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News AFL overhauls Academy and FS bid matching, discussing draft lockout

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lol. I don't actually like Gold Coast, but it's f*cking fodder when people whinge about them, while ignoring that their own clubs have shafted them.

We were in the same place to less than a decade ago, and it took the AFL parachuting in our CEO, Head of Football and Coach to sort us out. It's amazing how quickly things can turn around when the right people are in charge at the top.

A lot of that is on the AFL, not setting them up properly to start with. No club base, just demountable work site offices and port -a-loos, no gym, etc.

It was literally here's your license, good luck. When kids coming from the Vic private schools had better resources, you know the AFL half @rsed it.

The AFL actually stepping in and making the hard decisions to straighten the whole competition out.

I don't actually believe in academies or father sons, but the whole competition if full of inequalities that disadvantage almost every club, while benefitting the big 6 Victorian clubs, so in such a competition, I'll take every advantage my club can get. The only regret I currently have, is that my club doesn't prioritise it's academy to the same level that Gold Coast and Sydney do.
Considering some of the other garbage trades they have made over the past 5-10 years the fact they wouldn’t accept what we were offering was laughable. Jack Martin was hardly a star leaving that club.

I agree Gold Coast were set up poorly overall. That was my point. Even in Brisbane’s case which I’m sure you’re well aware they were in a difficult position in a number of areas when all those departures eventuated.

The AFL’s grown so much in the last decade alone to the point I just don’t think ‘interstate’ clubs or any struggling club in general is going to be in such poor shape in all facets that a bunch of Victorians for example would go home soon after if you drafted them.

The historical context of mass exoduses makes list managers nervous when some draftee doesn’t want to move. But as I mentioned I think clubs are being sucked in by slimy player managers.

Just take Bailey Smith for example who was telling every non Victorian club not to draft him because he wouldn’t cope with leaving his family in Melbournes Now 7 years later he isn’t even in Melbourne and has moved down the coast and screwed over his club in the process. Sure it’s not that far from Melbourne but the point is players these days will continually try shit on because they know they can get away with it.

Plus these are 17-18 year old kids who have never left their 10-15km radius so they think that’s where their life has to continue to revolve around. A team like West Coast picks one of them and maybe they actually discover Perth is great.

It’s idealistic yes but I’m just saying if you can build a good culture and team with young players I think you’ll be able to retain most of them.
 
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Elliot yeo was all Brisbane. He confirmed on a podcast it was an arguement over $50k and had Brisbane given it to him, he would have stayed.

Brisbane didn’t rate him enough. To be fair we didn’t think he would be that good either.

50k in the cap 15 years ago is a lot more significant than 50k under today’s cap. What you’re describing is us having to overpay to retain interstate talent.

Thank you for demonstrating why the academies are important.

I think it’s a bit of revisionist history from Elliot as well, who by all reports wasn’t happy in Brisbane. But sure if we overpaid him he may have stayed. Not a very sustainable way to build a list thought.
 
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Sure, but you can see how it's not exactly appreciated when you bucket those big Victorian teams with North, St Kilda and Dogs who by many measures have the worst of it of anyone in the league, Victorian or otherwise, and fail to exclude them when you attack "the Victorians"

‘Worst of it of anyone in the league’ get outta here. You still have all of the structural advantages of the vfl which interstate clubs will never be able to attain and which contributes to this league being as lopsided as it is.
 
Yeah, the overall list management landscape really benefits teams like St Kilda. Who just had to pay the best contract in history to a player who probably isn't in the top 20 best players in the league, in order to retain them, after they drafted them.

Just listen to yourself, seriously.
St.Kilda dug a hole for themselves offering 1.7M repeatedly for Finn Callaghan, LDU and many more. Natives got restless at that point, which is bound to happen. They are still not out of the woods yet in terms of re-signing existing players. Let's see how it pans out for them.

Also, why does St.kilda need to overpay? They could've left Nasiah to go "home" and pillage the other club via trade. They chose to and its still on them - like it seems to be on us needing to overpay to retain talent back in the day. Spare me for not crying for the plight of salary cap mismanagement from Saints. This shoe was in our foot like 10 years ago and the standard line trotted out against us was to "fix our kulcha"
 

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50k in the cap 15 years ago is a lot more significant than 50k under today’s cap. What you’re describing is us having to overpay to retain interstate talent.

Thank you for demonstrating why the academies are important.

I think it’s a bit of revisionist history from Elliot as well, who by all reports wasn’t happy in Brisbane. But sure if we overpaid him he may have stayed. Not a very sustainable way to build a list thought.

Brisbane were close to their cap limit, were they? Please.

Explaining that he was unhappy etc is revisionism
 
Considering some of the other garbage trades they have made over the past 5-10 years the fact they wouldn’t accept what we were offering was laughable. Jack Martin was hardly a star leaving that club.

I agree Gold Coast were set up poorly overall. That was my point. Even in Brisbane’s case which I’m sure you’re well aware they were in a difficult position in a number of areas when all those departures eventuated.

The AFL’s grown so much in the last decade alone to the point I just don’t think ‘interstate’ clubs or any struggling club in general is going to be in such poor shape in all facets that a bunch of Victorians for example would go home soon after if you drafted them.

The historical context of mass exoduses makes list managers nervous when some draftee doesn’t want to move. But as I mentioned I think clubs are being sucked in by slimy player managers.

Just take Bailey Smith for example who was telling every non Victorian club not to draft him because he wouldn’t cope with leaving his family in Melbournes Now 7 years later he isn’t even in Melbourne and has moved down the coast and screwed over his club in the process. Sure it’s not that far from Melbourne but the point is players these days will continually try shit on because they know they can get away with it.

Plus these are 17-18 year old kids who have never left their 10-15km radius so they think that’s where their life has to continue to revolve around. A team like West Coast picks one of them and maybe they actually discover Perth is great.

It’s idealistic yes but I’m just saying if you can build a good culture and team with young players I think you’ll be able to retain most of them.
Exactly.
All over the world kids move across the country and even overseas to follow their sporting dream. The world is not the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Going interstate holds no fears for 99% of the draftees. In the NBA. MLB and NFL players are sometimes traded to three clubs within a year - and these are players with families so any move is obviously more onerous for them than a young single bloke.
 
Considering some of the other garbage trades they have made over the past 5-10 years the fact they wouldn’t accept what we were offering was laughable. Jack Martin was hardly a star leaving that club.

I agree Gold Coast were set up poorly overall. That was my point. Even in Brisbane’s case which I’m sure you’re well aware they were in a difficult position in a number of areas when all those departures eventuated.

The AFL’s grown so much in the last decade alone to the point I just don’t think ‘interstate’ clubs or any struggling club in general is going to be in such poor shape in all facets that a bunch of Victorians for example would go home soon after if you drafted them.

The historical context of mass exoduses makes list managers nervous when some draftee doesn’t want to move. But as I mentioned I think clubs are being sucked in by slimy player managers.

Just take Bailey Smith for example who was telling every non Victorian club not to draft him because he wouldn’t cope with leaving his family in Melbournes Now 7 years later he isn’t even in Melbourne and has moved down the coast and screwed over his club in the process. Sure it’s not that far from Melbourne but the point is players these days will continually try shit on because they know they can get away with it.

Plus these are 17-18 year old kids who have never left their 10-15km radius so they think that’s where their life has to continue to revolve around. A team like West Coast picks one of them and maybe they actually discover Perth is great.

It’s idealistic yes but I’m just saying if you can build a good culture and team with young players I think you’ll be able to retain most of them.
This is all fair points but when a Sheezel or a Wardlaw subtly tells you not to pick him and you're one of the clubs whose holding that pick 3/4/5 it'll be downright irresponsible to still gamble that pick and pray it all works out in the end. This is an ongoing issue here where Vic clubs celebrate the kid who is "brave" to express himself and when interstate clubs find another avenue to get players like academy or NGA or whatever- it gets frowned upon.

as an interstate club you're allowed to have some moderate success in building your list with local talent but not too much success. That's not good for the game.
 
Brisbane were close to their cap limit, were they? Please.

Explaining that he was unhappy etc is revisionism

So we should overpay to retain interstate talent which at that time was around 95% of our list. Seems like a bold strategy cotton let’s see how it plays out.
 
Something you’ll only ever read from a VIC club who has 10x as many players to choose from as non-VIC
Actually I did the numbers on it a couple of years ago… there’s a post somewhere but without looking it up directly, about 50% of the players in the league come from Vic. ~16% from WA, ~11% from SA and the rest are from NT, Tasmania, USA, Ireland combined.

Compared to 50% of clubs being from Vic, 11% from WA, 11% from SA, 11% from NSW, 11% from Qld.

So in comparison to the spread of teams, the clubs with the most “local” draft prospects to choose from are actually in WA (air quotes because I recognise that WA is a big place and local is relative). This is why I think a 20th team should be based out your way.
 
Tell us how you really feel…

I’m well aware of past exits of players.

A team like Gold Coast for example was a complete joke in terms of how they were run so it’s hardly shocking they continually lost players. Young draftees were just treating their time up there as a few years of relaxation before getting sick of the club amounting to nothing and wanting to win somewhere else. They made it very easy for players to move on.

I’m not saying players will just magically stop leaving if you draft them but I think if clubs are serious about improving they’ll be successful in retaining some of these players.

Not sure what else the solution is. Managers won’t stop with the BS.
The interesting thing is the same was happening to Brisbane, and then they got Hodge and Fages and pulled off some kind of magic trick and now everyone wants to go there.
 
Yep, the easiest solution seems to be to limit how many first rounders you can take in the one year if you have an academy or father son.

It stinks this year that the Suns will make the finals and have access to potentially two top ten picks (one maybe being the best player in the draft) when you’ve got teams like the Eagles and Roos who have just been terrible for seasons on end now.
The Suns might argue it stinks that they have been terrible for 15 years and when they finally scrap into the finals (assuming that happens) for the first time their one advantage gets taken away.......

It's simple. Keep the academies but pay fair market value.
The points have been changed to make it harder this year. The Suns have traded in 3 firsts this year and will probably only be able to match 2 bids in the first round.

Isn't this EXACTLY what people want?

But it's still not good enough apparently.
 
Again much of your reasoning is incorrect, we added the likes of Charlie Cameron (2017) and Neale (2018), well before we lucked in to Ashcroft and Fletcher in 2022.

We traded for both Cameron and Neale.

The first round pick we used to trade in Cameron came from Port, which was part of a three team trade in 2016, when we traded out Pearce Hanley.

Neale cost us our 2 first round picks in 2018 and 2019.

There was no double dipping for academy talent in those drafts.

It’s been smart list management.

The system has had advantages in it for all teams.

Daniher was a free agent, every team had their chance to sell their club to him.

Yes, we got Dunkley the same year as Ashcroft and Fletcher, but we had pushed picks from 2021 in to 2022 to help achieve this, as well as trading our future first and second round picks from 2023 back in to 2022.

We lost Dan McStay in free agency and received a second round pick as compensation, and traded Tom Berry for a second round pick.

I’m not saying we lost out, but it “cost us” two first round picks, four second round picks, and a couple of players, as well as multiple 3rd and 4th round picks across 3 drafts to get Dunkley, Ashcroft and Fletcher.

Smart list management teams, like those from the Bulldogs and Melbourne, have used it to accrue multiple later picks to trade up for high picks from the Gold Coast.
You got Dunkley, Ashcroft & Fletcher for less than we paid for Jackson and less than we paid for Bolton. Dunkley on par with both of those player and was the difference that got you over the line.

3 for 1 deals that get you are flag are massive.
 

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The points have been changed to make it harder this year. The Suns have traded in 3 firsts this year and will probably only be able to match 2 bids in the first round.

Isn't this EXACTLY what people want?

But it's still not good enough apparently.
I think it’s just down to ignorance. People don’t understand DVI at the best of times, let alone the updated version which is purely theoretical until mid November when you start getting new examples of how it will actually work going forward.

This new administration at AFL HQ seems to want to change things for the sake of changing them, instead of seeing how things go and finding the best way forward.
 
Exactly.
All over the world kids move across the country and even overseas to follow their sporting dream. The world is not the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago. Going interstate holds no fears for 99% of the draftees. In the NBA. MLB and NFL players are sometimes traded to three clubs within a year - and these are players with families so any move is obviously more onerous for them than a young single bloke.
Considering some of the other garbage trades they have made over the past 5-10 years the fact they wouldn’t accept what we were offering was laughable. Jack Martin was hardly a star leaving that club.

I agree Gold Coast were set up poorly overall. That was my point. Even in Brisbane’s case which I’m sure you’re well aware they were in a difficult position in a number of areas when all those departures eventuated.

The AFL’s grown so much in the last decade alone to the point I just don’t think ‘interstate’ clubs or any struggling club in general is going to be in such poor shape in all facets that a bunch of Victorians for example would go home soon after if you drafted them.

The historical context of mass exoduses makes list managers nervous when some draftee doesn’t want to move. But as I mentioned I think clubs are being sucked in by slimy player managers.

Just take Bailey Smith for example who was telling every non Victorian club not to draft him because he wouldn’t cope with leaving his family in Melbournes Now 7 years later he isn’t even in Melbourne and has moved down the coast and screwed over his club in the process. Sure it’s not that far from Melbourne but the point is players these days will continually try shit on because they know they can get away with it.

Plus these are 17-18 year old kids who have never left their 10-15km radius so they think that’s where their life has to continue to revolve around. A team like West Coast picks one of them and maybe they actually discover Perth is great.

It’s idealistic yes but I’m just saying if you can build a good culture and team with young players I think you’ll be able to retain most of them.
Yes the US is different and a lot of that has to do with drinking age. Kids want to get out of home to have an actual life which isn’t so much the case here. 80% still go to college in their home state but they are twice as mature by the time they are drafted as ours are.
Other sports around the world have 100 times the talent pool so you take the best options you have. Australian kids have no problem with that but people seem to forget they are actually choosing where they want to go just like college players do. They aren’t getting told where they have to play until they are ~20 and have already left home or in soccer etc ever
 
So has there been any actual news over the past 2 days
You mean since they floated the possibility of a lockout for bid matching in the first 5/10/round picks?

Twomey on Gettable (transcript is voice recognition software from the Podcasts app):

“Well, I spoke to several clubs who are a part of the AFL's football managers meeting on Monday. And they all left with the view that the league very much has significant change on its mind with regards to the bidding system as part of that, of course, the father-son and academy system. So while clubs in some quarters are pushing for this, we know St Kilda, we know Geelong have raised this.

The majority are fearful that the AFL is going to be bringing in a draft lockout, whether it's the first five picks, first 10 picks or the first round, whether it's a protected zone, the bids can't be matched on those father-sons, academy and NGA players. And the feeling that the clubs took from Monday's meeting as well is that the league is keen to get the ball rolling on this pretty soon, potentially even as soon as next year. So I think there's gonna be some significant backlash to this, this potential draft lockout.

And clubs will rally against that. So let's look at a couple that will. I mean, we just spoke about Cody Walker in recent weeks and how good he's been[…]”

From Gettable: Father-son ‘lockout’ fear, Don to depart, big play for Saint, Harley call close?, 20 Aug 2025

This material may be protected by copyright.
 
Changes announced at the end of 2024 to come into effect in 2025 are based around a new draft value index (how many points each pick is worth), a reduced discount for clubs matching bids (10%, down from 20%), and as of the 2024 Draft, bids on NGA players can be matched in the first round, rather than being locked out until pick 40.

Below are the two Draft Value Indexes (DVIs), the first was in use up until 2024, and the second is from this year (2025) onwards. I've added an extra column to indicate what pick you would need to match a bid if the bid was matched with only one pick. In 2024 you could match pick 1 with pick 2, but in 2025 you would need pick 1 to match a bid at 1... etc.

RoundPickPick valueBid match requirementEquivalent pick
Round 11300024002
Round 12251720144
Round 13223417875
Round 14203416277
Round 15187815028
Round 16175114019
Round 171644131511
Round 181551124112
Round 191469117513
Round 1101395111614
Round 1111329106316
Round 1121268101417
Round 113121297018
Round 114116192919
Round 115111289020
Round 116106785421
Round 117102582022
Round 11898578823
Round 21994875125
Round 22091271526
Round 22187868127
Round 22284564828
Round 22381561830
Round 22478558831
Round 22575655932
Round 22672953234
Round 22770350636
Round 22867748037
Round 22965345638
Round 23062943239
Round 23160640941
Round 23258438742
Round 23356336643
Round 23454234545
Round 23552232546
Round 23650230547
Round 33748328649
Round 33846526850
Round 33944624951
Round 34042923253
Round 34141221554
Round 34239519855
Round 34337818157
Round 34436216558
Round 34534715059
Round 34633113461
Round 34731611962
Round 34830210563
Round 3492879065
Round 3502737666
Round 3512596267
Round 3522464969
Round 3532333670
Round 3542202371
Round 3552071072
Round 356194nilany
Round 457182
Round 458170
Round 459158
Round 460146
Round 461135
Round 462123
Round 463112
Round 464101
Round 46590
Round 46680
Round 46769
Round 46859
Round 46949
Round 47039
Round 47129
Round 47219
Round 4739
RoundPickPick valueBid match requirementEquivalent pick
Round 11300027001
Round 12248122332
Round 13217819604
Round 14196217665
Round 15179516166
Round 16165914937
Round 17154313898
Round 18144312999
Round 191355122010
Round 1101276114811
Round 1111205108512
Round 1121140102613
Round 113108097215
Round 114102492216
Round 11597387617
Round 11692483218
Round 11787979119
Round 11883675220
Round 21979671221
Round 22075767322
Round 22172163723
Round 22268660224
Round 22365356925
Round 22462153726
Round 22559050627
Round 22656147728
Round 22753344930
Round 22850542131
Round 22947939532
Round 23045437033
Round 23142934534
Round 23240532135
Round 23338229836
Round 23436027638
Round 23533825439
Round 23631723340
Round 337297nilany
Round 338277
Round 339257
Round 340238
Round 341220
Round 342202
Round 343184
Round 344167
Round 345150
Round 346134
Round 347118
Round 348102
Round 34986
Round 35071
Round 35157
Round 35242
Round 35328
Round 35414
Round 3550
Round 3560

Clubs have already been limited to one pick in the national draft for each available spot on the senior list for the last few years. The minimum open list spots prior to the draft is 3, in order to take a minimum of 3 picks in the national draft (including rookie upgrades).

With the new DVI, picks in the second and third round are significantly devalued, and fourth round picks have no value at all. Grand Final teams' third round picks also have no value under the new DVI. This means that trading in enough points to match a high bid is far more difficult from 2025 onwards.

Notably, in 2025 you cannot match Pick 1 with your natural draft hand if you finish outside the bottom 5. The club that starts with picks 5, 23 and 41 will not have enough points to match Pick 1 without trading for more picks, while the premiers' natural draft hand is now insufficient to match a bid above 10th.

As of Monday 18th of August 2025, the AFL is also floating the possibility of a draft lockout affecting the first 5 or 10 picks, or potentially the whole first round.
“Well, I spoke to several clubs who are a part of the AFL's football managers meeting on Monday. And they all left with the view that the league very much has significant change on its mind with regards to the bidding system as part of that, of course, the father-son and academy system. So while clubs in some quarters are pushing for this, we know St Kilda, we know Geelong have raised this.

The majority are fearful that the AFL is going to be bringing in a draft lockout, whether it's the first five picks, first 10 picks or the first round, whether it's a protected zone, the bids can't be matched on those father-sons, academy and NGA players. And the feeling that the clubs took from Monday's meeting as well is that the league is keen to get the ball rolling on this pretty soon, potentially even as soon as next year. So I think there's gonna be some significant backlash to this, this potential draft lockout.

And clubs will rally against that. So let's look at a couple that will. I mean, we just spoke about Cody Walker in recent weeks and how good he's been[…]”

From Gettable: Father-son ‘lockout’ fear, Don to depart, big play for Saint, Harley call close?, 20 Aug 2025

This material may be protected by copyright.

22 September 2025 update, an AI summary:
The AFL will not prevent clubs from matching bids on father-son and Academy talent in 2026, but will tighten bidding rules. A grading system will be implemented, requiring teams to be in specific zones based on their ladder position to match bids. This change aims to balance access for clubs while preserving the draft pool.

 
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Every vic team has advantages that non-vic's aren't afforded. Full stop.
No most of them do not have a true home ground advantage. They share a field with other teams and and as time progresses that becomes less of a home ground advantage because the interstate teams play there multiple times per year against different teams. One vic club has this advantage and had been part of the reason they have been near the top of the ladder for 20 years.
 
Because teams are being encouraged to let mature age players leave because they are getting a pick in return which values them much higher than they are

Buddy Franklin didn't.

Dangerfield didn't.

Swings both ways and the teams at the bottom get an uplift to cover losing a quality player.

Teams at the top get unders or force a trade without generating compo picks.

And the AFL use it to balance other ledgers.

Swings and roundabouts.
 
You got Dunkley, Ashcroft & Fletcher for less than we paid for Jackson and less than we paid for Bolton. Dunkley on par with both of those player and was the difference that got you over the line.

3 for 1 deals that get you are flag are massive.

Just because Freo has overpaid for players doesn’t mean it’s the systems fault.

Bolton has been an abject failure given what you have up for him and he was one the tigers didn’t want to keep.
 
My favourite self inflictions; a generational injury list and multiple medical retirements.

Yep, Sheppard, McGovern, Vennables and Edwards concussion retirements.

Naitanui knee.
Sheed knee
Yeo banged up
Allen banged up

Warriors in Kennedy, Hurn and Shuey retire all over 33, Shuey struggled late.

Barrass traded for a 1st, 2nd and a 3rd round pick after being poached.

All self inflicted?
 
You got Dunkley, Ashcroft & Fletcher for less than we paid for Jackson and less than we paid for Bolton. Dunkley on par with both of those player and was the difference that got you over the line.

3 for 1 deals that get you are flag are massive.

You are going through the overpaying cycle. We did too, when Aish (pick 7) left for Collingwood and we got Bastinac + token picks, when Yeo left for West Coast and we got a second rounder, when Longer (pick 9) left for St.Kilda and we got pick 25, when Sam Docherty (pick 12) left for Carlton for pick 33 etc. No one was mourning our losses - more like picking off our carcass for their own benefit.

Sorry that I'm not raging about all these other clubs now having to overpay for their trade targets. We will have our down cycle too if we lose our current management and get some other newbies running the joint. Until then, we'll make hay while the sun shines.
 

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