AFL Draft explainer: Everything you need to know

The Telstra AFL Draft is rapidly approaching, with the Hawks set to welcome new faces to the club this week.

The draft commences on Wednesday 20 November and concludes on Thursday 21 November, with the rookie and pre-season draft to follow on Friday 22 November. 

Check out everything you need to know below. 

What is the Telstra AFL Draft?

First held in 1986, the AFL's national draft is the main way clubs add players to their lists, alongside the trade period and free agency.

The bulk of the players picked up in the national draft are school leavers who have or will turn 18 this year, who are ready for their first shot at the big time.

But any player 18 years or older can nominate for the draft, meaning some players nominate multiple years in a row before finally being drafted.

When is it?

This year's national draft will be held over two nights on Wednesday 20 November and Thursday 21 November, with the rookie draft and pre-season draft (more on them later) to be held the following afternoon on Friday 22 November.

The first night of the national draft will be an in-person live event at Marvel Stadium.

How can I watch?

The 2024 Telstra AFL Draft will be broadcast live on AFL.com.au and the AFL Live Official App from 6.45pm AEDT on Wednesday, November 20 and Thursday, November 21. 

Fox Footy and Kayo will begin their coverage from 7pm AEDT.

What picks do the Hawks have? 

The Hawks will take Picks 33, 70 and 75 into this year's draft. 

The draft order

In basic terms, the draft order is determined by reverse ladder position. The team at the bottom of the ladder - which this year was Richmond - gets the No.1 pick, the second-last team gets the No.2 pick, and so on. Once each club has had one pick - theoretically after 18 picks - it all starts again, with the bottom-placed team picking again.

Each block of 18 picks is called a 'round', which is where terms like 'first-round pick' and 'second-round pick' come from. The rounds continue until clubs no longer want to draft players. 

However, the final draft order doesn't quite reflect reverse ladder position and can change quite significantly based on compensation picks, bids matched on Academy players and deals done both in the trade period and on draft night - more on all of these later - so it ends up looking quite different. You can check out the current draft order here.

Rounds of the draft, particularly the first round, also end up being much longer than 18 picks due to a number of factors ...

Free agency compensation picks

In 2012, the AFL introduced free agency, which is a way for players to move clubs without having to be traded. If a club loses a free agent to another club, they don't receive anything back in a trade. But that club is entitled to a free agency compensation pick in that year's draft, which is determined by the AFL.You can read more about free agency and the compensation method here.

When a compensation pick is awarded, the picks after it all move back one spot. For example, St Kilda received Pick 8 in this year's draft as compensation for losing Josh Battle to Hawthorn. It meant Essendon's Pick 8 became Pick 9, Fremantle's Pick 9 became Pick 10 and so on.

In 2024, there were four free agency compensation picks that pushed back every other pick in the draft order: St Kilda (pick 8 for losing Battle), GWS (pick 16 and pick 21 for losing Harry Perryman and Isaac Cumming) and Richmond (pick 42 for losing Jack Graham).

Making/matching a bid

The other factor that extends the length of rounds in the draft is when clubs match bids on father-son, Northern Academy and Next Generation Academy (NGA) players. You can read more on the father-son rule here and the NGA and Northern Academy rule here.

When it is a club's turn to pick on draft night, they are able to select any player available, even those tied to a rival club via the father-son or Academy rules. This is known as 'making a bid'. Once a bid is made on a player who is tied to a club via father-son or Academy rules, the club with that priority access must decide whether to 'match the bid'.

To match a bid, a club must give up draft picks that are of the equivalent value to the pick of the club that made the bid. Every pick in the draft is allocated a points value through the Draft Value Index (DVI), which you can see here. Under the current DVI, pick No.1 is worth 3000 points and it goes all the way down to pick 73, which is worth nine points (every pick after that is worth nothing).

Clubs also get a discount on the points required to match a bid, which also needs to be factored in. There is a 20 per cent discount for matching bids in the first round and then the discount is fixed at 197 points.

If a club makes a bid with pick 1, which is worth 3000 points, the other club needs to give up picks worth a combined 2400 points (3000 points, less 20 per cent) in order to match the bid and secure the player. This could come in any number of combinations: picks 10, 20 and 64 (worth a cumulative 2408 points) would be enough, as would picks 15, 30, 35 and 60 (worth 2409 points).

Next Generation Academy changes

The NGA bidding system for 2024 will have a notable change, which was announced by the AFL earlier this year.

Under the previous rule, clubs were only able to match a bid on an NGA player if the bid came outside the top 40 selections. If a bid came inside the top 40, clubs were not able to match the bid.

The rule change has removed the top 40 requirement, meaning clubs can match bids on NGA players at any stage of the draft.

Read about NGAs, the northern academies and more here.

Draft Value Index changes

The AFL announced this year that from 2025, the DVI and bidding system will look a lot different.

The 20 per cent discount will be reduced to 10 per cent and the new DVI will see points attached to only the first 54 picks (down from the current system of the first 73 picks).

There will be more than 10,000 points shaved off the value of the DVI across the board.

This has been done so clubs have to give up much more in order to match bids. Clubs would not be able to match by stocking up on middle-range draft picks, with the AFL keener for them to have to pay a fairer price for father-son and academy players. It will also make it far more difficult to match multiple bids on players in the same draft.

There will also be a change to the deficit limit for clubs matching bids on father-son and Academy players.

Under the outgoing bidding system, clubs have had a points deficit limit at 1723 points, meaning they could only go that far into deficit to match bids. Any further and they would not be allowed to match a bid on a draftee.

The number was the equivalent of the total points attached to the group of picks assigned to the premiership team each year: No.18, 36, 54 and 72.

But with clubs heading into next year's model, they will have their new points deficit reduced to 1167 points, equal to pick 18 (836 points), 36 (317), 54 (14) and 72 (0) in the new model.

Why are there three drafts?

Three days, three different drafts - the national, the pre-season and the rookie. So what's the difference?

Broadly for players, there's little difference when and how they get drafted. The different drafts are mainly for clubs as they navigate complex rules surrounding the salary cap and list sizes to build their squad for the upcoming season.

The rookie draft

The rookie draft, held the afternoon after the national draft finishes, is a much shorter affair, with an average of 24 selections taken in the past three rookie drafts.

Players taken here are added to a club's rookie list, rather than the senior list. The main difference here is the rookie player's base salary of $100,000 is not included in the club's salary cap. If a rookie-listed player is paid more than the base, the extra money is included in the cap.

It used to be that rookie-listed players had to be upgraded to the senior list in order to play at AFL level. But that is no longer the case, so being on the rookie list doesn't make much of a difference for the player.

Clubs have recently used the rookie draft to 're-draft' players they have recently delisted. Under AFL rules, clubs must have at least three list senior list vacancies in order to take part in the national draft. Before the national draft, clubs will delist a player to open up a senior list spot, but commit to re-drafting that player in the rookie draft. This year, clubs have delisted a total of 16 players and committed to taking them in the rookie draft.

Other players taken in the rookie draft are primarily those who were overlooked in the national draft. During the national draft, you may hear about a club opting to wait for the rookie draft to pick up a player, rather than using up a primary list spot on them at the national draft.

The draft order for the rookie draft is reverse ladder position. It is not possible to trade and swap rookie draft picks.

The pre-season draft

The PSD was introduced as a way for uncontracted and delisted players to be drafted to a club they want to go to. But the introduction of free agency in 2012 has made the PSD all but redundant in an era when delisted players can move to a new home of their choice.

The PSD is often referenced during the trade period when trade negotiations for an uncontracted player reach an impasse. If a trade can't be struck, the player could instead fall out of contract and be picked up in the PSD, although that rarely happens in the modern era. You can read more about how the PSD can be used during the trade period here.

Live trading

Since 2018, clubs have been able to trade picks amongst themselves on draft night. Clubs have different needs at the draft so as the night progresses, some may be satisfied with what they have, while others might want more picks to get the players they want.

Clubs can secure themselves more high picks, or look to do a deal to get more future picks if they believe the draft group the next year suits their needs better.

It involves a lot of pre-planning but also happens in real time; if a player a club wants is taken by a rival on the night, that club might look to cash in for 12 months later by doing a trade involving future picks.

Future trading

As is the case in the trade period, clubs can trade picks both for this year's draft and next year's draft. Picks in next year's draft are known as future picks.

Because draft picks are tied to ladder position, we don't yet know what each club's picks in next year's draft will be. So there's a sense of gambling when future trading, because clubs are essentially betting on where they and their rivals will finish on the ladder next year.

Clubs plan years in advance so will know the strength of the 2025 group of draftees compared to the 2024 group. The 2024 group is considered particularly strong, so clubs have been less willing to give up 2024 picks for future picks this year than they have in previous years.

Future trading will go into overdrive next year when clubs are able to trade picks two years in advance.

'Moving up the board'

With live trading available, if a club is concerned a player they want to draft will be snapped up before their pick, they can 'move up the board' by doing a trade.

For example, in 2024, Adelaide had pick 11 but believed a rival would take West Australian talent Daniel Curtin before their pick. So they did a deal with GWS, trading picks 11, 15 and a future second-rounder in exchange for picks 8 and 17, ensuring they got Curtin with pick 8. The Giants then did a pick swap of their own with St Kilda to move up the board to get James Leake, which shifted Adelaide's future second-rounder to the Saints.

Catch the 2024 Telstra AFL Draft live on AFL.com.au and the AFL Live Official App from 6.45pm AEDT on Wednesday 20 November and Thursday 21 November, or Fox Footy/ Kayo from 7pm AEDT on both nights.