While player movement has now stopped, clubs can still wheel and deal draft picks.
Here’s the latest Draft Intel, with five weeks to go.
MORE DRAFT NEWS: HOW THE TOP 12 PICKS COULD PLAY OUT
MORE TOP PICKS UP FOR SALE
A number of top-10 draft picks changed hands during the trade period.
Richmond nabbed pick 5 from Port Adelaide, Melbourne moved up from pick 6 to pick 4 and Sydney took possession of pick 6 from North Melbourne.
But we might not be done with trades of top-10 picks just yet.
Gold Coast (pick 8) and Greater Western Sydney (pick 9) have both indicated they would be open to moving their selections.
The Giants have a bit to weigh up, given there is a chance a bid will come on Academy midfielder Ethan Matthews before pick 9.
Port Adelaide still holds picks 7 and 12 – effectively enough to match a bid on NGA prospect Dougie Cochrane at pick 1.
But the Power have also suggested they would be open to shifting back picks a little, even if it meant taking a small points deficit into next year.
Port Adelaide holds three first-round picks in 2027 – its own, one tied to Richmond and one tied to Melbourne.
The Power have some talent coming through next year in father-son’s Louis Salopek and Tevita Rodan, along with NGA prospect Zemes Pilot.
Draft picks can be swapped both in the lead up to the draft on November 19 and 20, as well as live on the night.
WHY CLUBS ARE GIVING UP ON 2027
On the surface, it looked like Richmond sold the farm to secure a second top-five pick from Port Adelaide during the trade period.
But there was some sound reasoning behind handing over pick 22 this year and the club’s first, second and fourth-round picks in 2027.
The Under 17 Futures game on the morning of AFL Grand Final day is a good indication of the next wave of talent coming through and Tigers list boss Blair Hartley was left unsure where to look during that match at Whitten Oval last month.
Of the 46 players who took part, half are club-tied.
Additionally, Tasmania has picks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 in next year’s draft.
“You go through the Academy, father-son, Tasmania access and there’s 23 of the 46 on the field unavailable to us,” Hartley said this week.
“Then you take seven of the first 13 picks out of the draft and that’s 30 of the first 46 picks.
“What we’ve done and what we’ve tried to do getting in this draft, we’re excited about having picks two and five and getting ahead of Tasmania taking all the picks away from us.”
The Devils have already signed seven players who featured in that Under 17 Futures match – Axel Walsh, Angus Brown, Riley Stratford, Jake Miller, Griffin Barker and Baxter Sruk – along with Nate Jenkins who would have played if not for illness.
Other top talents likely to be taken out of next year’s draft pool include Essendon father-son Koby Bewick, Brisbane Lions Academy member Jackson Bridge, Port Adelaide father-son Louis Salopek, Port Adelaide NGA prospect Zemes Pilot and Hawthorn and Port Adelaide father-son Percy Burgoyne.
Tasmanian star Jake Beams – who won the best-on-ground medal for Team Mitchell in the match last month – is another the Devils can get access to, along with fellow Tasmanian’s Benji Russell and Max Gulliver.
PIES GIVE CLUES AROUND TOP PICK
Collingwood finished the trade period with its first-round pick still in hand as the Magpies prepare to make their first top-15 draft selection since Nick Daicos in 2021.
Currently pick 11 – which is likely to push out to pick 12 – the Magpies sit in an interesting part of the draft with a range of options.
Asked about those options on Wednesday, list boss Justin Leppitsch said the Pies were weighing up “a key who we can allow to develop” at either end of the ground, or “more of a running player” to assist Daicos and co.
Links have been drawn to Sam Gayfer, an athletic 194cm marking forward who is the nephew of 1990 Collingwood premiership player Mick Gayfer.
The Magpies also got a good look at 196cm key defender Clancy Snell during the year, with the Gippsland Power interceptor making a late-season VFL debut for the club.
As for midfield runners, West Australian Leo Steed would have to be in the mix if he is still on the board.
Steed met with 17 clubs at the draft combine, where he finished sixth in the 2km time trial and eighth in the agility test.
IS THIS NORTH’S BACK-UP PLAN AFTER FAILED MURRAY BID?
A Western Australian mature-age defender is firming to be drafted and shapes as a possible back-up plan for North Melbourne following their unsuccessful Nick Murray trade bid.
East Perth interceptor Jake Soutar’s breakout WAFL season culminated in an impressive WA state combine, clocking a 6 min 32-second 2km time trial and a 8.048-second agility run.
Soutar presents as a ready-made key defender for clubs in the back-half of the draft and has been interviewed by 14 clubs.
It is understood North Melbourne is one of three clubs that have had repeat interviews with Soutar, who averaged 16 disposals, nine intercepts and four intercept marks as East Perth’s best-and-fairest winner.
The Roos were unable to prise Murray from Adelaide during the trade period, but holds picks 33 and 49 in this year’s draft, which are right in Soutar’s range.
North Melbourne list manager Brady Rawlings said on Wednesday night that the Roos would consider key defensive options through the draft and pre-season supplementary period.
The leaping 190 centimetre defender told this masthead at the WA combine last Saturday he is “really hungry and desperate” to be drafted.
“I definitely think I can perform at the level,” Soutar said.
“(In my draft year), I don’t think I was as mature and professional as these 18-year-old boys are, having trained with them the last couple of weeks.
“I feel like it took me a while to mature and find my feet. I got a push from the senior boys at the club, and it’s put me in the position that I am now.”
THE FIRST-ROUND BOLTER WITH PLENTY OF FANS
A first-round draft bolter is continuing to win over clubs as a highly versatile player who has also interviewed well with a laid-back and bubbly personality.
Sandringham Dragons product Lochie Burrows met 15 clubs at the national draft combine earlier this month, with recruiters being left impressed after their 20 minute chats.
Burrows started the season as a midfielder-forward, which had always been his position through junior football.
However, an unexpected switch to halfback ahead of Vic Metro’s under-18 national championships campaign proved a turning point in Burrows’ season and saw him rocket up draft board.
Burrows’ first game in defence came in Vic Metro’s trial match against Vic Country before the championships in early June, where he racked up 22 disposals, nine marks and eight rebound 50s.
“I got told I was playing backline on the Thursday before the Saturday game,” Burrows said.
“I’d never played backline before. So, they just chucked me back there and see how it went, but it ended up going quite well.
“I wasn’t sure about it because we’d gone through a couple of trainings and I always trained as a midfielder, so I was ready for that and more prepared for that. So going into the backline was definitely a weird feeling, just not knowing exactly what to do.”
Burrows is combative defensively, but also boasts strong running power and speed on counter-attack.
“I look at different strengths of people’s games,” he said.
“I like looking at like Sam Durham’s toughness or like Jason Horne-Francis’s power as he runs through.”
Burrows has told clubs he is happy to play at either end, with opinions on his best spot still split.
“It’s pretty weird, because some of them (clubs) think I’m that more mid-forward, some of them think I’m more just a small forward and some think I’m a back,” Burrows said.
“It more depends wherever the team needs you.”
HOW DOGS PLAN TO LAND NGA FORWARD
The Western Bulldogs believe they still have the “flexibility” to shift draft picks as they search for enough points to match a bid on Next Generation Academy forward Khaled El Souki.
The trade for Zak Butters left the Dogs short on draft selections and a pick swap with the Brisbane Lions on Wednesday only went some of the way to accumulating enough points for El Souki.
The Bulldogs gained picks 42 and 53 from the Lions in exchange for a second-round pick in 2027, but those two selections are only worth 230 points.
If El Souki was to attract a bid at pick 25, the Dogs would require 590 points to match it.
However, the Bulldogs still hold their own first-round pick for 2027 as well as a second-round pick tied to Port Adelaide.
“With the future hand that we have, we’re able to read, react and understand what’s happening on draft night and even in the upcoming pick-swap period where we might be able to position ourselves to match Khaled,” Western Bulldogs Player Acquisition and Strategy Manager Michael Regan said.
“We’ve still got a great deal of flexibility.”
A 176cm livewire forward from the Western Jets, El Souki kicked 40 goals from 14 games in the Talent League this year.
He also booted three majors after receiving a late call-up to Footscray’s VFL side for a round 20 debut against North Melbourne.
El Souki met with eight clubs during the national draft combine earlier this month.
ACADEMY GUN WANTS TO GROW WESTERN SYDNEY FOOTY
Prized GWS academy prospect Ethan Matthews is determined to grow footy in western Sydney as the Giants edged closer to securing the potential top-10 selection during the trade period.
The Giants finished the home-and-away season with picks 7 and 30, but strengthened their draft hand by executing trades with Carlton and Brisbane, which led to them seizing the Lions’ pick 20.
With the Giants’ 12th-placed finish giving them a 10 per cent bidding discount, picks nine (1377 draft value index points) and 20 (787) allow them to match a bid as high as pick two (worth 2488 points) for the game-breaking midfielder while going into draft deficit.
A rare Giants Academy product from western Sydney, GWS had unsuccessfully appealed to the AFL midway through the year to list Matthews outside the bidding process, something Matthews described as “pretty cool”.
The Ingleburn and South West Sydney prospect, who was sidelined in the back-half of the season with a foot injury, has at least a dozen clubs across the year, which came as a surprise to him.
Speaking at the draft combine earlier this month, Matthews said rival clubs had quizzed him about potential bids.
“Clubs are hypothetical,” Matthews explained.
‘If we were to bid on you’, and clubs have said that academy bids haven’t stopped us in the past, we’ve bidded on people in the past.
“I won’t lie to you and say I don’t want to go to the Giants. I’ve been there since I was 12 and being able to build western Sydney footy and still be out there and head down to local games often and go to training would be really cool.
“So just being around this area would be super cool and playing for the Giants would be amazing. But if it’s someone else, that’s fine too. I’m a little bit nervous, but at the end of the day, it is what it is.”
The Giants have signalled their intent to Matthews, a diehard Collingwood fan through his Melbourne-born father, without making promises.
“They’ve been very optimistic and they’ve said to me, ‘they’ll do anything they can to get me’, and they’re really keen on me,” Matthews said.
“Obviously Giants would be ideal, but playing AFL footy at the end of the day is playing AFL footy.”
Such is the dearth of football numbers in the region, Matthews and his mates have been incentivised with “signing bonuses” to recruit talents from other sports.
“We’ve been given signing bonuses for going and getting kids. Dad will give you 20 bucks and get him across from basketball,” Matthews chuckled.
“But that’s what you’ve got to do. You don’t have the luxury of all the numbers as you would in Melbourne.
“So it’s been good to see it develop, and it’s definitely something I’m passionate about and would want to keep pursuing and bringing more numbers to the game.
“It’s all intertwined. It builds western Sydney footy. So the more people coming out to the Giants means the more people are watching the game, and the more people starting to play.”