{"id":637072,"date":"2026-04-28T22:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637072\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:04:12","slug":"carlton-draft-the-six-local-clubs-to-welcome-former-afl-greats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637072\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlton Draft: The six local clubs to welcome former AFL greats"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carlton Draft has unveiled six local clubs spread across Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia as participants for the 2026 iteration of the concept,\u00a0which will see them draft a former AFL<\/a> legend for a special, one-off match day.<\/p>\n

The like of Gary Ablett<\/a> Jr will be joined by former teammate Gary Rohan<\/a>, while Josh Kennedy (WCE),\u00a0Lewis Jetta<\/a>,\u00a0Josh Gibson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Dyson Heppell<\/a> will all play in clashes under the theme of ‘rivalry’.<\/p>\n

The participating clubs in the 2026 Carlton Draft are:<\/p>\n

Tamworth Kangaroos and Tamworth Swans (AFL<\/a> North West NSW)
\nNewbridge FNC and Bridgewater FNC (Loddon Valley Football Netball League, VIC)
\nDenmark Walpole FC and Royals FC (Great Southern Football League, WA)<\/p>\n

Each of these rivalries has a history of fierce competition, while the clubs have faced recent challenges both on and off the field.<\/p>\n

Representatives from each club will travel to Melbourne next month for Draft Night, where they will welcome their newest recruit.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Carlton Draft playing pool features<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Ablett will take on Rohan; Heppell and Gibson will do battle, while teammates Kennedy and Jetta will stand opposite one another.<\/p>\n

Now in its fifth year, The Carlton Draft received over 160 entries from local football clubs across Australia, all vying for the chance to bring an AFL<\/a> legend through the doors.<\/p>\n

The Carlton Draft will take place on Thursday, 7 May at the Palace Hotel in Camberwell.<\/p>\n

Limited tickets are available to purchase at https:\/\/www.palacecamberwell.com.au\/#home-whats-on-section<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carlton Draft has unveiled six local clubs spread across Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-637072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}