World Footy News

The AFL national and rookie drafts have been and gone – so what’s going on with this December 2nd draft? Well – for starters it’s conducted by AFL New Zealand. Tomorrow evening, 7pm Wednesday December 2nd, will see the draft take place live via social media. The draft can be followed on twitter (#AFLNZPremiership).

The draft is to allocate players to one of 4 competing teams in the 2016 AFL New Zealand Premiership. Captains have already been announced for the Northern Suns (James Kusel), Western Crows (Jared Court), Central Giants (David Rattenbury) and Southern Saints (Michael Boyce).

According to AFLNZ 106 players have signed on from regions spanning Northland to Otago. A further 30 players are planned to be added to the list subsequently to finalise the squads. The draft will involve the first 7 rounds of selections with 48 players across those selections to be added to the squads currently only including captains. The remainder of selections will take place in January after the completion of provincial matches.

The draft itself is an interesting process. There are 7 list categories:

Category 1 Auckland Senior
Players based in the Auckland region born 1997 or older
Category 2 Regional Senior
Players based in Canterbury, Wellington and Dunedin born 1997 or older (Flights required)
Category 3 Satellite Senior
Players based in satellite venues such as Northland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato born 1997 or older
Category 4 Auckland Academy
Players based in the Auckland region born 1998 or younger
Category 5 Regional Academy
Players based in Canterbury, Wellington and Dunedin born 1998 or younger (Flights required)
Category 6 Satellite Academy
Players based in satellite venues such as Northland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato born 1998 or younger
Category 7 Wild Card Entry
These players are not involved in the initial playing list and draft selection but are added through the following processes;
• Ongoing talent identification carried out through local, regional and national competitions
• Those players currently playing in regional leagues and yet to be listed
• Academy players for development purposes
• Overseas players dependent on availability

The initial 7 rounds of draft selections then follows a fairly simply matrix with either 4 or 8 players selected in each round and thus adding to 48 players to be selected.

And the Central Giants have the number 1 draft selection, although, again, it's not that simple - they have the number 1 selection from Category 1.

Round 1 Draft Picks
Will involve the selection of four players, one by each team.
• Central Giants Number 1 selection in Category 1
• Southern Saints Number 1 selection in Category 2 or 3
• Western Crows Number 1 selection in Category 4
• Northern Suns Number 1 selection in Category 5 or 6
Round 2 Draft Picks (Category 1 Auckland Senior)
Will involve the selection of eight players, two by each team.
• Northern Suns Selections 1 and 8 Category 1
• Western Crows Selections 2 and 7 Category 1
• Southern Saints Selections 3 and 6 Category 1
• Central Giants Selections 4 and 5 Category 1
Round 3 Draft Picks (Category 2 Regional & Category 3 Satellite Senior)
Will involve the selection of eight players, two by each team.
• Western Crows Selections 1 and 8 Category 2 & 3
• Northern Suns Selections 2 and 7 Category 2 & 3
• Central Giants Selections 3 and 6 Category 2 & 3
• Southern Saints Selections 4 and 5 Category 2 & 3
Round 4 Draft Picks (Category 4 Auckland Academy)
Will involve the selection of eight players, two by each team. • Southern Saints Selections 1 and 8 Category 4
• Central Giants Selections 2 and 7 Category 4
• Northern Suns Selections 3 and 6 Category 4
• Western Crows Selections 4 and 5 Category 4
Round 5 Draft Picks (Category 5 Regional & Category 6 Satellite Academy)
Will involve the selection of eight players, two by each team.
• Central Giants Selections 1 and 8 Category 5 & 6
• Southern Saints Selections 2 and 7 Category 5 & 6
• Western Crows Selections 3 and 6 Category 5 & 6
• Northern Suns Selections 4 and 5 Category 5 & 6
Round 6 Draft Picks (Category 7 Wild Card)
Will involve the selection of four players, one by each team.
• Northern Suns Selections 1 Category 7
• Western Crows Selections 2 Category 7
• Southern Saints Selections 3 Category 7
• Central Giants Selections 4 Category 7
Round 7 Draft Picks (Category 1 Auckland Senior)
Will involve the selection of eight players, two by each team.
• Western Crows Selections 1 and 8 Category 1
• Northern Suns Selections 2 and 7 Category 1
• Central Giants Selections 3 and 6 Category 1
• Southern Saints Selections 4 and 5 Category 1