{"id":638319,"date":"2026-04-29T11:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638319\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:19:10","slug":"greg-swann-rejects-andrew-bassat-claim-new-draft-bidding-rules-to-spark-tanking-rule-changes-compensation-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638319\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Swann rejects Andrew Bassat claim new draft bidding rules to spark tanking, rule changes, compensation, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL executive general manager of football performance Greg Swann has flatly denied a St Kilda boss\u2019 brash claim on the league\u2019s new draft rules<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It came as the AFL\u2019s executive general manager of football performance featured on Wednesday night\u2019s edition of AFL 360 to talk through the key issues facing the competition. <\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swann and the league formally introduced a suite of changes ahead of this November\u2019s national draft, but it was the new compensation mechanism that drew the ire of Saints president Andrew Bassat. <\/p>\n

Starting from this year\u2019s draft, bottom-five clubs whose first-round pick slides due to matched bids on concessional players will receive a second-round compensation pick. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was to cover off things like what happened to Richmond last year – they started with Pick 2 and ended up picking at 7,\u201d Swann told Fox Footy on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that\u2019s adequate compensation, we just felt that they should get something for being shuffled, and that\u2019s the pick they\u2019ll get.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bassat claimed the new measure would \u201calmost certainly\u201d incentivise tanking to finish in the bottom five. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem that needed to be solved is the draft is incredibly compromised and they\u2019ve not only gone weak on the changes that were necessary to ensure fairer price, but they\u2019ve added new compromises in this new system,\u201d Bassat told AFL Media earlier on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is an error as we need less, not more, distortion and will be unwound in no time. It will lead to all sorts of issues, including almost certain tanking to ensure a bottom-five finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swann, though, was categorical in his rejection of that idea. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t agree with that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, nobody\u2019s going to go down the bottom to get a pick in the 20s. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not going to happen. I disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018Almost certain tanking\u2019: Fears grow with two clubs left fuming as AFL reveals big draft changes<\/a><\/p>\n

Bevo: ‘Strip it all back’ | 02:05<\/p>\n

The other major change confirmed at league headquarters on Wednesday was to the draft bidding system. <\/p>\n

From this year onwards, clubs are only permitted to use two picks to match any bid placed on a concession player. <\/p>\n

It means Port Adelaide and Carlton will have to pay up with two premium first-round choices when Dougie Cochrane (Power NGA) and Cody Walker (Blues father-son) inevitably attract top-five rival bids. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re furious. It is putting the V back in AFL,\u201d Port Adelaide chairman David Koch said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo change the rules so dramatically like this, and bring them in just months before the draft, rather than \u2026 ease them in over two or three years, we just bring them in, bang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the AFL had upset \u2018almost everybody\u2019 with the changes, Swann said: \u201cNot everybody, probably half. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m not saying that flippantly. I\u2019ve already seen the comments; \u2018it\u2019s too hard, it\u2019s too easy, it\u2019s unfair\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we flagged this in July last year that there were going to be changes \u2026 we probably would have liked to have landed it earlier, but it\u2019s landed where it has. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two parts. Once you got past the option of having an uncompromised draft \u2014 because you\u2019re dealing with father-sons, NGAs, northern academies \u2014 once it was established that they would remain, then it was about what was fair value. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the debate. It\u2019s about fair value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the current ladder, if Richmond bid on Cody Walker at Pick 1, Carlton would have to fork over Picks 3 and 27. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s doable,\u201d Swann said. \u201cIt\u2019s their own pick, and 27. That\u2019s doable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Swann joined AFL 360 on Wednesday night to talk through the big issues in the competition.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

Asked about whether the changes could have been deferred 12 more months, Swann said: \u201cThen there\u2019s someone else (a club-tied player). <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the problem. They (the Blues) had Harry Dean last year – it nearly got implemented last year – so they got Dean through the system. There was pressure from some clubs to do this last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we took longer to get it done \u2026 but if there\u2019s a grandfather clause (for the Power and Blues), there\u2019s somebody else\u2019s (club-tied prospect) coming. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve ripped the bandaid off \u2026 there\u2019s some that aren\u2019t happy about it, but we decided that was what was best for the majority of the clubs, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swann has been the subject of some criticism for introducing the rules after leaving Brisbane – which benefitted from the old ones by \u2018pick farming\u2019 to get their hands on the Ashcroft brothers in recent years. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew at the time in Brisbane that it was very generous that you could do that (stack lesser picks to match an early bid),\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Lyon grills Swann over stand rule | 02:21<\/p>\n

At a point in Swann\u2019s AFL 360 appearance, he and show co-host Garry Lyon became relatively emotive when discussing the contentious Ben Miller 50-metre penalty for not standing the mark last Friday. <\/p>\n

Swann had said at a Monday press conference that the right call was made in penalising Miller, who was made to stand Brody Mihocek\u2019s mark instead of running on alongside opponent Max Gawn. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, the issue was revisited. <\/p>\n

Lyon put to Swann: \u201c(Miller had) no involvement in the marking situation, he\u2019s against an opponent that he\u2019s been running with for 40 metres, and he\u2019s expected to come back and stand that mark, and let Max Gawn go. We can\u2019t have that in footy, Swanny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swann paused for a moment, before saying: \u201cHe is expected, because he\u2019s in that protected zone. You stop, like George Wardlaw did the other night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyon replied: \u201cSo, you let Max Gawn (go) and give him a free run inside forward 50?\u201d<\/p>\n

Swann: \u201cYou have to. That\u2019s part of it. You stand, otherwise everyone just starts running off the mark again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyon: \u201cDo you think that\u2019s a good look for the game?\u201d<\/p>\n

Swann conceded: \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal, but as I said the other day, they call \u2018stand\u2019 200 times a game. There\u2019s less than one free kick paid (on average), so that\u2019s an outlier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL executive general manager of football performance Greg Swann has flatly denied a St Kilda boss\u2019 brash claim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,300000,64,63,689,55,639,27764,309067,309060,651,309061,1653,309069,309065,309057,64596,191484,309063,166599,309062,3674,309059,43056,10145,107302,14414,309066,6278,2536,3231,31027,663,309064,12097,677,309056,6082,701,19545,309068,1124,85,28264,309058,278633,698],"class_list":["post-638319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-andrew-bassat","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-miller","tag-bottom-five-finish","tag-brash-claim","tag-brisbane","tag-club-president","tag-cody-walker","tag-compensation-mechanism","tag-concession-player","tag-concessional-players","tag-david-koch","tag-draft-bidding","tag-draft-bidding-rules","tag-draft-bidding-system","tag-draft-rules","tag-fair-value","tag-first-round-pick-slides","tag-football-performance","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gary-lyon","tag-george-wardlaw","tag-grandfather-clause","tag-greg-swann","tag-harry-dean","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-league-headquarters","tag-luke-beveridge","tag-marking-situation","tag-max-gawn","tag-oceania","tag-pick-farming","tag-port-adelaide","tag-queensland","tag-saints","tag-second-round-compensation-pick","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-stand-rule","tag-top-five-rival-bids","tag-ump-call","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638319","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=638319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}