Rumour GFC 2026 Player Trading, Drafting FA, Rumours and Wish lists Pt 1

[Ross]

Do they really take long or is it that as fans, it's easy to exaggerate these things?

The club formally announced the new numbers today - on Sunday was about bringing the draftees & their families to the club, and making the first announcement to them, their numbers, lockers etc

Yesterday it was unveiling that info to the other players and then us fans get it today - doesn't seem some crazy extended timeline

Don't know what the number announcing timelines usually are for our club or any of the other clubs but while reading your post I remembered the club not announcing new numbers until after the new year not too long ago, just looked it up to confirm and it looks like we didn't announce the 2023 numbers until January 19.

 

[And_ROOS]

I think Marshall is a great ruck and he'll do pretty well under the new rules, but TDK can't play with second ruck and rotating them off the bench will cook their rotations.

They'll figure it out eventually

Yeah about the time they trade Marshall to us next season for pick 78 and a packet of chips.

 

[Hamingja]

Don't know what the number announcing timelines usually are for our club or any of the other clubs but while reading your post I remembered the club not announcing new numbers until after the new year not too long ago, just looked it up to confirm and it looks like we didn't announce the 2023 numbers until January 19.

Yeah I don't care about the numbers at all personally but definitely remember them stretching it right out before

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Every club's new NGA zone confirmed after AFL review

Tasmania's impending entry into the AFL has forced a re-jig of NGA zones

www.afl.com.au

The full breakdown of each club's NGA regions is below.

Under other significant changes to zones, Melbourne has lost the Mornington Peninsula, which has been reallocated to St Kilda, while Hawthorn will no longer have a presence in the Northern Territory after losing that part as well as some of its eastern Melbourne region, which has been taken on by Richmond.

Collingwood has gained the north-east metropolitan area of Victoria, which will encompass the Yarra Junior Football League region, while Geelong has been allocated Western Victoria, which had been in the hands of the Western Bulldogs.

Under this region, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, who was the No.1 pick in 2020 after coming from the Warrnambool area and being tied to the Western Bulldogs' NGA, would have been eligible to Geelong under the new zones.

The West Australian zones for West Coast and Fremantle have remained unchanged, while the existing South Australian zones for Adelaide and Port Adelaide will continue to be allocated as well as proposed additions for large areas that haven't been previously been designated to clubs.

The League has proposed that towns within a large zone – such as Cooper Pedy, Woomera, Roxby Downs – will be in Port's zone and the APY Lands (in the north-west part of the state) be fully zoned to Adelaide.

Under the changes, Darwin will be unallocated to any club as a NGA zone.

The AFL's football operations team crunched the population data across the country before deciding on the new zones, with a 'score' being determined based on multicultural and Indigenous population within the region, as well as multicultural and Indigenous participation and current participation.

The transition to the new zones will commence in 2028, meaning clubs who have draftees in their region who are now in a new region will be eligible to join their original club in the 2026 and 2027 drafts, but will change over zones if they are three or more years away from draft age.


The changes in zones will see some promising under-15s talents be switched from one club to another after the redistribution of areas.

AFL.com.au revealed in September that the AFL had made significant changes to its NGA eligibility rules as well, including removing the criteria that allowed a player to be tied to a club if they were born overseas in the relevant zone, the removal of European countries as multicultural access and an expansion of age eligibility from 19 to 21 years to give clubs more access to late developers in their Academies.

Those changes will also see some players ruled out of club NGAs, including promising youngster Tom Steinfort at Geelong, who is the son of former player Carl Steinfort. He was going to be eligible to be in the Cats' NGA given he was born in Finland, but the change to European zones means he will not be eligible for Geelong after review.

WHICH NEXT GENERATION ACADEMY ZONES YOUR CLUB NOW HOLDS?

Club	Retained	Allocated	Reallocated
CARLTON	Northern Metro	North-East Victoria (most of Murray Bushrangers), Carlton postcode	North-East Metro (YJFL)
COLLINGWOOD	Inner-East, NT (Tennant Creek)	North-East Metro (YJFL)	Eastern Metro (Monash)
ESSENDON	North-West Melbourne, Tiwi & West Arnhem Land	Kyneton	Wallan
GEELONG	Geelong & Surf Coast, East Arnhem Land	Western Victoria, Northern NT	-
HAWTHORN	Eastern Metro (Box Hill), Eastern Victoria	-	Eastern Metro (Rowville, Belgrave), North-East Metro, Northern NT
MELBOURNE	South-East Melbourne (Casey), Alice Springs	-	Mornington Peninsula
NORTH MELBOURNE	Inner-North Melbourne & Wyndham	Northern Victoria Corridor (Wallan, Seymour, Echuca)	Carlton postcode
RICHMOND	North-West Victoria (Bendigo)	Eastern Metro (Monash Council, Rowville, Belgrave)	North-West Victoria (Bendigo) & Northern Victoria Corridor
ST KILDA	Bayside	Mornington Peninsula	-
WESTERN BULLDOGS	Western Metro & Ballarat	-	Western Victoria

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Every club's new NGA zone confirmed after AFL review

Tasmania's impending entry into the AFL has forced a re-jig of NGA zones

www.afl.com.au

The full breakdown of each club's NGA regions is below.



WHICH NEXT GENERATION ACADEMY ZONES YOUR CLUB NOW HOLDS?

Club	Retained	Allocated	Reallocated
CARLTON	Northern Metro	North-East Victoria (most of Murray Bushrangers), Carlton postcode	North-East Metro (YJFL)
COLLINGWOOD	Inner-East, NT (Tennant Creek)	North-East Metro (YJFL)	Eastern Metro (Monash)
ESSENDON	North-West Melbourne, Tiwi & West Arnhem Land	Kyneton	Wallan
GEELONG	Geelong & Surf Coast, East Arnhem Land	Western Victoria, Northern NT	-
HAWTHORN	Eastern Metro (Box Hill), Eastern Victoria	-	Eastern Metro (Rowville, Belgrave), North-East Metro, Northern NT
MELBOURNE	South-East Melbourne (Casey), Alice Springs	-	Mornington Peninsula
NORTH MELBOURNE	Inner-North Melbourne & Wyndham	Northern Victoria Corridor (Wallan, Seymour, Echuca)	Carlton postcode
RICHMOND	North-West Victoria (Bendigo)	Eastern Metro (Monash Council, Rowville, Belgrave)	North-West Victoria (Bendigo) & Northern Victoria Corridor
ST KILDA	Bayside	Mornington Peninsula	-
WESTERN BULLDOGS	Western Metro & Ballarat	-	Western Victoria

Just need to hang on for a couple more years until we can expose this rort and get Steinfort's kids in the door. Then it can hopefully be shutdown for good.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Just need to hang on for a couple more years until we can expose this rort and get Steinfort's kids in the door. Then it can hopefully be shutdown for good.

Can they play?

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Can they play?

Long way out at this stage.

Tom is the oldest and is 2027 draft eligible - but is regarded as a first round talent and is already key position height at 194cm. Could end up around the 200cm+ mark by the time he's 18.

Who knows this far out really. Greeves was a number one pick contender just 6 months ago, but on the little we know so far, it's looking pretty promising.

Would be the ultimate rort if all three of them ended up being guns.

 

[year of the cat]

Long way out at this stage.

Tom is the oldest and is 2027 draft eligible - but is regarded as a first round talent and is already key position height at 194cm. Could end up around the 200cm+ mark by the time he's 18.

Who knows this far out really. Greeves was a number one pick contender just 6 months ago, but on the little we know so far, it's looking pretty promising.

Would be the ultimate rort if all three of them ended up being guns.

My youngest son played against one of them in junior footy a couple of years back. He was very very good without absolutely tearing the game apart.

 

[Ross]

Just need to hang on for a couple more years until we can expose this rort and get Steinfort's kids in the door. Then it can hopefully be shutdown for good.

We're the only club that's never had a bid placed on an academy/NGA/father-son player so getting to rort the system just once would be nice.

 

[Scorpio]

AFL.com.au revealed in September that the AFL had made significant changes to its NGA eligibility rules as well, including removing the criteria that allowed a player to be tied to a club if they were born overseas in the relevant zone, the removal of European countries as multicultural access and an expansion of age eligibility from 19 to 21 years to give clubs more access to late developers in their Academies.

Those changes will also see some players ruled out of club NGAs, including promising youngster Tom Steinfort at Geelong, who is the son of former player Carl Steinfort. He was going to be eligible to be in the Cats' NGA given he was born in Finland, but the change to European zones means he will not be eligible for Geelong after review.


Can we no longer get him? Or am I reading the above wrong from the article?

 

[Kobe Gryant]

AFL.com.au revealed in September that the AFL had made significant changes to its NGA eligibility rules as well, including removing the criteria that allowed a player to be tied to a club if they were born overseas in the relevant zone, the removal of European countries as multicultural access and an expansion of age eligibility from 19 to 21 years to give clubs more access to late developers in their Academies.

Those changes will also see some players ruled out of club NGAs, including promising youngster Tom Steinfort at Geelong, who is the son of former player Carl Steinfort. He was going to be eligible to be in the Cats' NGA given he was born in Finland, but the change to European zones means he will not be eligible for Geelong after review.


Can we no longer get him? Or am I reading the above wrong from the article?

We've been shot down in record time.

It's probably for the greater good to be honest, the whole thing is a rort. It's ironic that it's finally reviewed when we're on the precipice of benefiting though.

Melbourne were similar with Mac Andrew, and have every right to be dirty when they changed the rules again just three years later when a bigger club in Essendon started to whinge about Kako.

For those who follow global sport, the AFL can look like such a mickey mouse competition at times.

Oh well, just gonna have to get them to tank their draft stock now and take them as rookies.

 

[AM]

Every club's new NGA zone confirmed after AFL review

Tasmania's impending entry into the AFL has forced a re-jig of NGA zones

www.afl.com.au

The full breakdown of each club's NGA regions is below.



WHICH NEXT GENERATION ACADEMY ZONES YOUR CLUB NOW HOLDS?

Club	Retained	Allocated	Reallocated
CARLTON	Northern Metro	North-East Victoria (most of Murray Bushrangers), Carlton postcode	North-East Metro (YJFL)
COLLINGWOOD	Inner-East, NT (Tennant Creek)	North-East Metro (YJFL)	Eastern Metro (Monash)
ESSENDON	North-West Melbourne, Tiwi & West Arnhem Land	Kyneton	Wallan
GEELONG	Geelong & Surf Coast, East Arnhem Land	Western Victoria, Northern NT	-
HAWTHORN	Eastern Metro (Box Hill), Eastern Victoria	-	Eastern Metro (Rowville, Belgrave), North-East Metro, Northern NT
MELBOURNE	South-East Melbourne (Casey), Alice Springs	-	Mornington Peninsula
NORTH MELBOURNE	Inner-North Melbourne & Wyndham	Northern Victoria Corridor (Wallan, Seymour, Echuca)	Carlton postcode
RICHMOND	North-West Victoria (Bendigo)	Eastern Metro (Monash Council, Rowville, Belgrave)	North-West Victoria (Bendigo) & Northern Victoria Corridor
ST KILDA	Bayside	Mornington Peninsula	-
WESTERN BULLDOGS	Western Metro & Ballarat	-	Western Victoria

Thanks. Do you know on what basis they allocate the zones?

 

[jim boy]

It's probably for the greater good to be honest, the whole thing is a rort

Well i am a bit annoyed. My first preference is that first round matching bids are banned outright, nga or father/son. But also the swapping of boundaries that see us miss out again. I think I am right in thinking they did this with JUH as well.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Well i am a bit annoyed. My first preference is that first round matching bids are banned outright, nga or father/son. But also the swapping of boundaries that see us miss out again. I think I am right in thinking they did this with JUH as well.

Nah they didn't do that with JUH. Stokes was mentoring him before academies were a thing and the first boundary cut us off

 

[Lana]

Some of the proposed changes to the bidding system add in quite a lot of inflexibility which will make it difficult for teams to actually aquire the right picks at the right place to actually match the bid.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Some of the proposed changes to the bidding system add in quite a lot of inflexibility which will make it difficult for teams to actually aquire the right picks at the right place to actually match the bid.

If that two pick rule comes in it shuts the gate on drafts like brisbane and the suns just had

 

[cats_09]

We've been shot down in record time.

It's probably for the greater good to be honest, the whole thing is a rort. It's ironic that it's finally reviewed when we're on the precipice of benefiting though.

Melbourne were similar with Mac Andrew, and have every right to be dirty when they changed the rules again just three years later when a bigger club in Essendon started to whinge about Kako.

For those who follow global sport, the AFL can look like such a mickey mouse competition at times.

Oh well, just gonna have to get them to tank their draft stock now and take them as rookies.

Geelong has been one of the teams pushing for changes to NGA eligibility criteria and it's functionality

So while there might be some frustration from the club with the timing of this decision, I'm not sure we'll totally be against the changes


My perspective with Academy eligibility (NGA & Northern) across both the AFL and AFLW, is that once the parent has played a certain number of senior games of AFL/W (say 50), any children should be ineligible for academy programs - I find it hard to be convinced that the child of a genuinely experienced player would be lost to the game without access to an academy program

 

[Jimmy Yamazaki]

On Gettable today, Dogs/Cats leading contenders for Butters.

Port has the ability to match and will want draft picks.

Walsh - Cats been chasing him for some time now.

 

[year of the cat]

On Gettable today, Dogs/Cats leading contenders for Butters.

Port has the ability to match and will want draft picks.

Walsh - Cats been chasing him for some time now.

Surely we couldn’t get both?

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Surely we couldn’t get both?

 

[jim boy]

My perspective with Academy eligibility (NGA & Northern) across both the AFL and AFLW, is that once the parent has played a certain number of senior games of AFL/W (say 50), any children should be ineligible for academy programs - I find it hard to be convinced that the child of a genuinely experienced player would be lost to the game without access to an academy program

The problem with Academy eligibility is that is run by the clubs. Clubs (including ours) have zero genuine interest in breaking down the barriers for those who come different cultures. What they want are the best possible players and clubs will exploit every possible loophole to make that happen. So if a hot prospect becomes eligible simply because there mum went on a holiday to Bali to give a natural birth, then of course clubs will target that player. And if you get genuine prospects in at young age, then you've won the lottery.

So if clubs have a natural advantage in that area - such as having an entire state available to you, then of course they will squeeze everything out of it. So we've ended up back in the old zoning system, where some locations simply are richer than others and that ultimately reflects in performance - that was a massive leg up for the hawks in the 70's and 80s. So some clubs get an advantage, a big advantage and others get the odd thing here and there. It is very uneven and it just doesnt work - and worse, the actual reason for the NGAs in the first place is lost, with money not being spent on those with barriers.

It has to be run by a disinterested party with a mandate for genuine disadvantage, not sham disadvantage

 

[Kobe Gryant]

On Gettable today, Dogs/Cats leading contenders for Butters.

Port has the ability to match and will want draft picks.

Walsh - Cats been chasing him for some time now.

It does seem like it's only going to be us or them, and has for some time.

He's not going to travel to Dingley four times a week from Bacchus Marsh, and Collingwood have never really been in the picture. Plus, they're not exactly looking appealing right now.

Come on Bevo, just burn the joint to the ground in 2026. We know you want to, let the man have free reign.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Surely we couldn’t get both?

Walsh is an RFA but you would need Carlton to finish like bottom 3 for them not to match. I still think Walsh signs.

Butters more likely. Will be a very expensive trade (more than dangerfield).

 

[thejester]

Thanks. Do you know on what basis they allocate the zones?

I thought they were roughly with Talent League U18 zones - hence the Dogs having Western Victoria, which was the same zone as the Rebels.

 

[cats_09]

AFL.com.au revealed in September that the AFL had made significant changes to its NGA eligibility rules as well, including removing the criteria that allowed a player to be tied to a club if they were born overseas in the relevant zone, the removal of European countries as multicultural access and an expansion of age eligibility from 19 to 21 years to give clubs more access to late developers in their Academies.

Those changes will also see some players ruled out of club NGAs, including promising youngster Tom Steinfort at Geelong, who is the son of former player Carl Steinfort. He was going to be eligible to be in the Cats' NGA given he was born in Finland, but the change to European zones means he will not be eligible for Geelong after review.


Can we no longer get him? Or am I reading the above wrong from the article?

Confirmed he's out of NGA eligibility