Ha, well part of my last job was running the research program for the organisation so I got used to designing and running surveys.
I believe this was discussed last time around ,we had 4 delistments but this penalised the teams that liked to trade. If a coach did 1 trade, two trades , 3 trades etc... no matter what plus 4 delistments that's harsh ! Trades would be at a bare minimum thus taking out half the fun of too serious
I can't see the logic in this at all. Coaches make trades to improve their list. Why would being forced to make delistments deter coaches from trading? "oh I've already had to drop my 4 worst players, if I trade too that will really hurt me" I don't get it.
Haven't searched the forum but fairly sure that's what happened when we first introduced 4 delistments before we moved to 4 player changes.
I know we've got rule votes coming up. Just wanted to add a couple for consideration. 1. Reduce the time between draft picks to 6 hours maximum, with a shutdown period between midnight and 6am. Slow drafting just creates more slow drafting, as coaches stop checking in so often. It would be great to have more coaches visiting the site frequently throughout draft periods, to potentially increase trade activity. 2. As previously discussed, removing the compulsory delist number for the season. I don't believe the rule is achieving what it was set out to. Of the 61 players delisted in the 2024 PSD and 40 players delisted in the 2024 MSD, how many have been re-drafted? A handful and often late in drafts?
We have to come back around to discuss trading / drafting / list turnover rules. I'm going to throw another random idea out there - a rapid-fire second PSD. Basically, run everything as we currently do (or choose to change in the future), and then add a second PSD in the week before the AFL season begins. Make it like a last-chance top-up before the season, with the order the same as the PSD (based on last season's ladder order), and a maximum of 2 picks per club (so 36 picks total). Any coach can delist up to 2 players each, and start offering trades immediately (but only for the current draft, these picks can't be future traded). Each pick has a time limit of 2h on it, between 7am Western time and 7pm Western time (to not disadvantage coaches either way), and is forfeited to the end of the draft if exceeded (for whatever reason). My thought is drafting is fun, trading is fun, and being quick is good for things. Plus it'll give everyone a last-gasp chance to make changes to their team (moving towards multiple windows per season, but not completely). Yeah, it may diminish the quality of the MSD, but it could go in reverse, because there's still 12-odd weeks of AFL footy to find new prospects before the MSD starts. Just an idea...
I've pointed this out before but I'll reiterate, we don't have a delist rule and I'm pretty sure we never have. We have a minimum list turnover rule and we once had a minimum number of draft picks rule. We do not have a delist rule. A delist rule is logically the only one of these options that would actually be of any benefit to equalising the competition.
I would endorse a mandatory delist rule as this would make all coaches think carefully about their list, trades and picks in a pre-season draft. Maybe a 2 player mandatory delist or retirement. The AFL have a mandatory delist requirement. I think the current timing of our draft allows for those Supplementary players to be selected at the MSD placing more value on the MSD, I'm not sure another draft will benefit anyone. If this is agreed upon then it comes into effect with the 2026 Draft, we have all put in place a strategy for team structure for 2025.
If we want a rapid-fire draft, all we need to do is stop trading during the draft. We've currently got situations where coaches don't take their pick immediately because there is more value in seeing what it can trade for.
Quick run through the PSD trades shows 17 between 05/11 and 16/02, of which 12 took place on the final weekend before the draft. From an engagement perspective, its a concern that we effectively had a 2 day PSD trade period. You would expect that to be a high period of engagement also. My suggestion below is to try to induce a fortnight long trade period, prior to the start of the PSD. 1. Each coach is expected to be checking the site regularly from 2 weeks prior to the PSD (would have been Monday 03/02 this year). 2. By 03/02, each coach posts the top 5 players/picks they are looking to trade in the upcoming PSD trade period. Some coaches already do this, which is terrific. Trades aren't limited to these players/picks, but its about getting the conversation started and showing that coaches are engaged and active at the site.
I believe we need to push our draft back later. I know its not a popular opinion with those who say "I've done my research and should be rewarded for it, not the masses who just wait for the games to begin before starting their research" (note: not a direct quote from anyone, but paraphrasing a few viewpoints I've heard). The problem is that there's still some SSP slots that might be filled (the deadline is today, part-way through our current draft), so AFL team lists are incomplete and may change, never mind the fact that pushing the draft back later gives everyone more time to get fully engaged and actively trading pre-draft. Plus it gives the powers that be more time to roll-over the site and make everything ready for us to draft and update squads with ease.
I'm the opposite, let have the draft earlier so you can't choose the SSP's which would then make the MSD more exciting!
That's a good idea! The MSD has been almost irrelevant since the list increase, that would definitely put some interest into it. Also agree with JPK, that it's unfair that coaches are getting access to players that other coaches with earlier picks aren't. When do SSPs usually start getting announced?
To be eligible for the SSP, players must have nominated for the most recent AFL Draft or previously been on an AFL list. Clubs will have two windows to formally sign a player via the SSP: November 27 to December 14 and January 15 to February 19.
Here's another thought.....just make all SSP players selected by AFL Clubs in the 2 windows, ineligible for ORFFU selection until the MSD...........then it won't matter when our PSD is held...
I did say almost irrelevant. I just had a look at the last four MSDs and I reckon on average there's about two decent players in each. Obviously there's speculative picks that turn out ok, same as 4/5/6th round in PSD, but only a couple of players that actually show some form in the first half of the year and then continue on with it.