SEN news-breaker Sam McClure says that the long-rumoured live trading of listed players on AFL Draft night is a reality, and will be implemented in the near future.
It is already believed that the live trading of draft picks will be implemented for this year’s National Draft, with the AFL’s player movement group meeting likely to announce this change after their meeting for the year next Thursday.
However McClure says that this will only be the first phase of the group’s proposed changes to liven up draft night, with the US sport-inspired introduction of trading of listed players to serve as their next step.
“Phase two of player movement will see the ability for clubs on trade night to not only trade live picks, but to trade actual listed players,” he said on SEN’s Time On with Sam McClure
“This will transform draft night from a monotonous event that everyone tunes in to the first half-hour and then really takes their eyes off, into a spectacle full of drama and followed by every single person in the footy industry.
“This is a massive change. This is the AFL heading towards the American model, to the NBA and the NFL. The Players Association is going to have a big say in this and it is going to reduce the amount of years it will take for a player to become a free agent.
“This has been talked about for a long time and has been talked about for a long time, but I’m telling you right now ladies and gentlemen, this is happening.”
Under these changes, the AFL Draft, Trade Period and Free Agency Period would all be combined into one major event, rather than the draft taking place over a month after the end of the trade period.
The journalist for The Age used Carlton and Adelaide’s failed trade of star Bryce Gibbs in the 2016 Trade Period as an example of how trades could change in the future.
“Under this current model, they would have had much more of an incentive to trade Bryce Gibbs on actual draft night, given they would have had greater knowledge as to which players they would have received in return,” said McClure.
Listen to Sam McClure talking the AFL Draft on SEN's Time On below: