The new points bidding system, which will be used for the first time in tonight's draft has a lot of people confused. So here's an explanation of how it all works.
The AFL has attempted to solve a long time problem over father-son selections and now also academy selections.
It seems ridiculous that the likes of Gary Ablett, Tom Hawkins and Matthew Scarlett were selected in the 40s and 50s as father-son recruits.
The northern states' academy selections have also been frowned upon. Under the old system, a club could bid for another club's academy player. Then if the club who had the player in their academy still wanted the player and chose to match the bid, then it could do so with their next pick.
For example, last season, Melbourne made a bid for Isaac Heeney with pick No. 2. Sydney then matched the first round selection and picked up Heeney with pick No. 18. However, as we know, Heeney is worth a far better pick than pick No. 18.
So to fix the problem, the AFL has introduced the points bidding system.
How it works is that each draft pick is worth a certain amount of points.
Pick No. 1 is worth 3000 points, pick No. 2 worth 2517 points, pick No. 3 is worth 2234 points (Scroll down to see the full list of points).
Each club can make a bid for an academy player or a father-son player. Then, if, for example Sydney wish to match the bid for one of their academy players, they must pay what the pick is worth, otherwise the bidding team receives the player.
For example, if Melbourne had bid for Isaac Heeney with pick No. 2 this season, the Swans cannot simply use their next selection in the draft to obtain him. What they will instead have to do is pay the 2517 points that the No. 2 pick is worth. They would obtain the points by cashing in other picks that almost add up to the same value. So last year Sydney would have had to give up pick 18, 37, 38 and 57 to get Heeney. However, club's get a 20% discount on the pick when matching an offer.
Then on the night of the draft, Sydney climbs to pick No. 2, nabs Heeney and all other clubs move down one pick in the draft order.
Points values for each pick.
1 — 3000
2 — 2517
3 — 2234
4 — 2034
5 — 1878
6 — 1751
7 — 1644
8 — 1551
9 — 1469
10 — 1395
11 — 1329
12 — 1268
13 — 1212
14 — 1161
15 — 1112
16 — 1067
17 — 1025
18 — 985
19 — 948
20 — 912
21 — 878
22 — 845
23 — 815
24 — 785
25 — 756
26 — 729
27 — 703
28 — 677
29 — 653
30 — 629
31 — 606
32 — 584
33 — 563
34 — 542
35 — 522
36 — 502
37 — 483
38 — 465
39 — 446
40 — 429
41 — 412
42 — 395
43 — 378
44 — 362
45 — 347
46 — 331
47 — 316
48 — 302
49 — 287
50 — 273
51 — 259
52 — 246
53 — 233
54 — 220
55 — 207
56 — 194
57 — 182
58 — 170
59 — 158
60 — 146
61 — 135
62 — 123
63 — 112
64 — 101
65 — 90
66 — 80
67 — 69
68 — 59
69 — 49
70 — 39
71 — 29
72 — 19
73 — 9
Picks 74 and onwards — 0