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

[Lore]

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.

Spoiler: 2024 DVI

Round	Pick	Pick value	Bid match requirement	Equivalent pick
Round 1	1	3000	2400	2
Round 1	2	2517	2014	4
Round 1	3	2234	1787	5
Round 1	4	2034	1627	7
Round 1	5	1878	1502	8
Round 1	6	1751	1401	9
Round 1	7	1644	1315	11
Round 1	8	1551	1241	12
Round 1	9	1469	1175	13
Round 1	10	1395	1116	14
Round 1	11	1329	1063	16
Round 1	12	1268	1014	17
Round 1	13	1212	970	18
Round 1	14	1161	929	19
Round 1	15	1112	890	20
Round 1	16	1067	854	21
Round 1	17	1025	820	22
Round 1	18	985	788	23
Round 2	19	948	751	25
Round 2	20	912	715	26
Round 2	21	878	681	27
Round 2	22	845	648	28
Round 2	23	815	618	30
Round 2	24	785	588	31
Round 2	25	756	559	32
Round 2	26	729	532	34
Round 2	27	703	506	36
Round 2	28	677	480	37
Round 2	29	653	456	38
Round 2	30	629	432	39
Round 2	31	606	409	41
Round 2	32	584	387	42
Round 2	33	563	366	43
Round 2	34	542	345	45
Round 2	35	522	325	46
Round 2	36	502	305	47
Round 3	37	483	286	49
Round 3	38	465	268	50
Round 3	39	446	249	51
Round 3	40	429	232	53
Round 3	41	412	215	54
Round 3	42	395	198	55
Round 3	43	378	181	57
Round 3	44	362	165	58
Round 3	45	347	150	59
Round 3	46	331	134	61
Round 3	47	316	119	62
Round 3	48	302	105	63
Round 3	49	287	90	65
Round 3	50	273	76	66
Round 3	51	259	62	67
Round 3	52	246	49	69
Round 3	53	233	36	70
Round 3	54	220	23	71
Round 3	55	207	10	72
Round 3	56	194	nil	any
Round 4	57	182
Round 4	58	170
Round 4	59	158
Round 4	60	146
Round 4	61	135
Round 4	62	123
Round 4	63	112
Round 4	64	101
Round 4	65	90
Round 4	66	80
Round 4	67	69
Round 4	68	59
Round 4	69	49
Round 4	70	39
Round 4	71	29
Round 4	72	19
Round 4	73	9

Spoiler: 2025 and beyond DVI

Round	Pick	Pick value	Bid match requirement	Equivalent pick
Round 1	1	3000	2700	1
Round 1	2	2481	2233	2
Round 1	3	2178	1960	4
Round 1	4	1962	1766	5
Round 1	5	1795	1616	6
Round 1	6	1659	1493	7
Round 1	7	1543	1389	8
Round 1	8	1443	1299	9
Round 1	9	1355	1220	10
Round 1	10	1276	1148	11
Round 1	11	1205	1085	12
Round 1	12	1140	1026	13
Round 1	13	1080	972	15
Round 1	14	1024	922	16
Round 1	15	973	876	17
Round 1	16	924	832	18
Round 1	17	879	791	19
Round 1	18	836	752	20
Round 2	19	796	712	21
Round 2	20	757	673	22
Round 2	21	721	637	23
Round 2	22	686	602	24
Round 2	23	653	569	25
Round 2	24	621	537	26
Round 2	25	590	506	27
Round 2	26	561	477	28
Round 2	27	533	449	30
Round 2	28	505	421	31
Round 2	29	479	395	32
Round 2	30	454	370	33
Round 2	31	429	345	34
Round 2	32	405	321	35
Round 2	33	382	298	36
Round 2	34	360	276	38
Round 2	35	338	254	39
Round 2	36	317	233	40
Round 3	37	297	nil	any
Round 3	38	277
Round 3	39	257
Round 3	40	238
Round 3	41	220
Round 3	42	202
Round 3	43	184
Round 3	44	167
Round 3	45	150
Round 3	46	134
Round 3	47	118
Round 3	48	102
Round 3	49	86
Round 3	50	71
Round 3	51	57
Round 3	52	42
Round 3	53	28
Round 3	54	14
Round 3	55	0
Round 3	56	0

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.

Spoiler: 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.

 

[hammer180]

What kept teams on the bottom of the ladder pre-academies.

Lack of talent on the list, how did they get better being able to access high end talent to get better.

 

[Elixuh]

Lack of talent on the list, how did they get better being able to access high end talent to get better.

The academy talent didn’t exist and there was next to no talent coming out of NSW and Qld. Yet teams stayed in the bottom of the ladder. Teams went up the ladder.

 

[Dockeroo]

The academy talent didn’t exist and there was next to no talent coming out of NSW and Qld. Yet teams stayed in the bottom of the ladder. Teams went up the ladder.

Teams didn’t stay as long at the bottom or the top either pre academies.
We now have sides bottom 4 for five or six years straight.

Conversely Your own club could play finals for another 8 years or so. That would be 15 years in a row but of course your one eyed supporters would see nothing wrong with that.

 

[Elixuh]

Teams didn’t stay as long at the bottom or the top either pre academies.
We now have sides bottom 4 for five or six years straight.

Conversely Your own club could play finals for another 8 years or so. That would be 15 years in a row but of course your one eyed supporters would see nothing wrong with that.

Is it a problem that Geelong has played finals almost every year for almost 20 years

 

[mpal6]

How do you make a level playing field when some clubs have access to significantly more young players than the other clubs?

Well we've been asking the same question as interstate clubs when first round picks put their preference to stay home in Victoria rather than get drafted elsewhere. Made West Coast trade out instead of getting your sheezels or wardlaws. It was convenient to 10 vic clubs so draftees were encouraged to "speak their mind and express their feelings". The word "brave" was thrown around a lot. The reason you're all wound up is now interstate talent via academy is starting to stack up and clubs like gold coast are starting to benefit from it in a big way. Not to mention lions luck changing with our father sons too over last 3 years. That's what has triggered the knee jerk inequality argument. There was no one arguing the inequality side when vic kids chose to stay home.

 

[mpal6]

And many sons have gone through banners with their fathers on game days.

Far longer attachment to their club than a bunch of academy kids appearing at junior levels.

Didn't affect Cooper Hodge for example. Seems to prefer Lions over Hawks and is a Lions supporter apparently.

Ashcrofts for example would've been drafted by Gold Coast if Marcus didnt have a fallout and left the club. I bet you if Lions lost those 2 to suns there wouldn't be a peep in Victoria. It would've been considered "good for the game" just like when we lost Marc Murphy or Blakey.

 

[mpal6]

Teams didn’t stay as long at the bottom or the top either pre academies.
We now have sides bottom 4 for five or six years straight.

Conversely Your own club could play finals for another 8 years or so. That would be 15 years in a row but of course your one eyed supporters would see nothing wrong with that.

We stayed in bottom half 9 years straight from 2010 to 2018. Drafted players left, established players were picked off, compromised drafts for Gold Coast and GWS added to our spell.

We came out of that misery phase and now on a upswing primarily with drafting (rayner, bailey, McCluggage, berry, wilmot, lohmann, starcevich, morris), father sons giving us a good boost on top (ashcsrofts fletcher) and to a lesser extent academies (hipwood, Andrews, payne, reville, brain, Coleman).

Winning and playing finals attract more talent from other clubs and we are able to prolong the cycle.

It's no different to Hawks bottoming out, rebuilding and once they got back to finals were able to attract battle and barrass.. not to mention talking to Merrett now, Butters Harley Reid and Allen earlier.

 

[hammer180]

The academy talent didn’t exist and there was next to no talent coming out of NSW and Qld. Yet teams stayed in the bottom of the ladder. Teams went up the ladder.

Do you think there is a point in time where the academies shouldn't be club run so those players can be put into the open pool?
I have more of an issue with fatherson then academy because it's reasonable to say this kid never would have played afl if it wasn't for this academy etc.

 

[Stamos]

Have we fixed it yet?

Largely, yes.

 

[Ashman23]

 

[Elixuh]

Do you think there is a point in time where the academies shouldn't be club run so those players can be put into the open pool?
I have more of an issue with fatherson then academy because it's reasonable to say this kid never would have played afl if it wasn't for this academy etc.

In an ideal world the academy would never have been tied to a club and would be entirely funded and run by the AFL. But it makes no sense to do that given how cost prohibitive it is and the existing clubs already have all the infrastructure etc. I suspect it also strengthens it to have the pathway aligned to an AFL club.

Having club run academies is the best of the options reasonably available imo.

I think in another 5-15 years the model could maybe change to the AFL bankrolling the entire thing at which time there should be next to no matching power. We would still run them but wouldn’t have any resource implications past personnel and use of infrastructure. And even that should be financially accounted for as though you’re a third party renting the facilities etc.

The goal is to do whatever is needed to get quantity of afl players coming out of Qld and NSW.

What St Kilda and Freo offer is complaints with no solutions to this.

 

[Membling]

I mean, easiest solution would be to divvy up nsw and qld with all clubs give a catchment area to foster the best talrnt in that region.

Solves nsw/qld development, whilst enabling and rewarding clubs for fostering talent in the area.

 

[Elixuh]

I mean, easiest solution would be to divvy up nsw and qld with all clubs give a catchment area to foster the best talrnt in that region.

Solves nsw/qld development, whilst enabling and rewarding clubs for fostering talent in the area.

It’d have to be accompanied by minimum spend/investment and other kpis with penalties for non-compliance to avoid it becoming NGA2.0 where it’s just bare minimum spend for most clubs. I also wonder how other clubs would get the proper infrastructure in place unless they align with a local club.

I suspect most clubs won’t want to fund and run something which at the end of the day will still advantage the northern clubs with the pull home / not wanting to be drafted interstate.

 

[briztoon]

I mean, easiest solution would be to divvy up nsw and qld with all clubs give a catchment area to foster the best talrnt in that region.

Solves nsw/qld development, whilst enabling and rewarding clubs for fostering talent in the area.

Sure, if we get a slice of Victoria in return. Most Lions fans would probably be happy with Warrnambool and surrounds.

 

[Bostonian]

Didn't affect Cooper Hodge for example. Seems to prefer Lions over Hawks and is a Lions supporter apparently.

Ashcrofts for example would've been drafted by Gold Coast if Marcus didnt have a fallout and left the club. I bet you if Lions lost those 2 to suns there wouldn't be a peep in Victoria. It would've been considered "good for the game" just like when we lost Marc Murphy or Blakey.

Cooper Hodge shouldn't have been eligible for the academy.

He should be a father son only.

 

[Membling]

It’d have to be accompanied by minimum spend/investment and other kpis with penalties for non-compliance to avoid it becoming NGA2.0 where it’s just bare minimum spend for most clubs. I also wonder how other clubs would get the proper infrastructure in place unless they align with a local club.

I suspect most clubs won’t want to fund and run something which at the end of the day will still advantage the northern clubs with the pull home / not wanting to be drafted interstate.

Use it or lose it. If a club doesn't want to develop it then it loses it and it reverts to the former academy club.

Sure, if we get a slice of Victoria in return. Most Lions fans would probably be happy with Warrnambool and surrounds.

SImply get rid of all other nga zones and only allow northern one.

Once gets to critical mass, pathway reverts to AFL for funding and open draft.

 

[Atomboy]

In an ideal world the academy would never have been tied to a club and would be entirely funded and run by the AFL. But it makes no sense to do that given how cost prohibitive it is and the existing clubs already have all the infrastructure etc. I suspect it also strengthens it to have the pathway aligned to an AFL club.

Having club run academies is the best of the options reasonably available imo.

I think in another 5-15 years the model could maybe change to the AFL bankrolling the entire thing at which time there should be next to no matching power. We would still run them but wouldn’t have any resource implications past personnel and use of infrastructure. And even that should be financially accounted for as though you’re a third party renting the facilities etc.

The goal is to do whatever is needed to get quantity of afl players coming out of Qld and NSW.

What St Kilda and Freo offer is complaints with no solutions to this.

I imagine we’ve got solutions but they’ll probably make your head explode.

 

[Elixuh]

I imagine we’ve got solutions but they’ll probably make your head explode.

Does it involve St Kilda bringing out its begging bowl?

 

[Elixuh]

Cooper Hodge shouldn't have been eligible for the academy.

He should be a father son only.

He’d need to live in Melbourne to give himself the best opportunity then

 

[Elixuh]

Use it or lose it. If a club doesn't want to develop it then it loses it and it reverts to the former academy club.



SImply get rid of all other nga zones and only allow northern one.

Once gets to critical mass, pathway reverts to AFL for funding and open draft.

I think the fact that no VFL club has come out chomping at the bit to get a zone up north says something.

 

[Atomboy]

Does it involve St Kilda bringing out its begging bowl?

Involves you losing your silver spoon

 

[Elixuh]

Involves you losing your silver spoon

Is the idea that the spoon will be put into St Kildas begging bowl?

 

[Atomboy]

Is the idea that the spoon will be put into St Kildas begging bowl?

I imagine we can do away with both.

 

[Elixuh]

I imagine we can do away with both.

It’s part of your identity though. Your DNA.

 

[Atomboy]

It’s part of your identity though. Your DNA.

If begging for an even comp is part of our DNA then I’ll take it.