The AFL pre-season draft is the drafting of uncontracted players to teams in the Australian Football League (AFL). The draft is conducted after the national draft and before the start of the next AFL season. It is conducted at the same time as the rookie draft. The pre-season draft is a place for any uncontracted players to nominate that missed the national draft or who were delisted after it was held.
The pre-season draft was first held in 1989, and more than 50 selections were made in each of its first five years.[1] However, its importance has gradually diminished over the time, and pre-season drafts are now routinely cancelled due to every club opting against making a selection.[2] It was considered that the pre-season draft only existed to protect the league from writs for restraint-of-trade,[3] but due to the introduction of free agency in 2012, there have been calls to scrap the pre-season draft and extend the free agency period.
Clubs receive selections in the draft based on where they finished on the AFL ladder during the year, generally in reverse order. Teams have the choice of whether to participate in the pre-season draft; many clubs fill their playing roster at the national draft, and hence do not participate in the pre-season draft. Also, unlike the national draft, picks in the pre-season drafts cannot be traded between clubs.
Historically, the pre-season draft has involved mostly recycled players. Until 2008, due to the standard players contract expiring at the end of November, players who did not wish to sign a new contract with their current club were forced to enter the pre-season draft if they were unable to be traded to another club during the trade week held prior to the national draft. There was no free agency in the AFL to allow uncontracted players to easily move clubs until after the 2012 season; delisted players had the option of nominating for either the national or pre-season drafts. In 2008, the rules were changed to also give uncontracted players the option of nominating for either draft.[4] However, the number of players being selected after being delisted or coming out of contract is diminishing, as most teams are not prepared to pick them ahead of younger players.[5]
The lack of free agency was a powerful bargaining tool during trade week, as the team with the first pick could refuse a trade for a current uncontracted player at another club, and then recruit the player that wants to join their team for free with the first pick in the pre-season draft without giving anything to the other club.[6] Conversely, the threat of losing a player for nothing into the pre-season draft could force a team to trade him for less than the player's true value.[7]
A total of 27 players have been selected at pick number one in the pre-season draft. Not every pre-season draft contains a number-one pick, as clubs may choose to pass on their selection for various list management reasons. As the pre-season draft was originally held towards the end of the pre-season in January or February, the naming of the draft is based on the following season. This is different from the naming of the national draft (which occurs in November), which is named according to the season just completed.
The following is a list of number-one pre-season draft picks since the draft's inception in 1989: