{"id":58034,"date":"2021-04-14T15:03:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T15:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=58034"},"modified":"2021-04-14T16:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T16:57:00","slug":"afl-to-weigh-up-an-additional-mid-year-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=58034","title":{"rendered":"AFL to weigh up an additional mid-year draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL<\/a> will consider incorporating a second mid-season draft during the 2022 season in order to help teams cope with injuries, according to football operations boss Steve Hocking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After being shelved for the 2020 season due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mid-season draft will return this year after it was introduced back in 2019.<\/p>\n

Some teams have already reaped the benefits of their 2019 picks with John Noble (Collingwood), Will Snelling (Essendon), Marlion Pickett<\/a> (Richmond) and Ryan Gardner (Western Bulldogs) all mainstays in their respective teams.<\/p>\n

"It's a really good discussion to have," Hocking told Nine's Footy Classified<\/em> of the prospect of a second mid-season draft.<\/p>\n

\"Marlion<\/p>\n

"It's only been in operation one year, which was 2019, obviously in 2020 due to COVID-19 situation it impacted that so we parked it for the year. <\/p>\n

"It's back in place this year. It seems there's some clubs that are very keen to get to it. <\/p>\n

"We'll analyse it this year and we'll get to the end of the year and if there does need to be any adjustment we can certainly make it into 2022."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyonNine\/status\/1382319765918605313<\/a><\/p>\n

Hocking also said the AFL was looking into the prospect of elevating state-level competitions such as the VFL, saying the "future is endless" for the second-tier competitions.<\/p>\n

Former Fremantle and St Kilda coach Ross Lyon praised the idea of a second mid-year draft. Lyon believes the additional draft as well as elevated state competitions will help the AFL avoid losing kids to rival codes.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

"To me, you need renewal and members need to see that you can bring someone in and your season is alive," he told Footy Classified<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"So for Gold Coast, clearly a ruckman, and then there's an opportunity for young players. <\/p>\n

"I love the talk about elevating the VFL because it is about retention. Some young fellas go, 'Oh I didn't get drafted and the VFL, it's a bit Mickey Mouse, I'll just head off to Montmorency and play with my mates'. <\/p>\n

"If you can elevate it and give it some real profile, we'll get all those juniors back and continue to get more AFL players into the system. <\/p>\n

"AFL lists have to shed four players a year to get their draftees. I know there's been players that I didn't want to de-list, but we had to have three picks in the draft. So they get pushed out to the VFL, SANFL or WAFL, so those players are there." <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here! <\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AFL will consider incorporating a second mid-season draft during the 2022 season in order to help teams cope with injuries, according to football operations […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58036,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58034\/revisions\/58036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}