I was not at last years draft function when this was first mentioned, so can not comment. I have not read anything to support this any where other than on this page.Pretty sure we can't use traded "future" picks to bid on Academy players. Or am I misremembering?
My understanding was that it was optional and up to us.
There's not been any AFL-published word on this though.
This is the bit I find confusing. It does not make sense. No academy team would choose to use a traded in future high draft pick to match an academy bid if they had the option of picking a top rated player from the open draft pool, and use multiple lower picks to match the bid. It's basically a choice between drafting 3 top 15 kids, or 2 top 15 kids + a 2nd round ad 3rd round kid.



