On May 27th, the AFL will hold its first mid-season draft since 1993.
The original goal of the draft was to open the door for state league players who could fill immediate needs for an AFL team.
However, clubs are seemingly set to use it to give young players overlooked in recent drafts a six-month trial to see whether they’re good enough to be retained on their list long term.
There is a third category though. Quite a few ex-players, most of whom were delisted in previous seasons, have nominated for the draft with the hopes of getting a second or even third chance.
Over 60 have put their names down, including former top 10 draft picks Nathan Freeman, Kristan Jaksch, Jimmy Toumpas and Jonathan O’Rourke, veterans Michael Barlow, Alex Johnson and Heath Hocking and plenty of others.
Here’s a list of every ex-AFL player who has nominated for the mid-season draft:
Jonathon Beech (Adelaide)
Sam Siggins (Adelaide)
Matt Signorello (Adelaide)
Liam Dawson (Brisbane)
Josh Clayton (Brisbane)
Jonathan Freeman (Brisbane)
Matthew Hammelmann (Brisbane)
Tom Fields (Carlton)
Andrew Gallucci (Carlton)
Dillon Viojo-Rainbow (Carlton)
Jesse Glass-McCasker (Carlton)
Tom Bell (Carlton & Brisbane)
Sam McLarty (Collingwood)
Jackson Ramsay (Collingwood)
Jye Bolton (Collingwood)
Nathan Freeman (Collingwood & St Kilda)
Ben Kennedy (Collingwood & Melbourne)
Adam Oxley (Collingwood)
Corey Gault (Collingwood)
Heath Hocking (Essendon)
Jackson Merrett (Essendon)
Alex Morgan (Essendon & North Melbourne)
Brady Grey (Fremantle)
Matthew Uebergang (Fremantle)
Cameron Sutcliffe (Fremantle)
Michael Barlow (Fremantle & Gold Coast)
Josh Deluca (Fremantle)
Haiden Schloithe (Fremantle)
Ryan Murphy (Fremantle)
Luke Strnadica (Fremantle)
Thomas Read (Geelong)
Timm House (Geelong)
Cory Gregson (Geelong)
Ryan Gardner (Geelong)
Matt Shaw (Gold Coast & Carlton)
Mackenzie Willis (Gold Coast)
Max Spencer (Gold Coast)
Jesse Lonergan (Gold Coast)
Kristian Jaksch (GWS & Carlton)
Jonathan O’Rourke (GWS & Hawthorn)
Luke Surman (Hawthorn)
Kieran Lovell (Hawthorn)
Alex Woodward (Hawthorn)
Jake Spencer (Melbourne)
Jimmy Toumpas (Melbourne & Port Adelaide)
Dion Johnstone (Melbourne)
Mitch White (Melbourne)
Aaron Black (North Melbourne & Geelong)
Will Fordham (North Melbourne)
Declan Mountford (North Melbourne)
Mitchell Hibberd (North Melbourne)
Jesse Palmer (Port Adelaide)
Marlon Motlop (Port Adelaide)
Sam Colquhoun (Port Adelaide)
Andrew Moore (Port Adelaide & Richmond)
Will Snelling (Port Adelaide)
Nathan Drummond (Richmond)
Nick Coughlan (St Kilda)
Ray Connellan (St Kilda)
Alex Johnson (Sydney)
Jordan Foote (Sydney)
Harrison Marsh (Sydney)
Abe Davis (Sydney)
Sam Fisher (Sydney)
Luke Partington (West Coast)
Alec Waterman (West Coast)
Nathan Mullenger-McHugh (Western Bulldogs)