league player isn't the difference between playing finals or not.

[GVGjr]

Basically this is a reward or 2nd chance for teams that can't manage their playing list.
I suspect some teams will gamble on not having enough ruck options with the view that if they get caught out they can address it mid season.

Why not just lift the playing list for all clubs to 48 and not have the need to disrupt the state leagues?

[Twodogs]

Basically this is a reward or 2nd chance for teams that can't manage their playing list.
I suspect some teams will gamble on not having enough ruck options with the view that if they get caught out they can address it mid season.

Why not just lift the playing list for all clubs to 48 and not have the need to disrupt the state leagues?

Exactly.

[GVGjr]

Exactly.

I bet you there is a TV show or a sponsor in the mix that has driven this decision.

Seriously the simple solution is for clubs to have 1, 2 or 3 extra players on their list and stop using excuses.
Complex solutions to simple problems seems to be a hallmark for attention seeking businesses.

[The Adelaide Connection]

Absolute contempt towards the Sanfl etc in this decision. How’s this for an example, let’s say Glenelg is in the top 5 half way through the year, then Port decide to rookie draft our star centre half forward. He quits his day job, goes to port, plays for the magpies against glenelg for the rest of the season, neither glenelg nor Port make the Sanfl finals, he doesn’t play an afl match, then gets cut at 5he end of the year.

As bad as this is, at least in this example the player gets to stay in their state, in their house, with their partners staying in their jobs, with their kids in their schools, etc. etc. It gets even more messed up when they have to relocate across the country. Nightmare.

[westdog54]

They only way I'd even CONSIDER any sort of mid year list change would be for a club to be allowed to promote a player from their State League Affiliate. Any clubs part of an alignment as opposed to standalone VFL clubs would have a right of refusal.

In the 90s AFL club lists ran to almost 50 players with a dozen of those on a 'supplementary list' to fill the reserves team. Given that most of the interstate teams are fielding their own state league teams (IIRC West Coast and Freo still have affiliations in the WAFL), a retun to this approach is feasible.

[Go_Dogs]

Ever team should be able to top up from their affiliated side only. Not a fan of the mid season draft format as it stands.

[Testekill]

Fully agreed that you should only be able to top up from your affiliated state team. Kinda sucks for the Queensland & NSW based teams since the NEAFL is shit but it's the best way to do this without just ruining the state leagues.

[GVGjr]

Ever team should be able to top up from their affiliated side only. Not a fan of the mid season draft format as it stands.

Is there a salary cap for affiliated sides? If not then the likes of the Crows could be attracting more players than other clubs to their affiliated side

[ledge]

Is there a salary cap for affiliated sides? If not then the likes of the Crows could be attracting more players than other clubs to their affiliated side

I know country and suburban sides pay double what VFL players get, but if they know they could be top ups in AFL it could bring a few down. I think a lot of VFL players play for their resume, it looks good for other roles in footy clubs when they retire.

[divvydan]

There is definitely a salary cap in the VFL, SANFL and WAFL for all clubs. I know that the WAFL cap for affiliated clubs was lower than the non-affiliated clubs (about 2/3rd the size), so it's not unreasonable to believe a similar arrangement exists in the SANFL and VFL. What exactly counts towards the cap I'm unsure. Would expect that AFL listed players salaries don't, but perhaps match fees for playing might be included. Obivously all payments to non-AFL listed players would be included.

[Ozza]

I am definitely sympathetic to the issues/challenges this poses for the state leagues.

But on the other hand, I am a fan, conceptually, of the best players available being able to play in the best league.

[Go_Dogs]

Is there a salary cap for affiliated sides? If not then the likes of the Crows could be attracting more players than other clubs to their affiliated side

I don't have an issue with that per se. If I'm a player who wants to make the transition, I'd align myself with a club where I feel the list profile suits my chances. If the Crows have 10 blokes ahead of me, I'd look elsewhere.

The AFL should really just start a formal reserves competition and be done with it.