When St Kilda president Andrew Bassat slammed the AFL draft rules surrounding academy and father-son prospects 12 months ago, he was derided by many as a whinger.
Today, after last night's AFL National Draft 2025 first round, it seems that the majority of the football world is in agreeance with Bassat's draft grievances.
In an extraordinary first round, the following anomalies occurred:
- Seven academy or father-son players were selected in the first round by clubs ahead of their draft order
- Gold Coast selected four academy players in the top 20
- Four academy players featured in the top six players
- Richmond had pick 3, but wasn't able to select until pick 7 because of clubs taking their academy players
The main gripes about the first round of the draft centre around the sheer quantity of academy and father-son picks - meaning the draft is compromised in regards to final ladder position of 2025.
Gold Coast were the big winners, managing to secure a record four academy players in the top 20 - a pretty amazing haul considering they also snared Christian Petracca and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan during trade period.
Struggling Richmond were supposed to have the third pick but didn't end up picking until the seventh selection - as their pick was pushed by clubs matching their bids on academy and father-son players.
What Andrew Bassat said about the state of the AFL draft
“I won’t surprise too many (people) in the room by saying that we’ve been a relatively unsuccessful club through our 151-year history,” Bassat said at the Saints best and fairest in October 2024.
“Before I go on to talk about the system, there’s no doubt by far biggest single reason for our lack of success, has been our own agency.
“I will spend a minute talking about the system (father-son and academy picks), because it’s important I do so for two reasons – one, to talk about what we’re doing about it, but why I think this should galvanise us, rather than have us fearful.
“The system; it’s not a level playing field as we all know.
“The more I look at it, the system is designed to favour the wealthier clubs and designed to favour the northern clubs. Our role, is meant to be to make up the numbers, and not complain about it.
“In terms of what we’re doing about it, it’s fair to say that our club is sick and tired of meekly accepting its rubbish.
“We’re absolutely committed as a club to fight relentlessly, to ensure that we’re given a fairer opportunity for success.”
What changes are occurring to the academy and father-son draft rules?
Despite the derision directed at Bassat for his comments, it seems like the AFL agreed the draft system isn't fair by making some changes prior to AFL National Draft 2025.
These changes were:
- A 20 per cent discount on draft points required to match a bid was slashed to 10 per cent
- Any pick from 55 onwards is worth zero points, meaning clubs needed to acquire higher picks to match bids
- The points deficit clubs can into matching a bid has been lowered from 1,723 to 1,167.
There are expected to be further changes for the AFL National Draft 2026, with the following mooted, but not confirmed:
- Clubs might only be able to use two draft picks to match bids, meaning they can't hoard lower picks to get the job done
- The 10 per cent points discount (down from 20 per cent in 2024) could be completely wiped out
St Kilda's crusade to change draft rules bears fruit
It seems that most things St Kilda were campaigning about regarding AFL draft rules have come to fruition - after Bassat's demands for a fairer draft system.
Intriguingly, it seems like most of the football public has come around to agreeing to what Bassat was talking about after the most compromised draft in history.
Whingers or trailblazers?
You be the judge.