Fixing the draft

[ledge]

So we all know the stupid way the draft works, what are our ideas to fix and simplify it ..
my views are F/S and NGA should be the same .
F/S is obvious. NGA if you?re spending 4-5 years developing a kid you should get rewarded for it . ( tighter rules on who is NGA )
No more AFL decides compo . You come out of contract you?re free to look at offers .
Teams need to trade in the last year of contract or work out a contract.
Stop any chance of tanking by putting the last 8 teams in a hat and pulling club out to decide on first 8 picks, or pick one goes to 8 pick two to 9th etc . You are then making the bottom 8 clubs trying to win up to the last game unlike Geelong this year in the last game.
Rookie draft should only be players who have not played AFL at all.
Clubs want to trade picks they trade picks, none of this points system.

Thats a few ideas off the top of my head . You cal probably pick a lot of holes in my thoughts but let?s see what we can come up with to make it easier and better .

[hujsh]

No more AFL decides compo . You come out of contract you?re free to look at offers .
Teams need to trade in the last year of contract or work out a contract.

I think clubs need some form of compensation for losing best 22 players or else bottom of the ladder teams are just screwed. Incentivizing North to trade a competent AFL player 1 year earlier is not making them more competitive. Make the compensation formula more exact rather than based on the clubs ladder position. You lose Buddy Franklin to a monster deal you get a top 5 pick, you lose Ben McKay to a contract heavily weighted for one year you get a mid or late first round pick.

Also make the clubs pay a price for those picks. 1 pick in the same round as the compensation and other picks make up points if there's a deficit. Can't pay? Then trade or miss out.

Stop any chance of tanking by putting the last 8 teams in a hat and pulling club out to decide on first 8 picks, or pick one goes to 8 pick two to 9th etc . You are then making the bottom 8 clubs trying to win up to the last game unlike Geelong this year in the last game.

Unnecessary. I don't think Geelong were particularly interested in their draft position, more getting ready for next year. I don't think 'tanking' is really a problem right now either we've seen how it worked for Carlton and Melbourne.

Rookie draft should only be players who have not played AFL at all.

Meh. I feel like if it was called something other than rookie list people wouldn't care. It's purpose has evolved over the years and that's fine.

Clubs want to trade picks they trade picks, none of this points system.

I don't understand what this point means in isolation. How would you handle bids if there's not a point system. If there's a better alternative then sure but without one then you kind of can't remove it.

[bulldogtragic]

Keep F/S, perhaps reduce the discount down from 20%
NGA blocked out of 1st Round to protest the first round
Cap the numbers F/S & Academy players per year to three in total, two firsts maximum
End the PSD & Rookie Draft/Rookie List - Expand the main list
Start a process for harmonising the northern academies and NGAs
End all free agency compo altogether
Live trade players on the night, or allow for it
Also allow the clubs to forcibly trade players in the trade period
No mid season trading
Keep the points system - there’s no really good way to manage FS etc. it’s fairer than the old 3rd rounder for GAJ. But tighten up the discount and tighten up the live trading to constantly go back and use more picks than spots
Think about minimum 4 year rookie contracts, on at least first round selections
Have an actual compo policy. Sure the old way where clubs got compo at the start of the first round was too generous. But one year it’s prelisting state players , then F2 & F3 picks to trade, then current and future end 1sts. No one knows what the hell is going on and must make planning a nightmare. But for clubs raking up, Sanders could be at Notth right now too!


We’ve benefitted from Cooney/Ray (Cooney > Biggs PP), Griff/Williams (Griff > Boyd PP), getting Tom Boyd out early, JUH for next to nothing and in a year when you didn’t need spots for picks, and Darcy etc. - So I’m not going to say we haven’t had some to a lot of benefit. But this year showed it’s out of control and needs an overhaul.

One of my pet ideas is to promote development of VFL/state sides attached to clubs. Something like matching bids outside the top 30 with no or minimal discount. Say we had Mannagh this year, we’d match the Cats bid at Pick 36. I think it might encourage affiliates to improve development if the AFEL footy boss knows they can reap the reward of the extra development of a player. But it needs to be very, very limited.

Plus the draft should go back to one night and stop the BS coverage. It’s not working.

If I really thought about it more I could come up with more. But the AFEL won’t do anything. It was Eddie going on radio and tv every day screaming about COLA that forced some change. I don’t see strong enough media campaigners to pressure the AFEL into the change the competition needs. They just want TV money.

[soupman]

Keep Father Son and NGA, and for both I'd make it that you can match a bid only with a pick within 10 spots. So if Croft is bid on with 15, we can match with anything up to 25.

Live trading makes this possible, it sets the price somewhat closer to market value than 3 picks in the late 30s, and it means clubs get a discount to acknowledge that the time they put into these players makes them better draft prospects.

I don't see the point in limiting how many you can take each year, so if clubs have 10 eligible players they can grab them all if they have the picks and list spots.

I'd just combine the rookie list with the main list, clubs treat them as one and the same anyway, and just make contract length optional after say pick 50. I'd also add a couple of extra list spots if clubs wanted to use them. Cat B's remain a thing.

I'd scrap the pick compo for free agents, it's too hard to classify consistently. Instead the "compo" would be that half of whatever wage the player leaves for gets added to the clubs salary cap for two years.

Players can nominate a state to go to, but clubs are free to wheel and deal within that state for the best offer.

I like the idea of the affiliated reserve sides acting like NGA in terms of draft rights, but only for players that have been overlooked in a draft in the past.

[ledge]

So what’s your ideas on making it better/ simpler and fairer ?
Because it’s a shit show at the moment Hjush

[SquirrelGrip]

Keep Father-Son

All NGA including northern academies treated the same as each other - can match from pick 1

Can use a maximum of two picks for points to match a bid - stop the grouping of 5 low draft picks for just one player

Category B rookies are the rookies

No other types of rookies, just an extra normal draft round

Free agents are allocated points so receiving club has to use those points to get that free agent and those same points go to club where the free agent is from (although I do need to think through this idea a bit further)

[Go_Dogs]

I think clubs should only be able to match a pick in the first round for one player each year (F/S and Academy) if they’ve got multiple players in that range, pick one and then trade up / live trade to get your other players.

Compensation for free agents needs a big revamp. It should be based on a multitude of factors and weighted, along with transparent. Eg. Contract duration, contract $ by a bracket (eg $1m+, $800k-$1m etc), last 3 years of b&f results. I’m just making it up, but it should compensate based on both the impact the club is losing and potential the other club is paying for.

Also, do away with extra picks for poor sides, let the draft mechanism work on its own feet over time.

Wouldnt mind a coin toss for pick one between the bottom two sides on draft night. Keep it interesting.

[Topdog]

I think clubs need some form of compensation for losing best 22 players or else bottom of the ladder teams are just screwed. Incentivizing North to trade a competent AFL player 1 year earlier is not making them more competitive. Make the compensation formula more exact rather than based on the clubs ladder position. You lose Buddy Franklin to a monster deal you get a top 5 pick, you lose Ben McKay to a contract heavily weighted for one year you get a mid or late first round pick.
.

Couldn't disagree more with this. With the draft picks available to each and every team, natural changing of teams challenging at the top will happen organically. The draft desperately needs to remove all kinds of compensation and the amount of academy players available needs to be reduced.

Anytime you have 29 picks in a round for an 18 team comp you know you have completely stuffed it up.

[hujsh]

So what’s your ideas on making it better/ simpler and fairer ?
Because it’s a shit show at the moment Hjush

Well where I didn't respond would be where I'm happy to accept your proposals. So giving everyone back access to their NGA but being more strict on who counts as an NGA is fine by me. Maybe more strict requirements on what picks can be used (so not 5 picks 40-60) might make sense too.

That or just let the AFL run the academies. Northern clubs will complain Vic states benefit more from F/S but in a generation or two it evens out.

I think I've been pretty consistent with this stance across multiple threads TBH so maybe people are sick of reading it.

[hujsh]

Couldn't disagree more with this. With the draft picks available to each and every team, natural changing of teams challenging at the top will happen organically. The draft desperately needs to remove all kinds of compensation and the amount of academy players available needs to be reduced.

Anytime you have 29 picks in a round for an 18 team comp you know you have completely stuffed it up.

Let's take a step back and acknowledge that this year is a bit of an anomaly because the AFEL clearly didn't update their formula to account for the pay increase. Any other year there would be far less compensation picks. BUT even with that in mind of the 29 picks in the first round only 3 were from FA. McKay, Doedee and Gresham. This is not unmanageable as a worst case and with the changes I suggested it would at least bump a few clubs later picks up a bit to compensate.

I also disagree in principle that clubs should just have to wear losing their best players because of free agency with nothing coming back. It doesn't naturally cycle either certain clubs will always benefit from it regardless of ladder position and other will always be playing catch up.

I can live with the academy players available being reduced though and North getting compensation picks is ridiculous

[jeemak]

The draft needs to be shorter/ contained within one session.

Clubs should forego points if securing a free agent to the equivalent of the compensation given to the club losing the player to minimise their draft hand and free up talent later in the draft.

Non-northern state clubs should be able to match a bid on a maximum of one NGA player in each of rounds 1-3 of the draft, no limitations thereafter. Those in the first round should come at a premium of points - maybe 30%-50%, sliding scale thereafter (let's be honest, these gun kids aren't getting club specific benefits, for the most part in their development). If it was Collingwood who secured JUH and Darcy we wouldn't be having the conversation to begin with......but it is what it is.

Transparency for FA compensation is a must and would be needed for the receiving club to justify handing over points and weakening their draft hand.

Did I mention shortening the format?

[bornadog]

Northern NGA is good for the comp as it helps build up the Northern teams who are still battling to compete with Rugby League

[ledge]

Northern NGA is good for the comp as it helps build up the Northern teams who are still battling to compete with Rugby League

rugby league is signing some up on contracts before they get to AFL . Need to change that somehow.

[GVGjr]

Northern NGA is good for the comp as it helps build up the Northern teams who are still battling to compete with Rugby League

Absolutely, those academy's are a good thing for the competition and we just need the AFL to make sure it doesn't give those team an unfair advantage. I'd like to see other clubs able to match bids inside of pick 30 and for the NGA rules to be tightened up.