AFLW re-signings to begin on Monday, draft rules revealed
AFLW clubs will be able to re-sign players for 2024 from Monday, but other changes have been introduced ahead of December’s draft.
Clubs will be able to re-sign their AFLW players as soon as Monday, in a departure from the traditionally combined Sign and Trade period.
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has meant clubs will also be able to offer contracts that are longer than the previous maximum of two seasons.
In a big boost for players, the contracts will also be 12 months long, meaning they will continue to be paid over the off-season.
Instead of a signing window, the AFLW landscape will now move to a similar setting as the men’s competition, with players able to be re-signed at any point, with a set list lodgement date ahead of the draft.
The AFLW Draft has now been locked in for December 18, but the traditional post-draft signing period has changed.
Now renamed the Supplemental Selection Period (SSP), it has been shifted to begin on Monday, February 5.
Clubs do not have to completely fill their lists at the draft, and have the ability to hold open up to two spots for the SSP if they wish.
For players to be eligible for SSP, they must have nominated for and been overlooked in the draft, and can have nominated either their home state or national pools.
In the past, the post-draft signing period kicked off the day after the draft, and was for clubs to sign players who had nominated for another state but had been overlooked (e.g. Melbourne signing West Australian Sabreena Duffy).
The first “player movement” period will be for expansion clubs (Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney) able to sign underage academy players.
These players – who may include junior stars including Lauren Young, Shineah Goody and Laura Stone – will skip the draft entirely.
Clubs must use two picks in the draft itself (down from three in previous drafts), meaning if they wish to hold over two selections for SSP, they have to take four picks into the draft.
Expansion clubs’ pre-draft selections are not included as draft picks, and the four teams will still have to take the minimum two selections.
Live bidding for father-daughter selections and northern academies (Queensland and New South Wales) will occur for the first time within the draft.
The father-daughter bidding previously occurred a few days before the draft, clubs used to have to match bids with their next available selection, even if that next pick was 40 selections later. The pick used was revealed to the public during the draft, so the player could experience the process of having a proper announcement.
A change will see clubs now having to match bids within the same round, and if they do not have a pick remaining in that round, the player goes to the club which made the bid.
The minimum games requirement to be eligible for father-daughter is just one match.
Jemma Rigoni (Melbourne, daughter of Guy) and Charlotte Simpson (Geelong and St Kilda, daughter of Sean) are among those who could be in the running for father-daughter picks.
There will no longer be nomination zones within Queensland for Gold Coast/Brisbane (replaced by the live bidding), but North Melbourne’s alliance with Tasmanian players still stands.
There were not any nomination zones within New South Wales previously, with the bidding a new feature. The 2022 draft was simply first come, first served when it came to GWS and Sydney selecting players that had come through the academies.
Sydney was granted an extra three list spots for 2023 as part of the Priority Signing Period earlier this year, and that will drop to two for the 2024 season.
Port Adelaide was granted two extra list spots in 2023 to assist its development, but will revert to the traditional 30 next season.
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