The AFL Pre-season Draft is the drafting of uncontracted players to teams in the Australian Football League. The draft is conducted after the National AFL Draft and before the start of the next AFL season. It is conducted at the same time as the AFL rookie draft. The pre-season draft is a place for any uncontracted players to nominate that missed the AFL Draft or who were delisted after the main draft. It was first held in 1989 and has been diminishing greatly in its importance; the last five years have only averaged 8 selections per year, compared to over 50 in each of the first five years. It was considered that the pre-season draft only existed to protect the league from writs for restraint-of-trade, 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.
Read more about AFL Pre-season Draft: Eligibility, Players
Famous quotes containing the word draft:
“Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)