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CLUBS will have the option of recruiting father-son prospects as rookies during this year's draft process, in a rule change that will help borderline prospects reach their father's club.
The AFL decided at its commission meeting last month to alter the father-son rules so that an eligible player overlooked in the national draft can be prelisted by their father's club ahead of the subsequent rookie draft.
Clubs will not need to nominate these players as father-son prospects at the start of the trade period, as they do with those they intend to draft, but they will be required to indicate their interest in taking them on as a rookie.
For instance, Essendon will this year nominate Joe Daniher as a father-son draftee, and be forced to use a first-round pick on the 201-centimetre ruckman/forward as part of the bidding process.
Hypothetically, the Bombers could also indicate their interest in Jordan Williams, the 18-year-old son of 109-game rover Darren, who plays for the Eastern Ranges in the TAC Cup.
If Essendon nominated Williams, a midfielder, it would have to use its final choice in the draft on him, as Geelong and Carlton did with Jed Bews and Dylan Buckley last year.
Simply indicating the club's interest in him would mean taking the risk that he would pass through the national draft unselected, then prelisting him using the club's last rookie list spot.
The rule change fits with the overall point of of the father-son bidding system - which determines a prospect's ''market worth'' - and with the rule enabling the northern clubs to prelist players from their local zones ahead of the rookie draft.
Last year, Gold Coast and Sydney used this rule to prelist Josh Hall and Harry Cunningham as rookies. Had this rule been in place last year, the Bombers would have been able to secure Sam Dunell, the son of former premiership player Frank, with its last rookie pick, denying St Kilda the chance to choose him.
Dunell, who has played in the Saints' last two games after being elevated from the rookie list, was overlooked by all clubs in the national draft before being picked up as the No. 12 rookie.
Tom Fields (Essendon), Jydon Neagle (Essendon) and Jackson Starcevich (Collingwood) are other rookie possibilities this year, with Daniher, Jack Viney (Melbourne), Lachlan Hunter (Western Bulldogs), James Stewart (Collingwood) and Jordon Bourke (Geelong) the leading father-son prospects.
Essendon and Melbourne have already committed to nominating Daniher and Viney, while the Bulldogs, Magpies and Cats must determine what they believe Hunter and Stewart to be worth before deciding whether to nominate them.
Bourke, who can also be signed or traded by the Suns as a zone player, will play the first of two games for the Geelong VFL side against Bendigo on Saturday, a curtain-raiser for the senior side's game against Adelaide.
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