Australian Football League draft

[1] The draft was introduced as an equalisation strategy in response to the increasing transfer fees and player salaries at the time, which in combination with declining attendances threatened to derail the league.

Since then, the rules associated with priority picks, zone allocations, the father–son rule, mid-year, pre-season and rookie drafts, expansion clubs concessions and trading of players and picks have been frequently changed, but the basic premise of draft being an equalisation measure to assist poorer performing teams has remained.

In the AFL draft, clubs receive picks based on the position in which they finish on the ladder during the season.

This was increased over the past few years due to concerns about school age players potentially having to leave home to play football interstate.

Under the rules in place since the 2012 season, priority draft picks are given out to struggling teams at the discretion of the AFL Commission.

This replaced a system in which a priority draft pick was automatically given to team whose win–loss record fell below a pre-defined value; this had become controversial, and there were accusations by commentators that teams out of finals contention would tank at the end of the season to gain access to the additional draft picks, although the AFL itself never brought such accusations against any club.

Note: Clubs that have existing links to NGA players are now unable to match bids inside the top 40 selections on the prospects they’ve developed due to a recent AFL rule change.

[6] Criteria are also in place for mother–son and mother–daughter rules, from such time that the children of AFLW players reach draft eligible age.

Only five number one picks have won a premiership (Drew Banfield, Des Headland, Luke Hodge, Tom Boyd and Cam Rayner).

Rookies are also available to be selected from overseas countries and players on the list do not count towards the salary cap.

Notable examples are Irish Tommy Walsh of Sydney; Canadian Mike Pyke of Sydney, a former rugby union international; and Americans Seamus McNamara and Mason Cox, both former college basketball players who were rookie listed by Collingwood.

Jack Watts , the first pick of the 2008 AFL Draft , was drafted at the age of 17. Effective from the next year, players must be at least 18 years of age on 31 December to be eligible to be drafted
Travis Johnstone , the first pick of the 1997 AFL draft , was drafted with a priority draft pick
Dustin Fletcher , the son of Ken Fletcher has played the most games of any father–son selection, with 400 AFL matches played
Abbie McKay , the daughter of Andrew McKay , was the first player to be selected under the father–daughter rule
Luke Hodge , the first pick in the 2001 AFL draft . Hodge has played the most VFL/AFL games of any number-one draft pick (346 games played), is the only number-one draft pick to win a Norm Smith Medal , is one of just four number-one draft picks to have won a premiership, and has won the most premierships of any number-one draft pick (4)
Isabel Huntington , the first pick in the 2017 AFL Women's draft . Huntington is the first number-one draft pick to be selected for the AFL Women's All-Australian team , the first number-one draft pick to be selected for the AFL Women's 22 Under 22 team , and the first number-one draft pick to win the AFL Women's Rising Star award
Luke Breust holds the record for most AFL games played by a player recruited from the rookie draft, with 300 matches and counting.