Both Carlton and Richmond have expressed a preference for any significant changes to the draft point system to be delayed until the 2025 count, with the Blues needing the required points to secure two highly-rated father-son prospects.
Carlton have priority access to South Australian twins Ben and Lucas Camporeale, the sons of 1995 premiership Blue Scott. Ben firms as a likely first-round draft selection, while Lucas is right in the top 30 conversations and amassed his best performance of the year over the weekend against Western Australia to strengthen his stocks.
The Blues traded in a trio of fourth-round selections for this year's draft in 2023 in anticipation of matching bids on both Camporeale boys, with their current hand of selections reading as Picks 17, 37, 65, 66 and 67, netting them 1747 points.
VIEW: CURRENT 2024 DRAFT ORDER
That hand currently has the Blues in a "comfortable" decision ahead of this year's player and picks movement window, with Carlton's list team likely to require to acquire further draft selections to match both bids for the talented teenage duo.
But with the AFL mulling whether to make priority access to father-son and Academy prospects harder for clubs this year instead of a transition period for next year's intake, the Blues are expecting to fall "well short" in their pursuit of the father-son pairing.
Speaking onย AFL 360,ย Carlton coach Michael Voss said the club supports the potential changes but questioned the concept of the competition's draft system potentially being altered just months out from November's count.
"I think we're all, in theory, behind the change that needs to happen. The timing of it though is somewhat confusing, because the expediency of it, to be able to get it in this year when the planning has already been done over 12 months and even two years in many instances, is somewhat confusing,"
"I think the anticipation was that while the notice was there we'd get further clarity on what it actually looked like and that it might actually transpire in the coming years, which I think everyone in the industry was waiting for and anticipating, and somehow that has actually changed and it's become more relevant to now.
"To me it's quite confusing, but it's quite simple for us. We should be looking down the road on this, we shouldn't be making this decision four months out from decisions that were made 12 months or two years ago.
"There's many a club involved in this more than just us, but obviously we've got some prominent names there for us that we'd like to be able to respect.
"It's significant. if we look at decisions that were made 12 months ago, there's some decisions that we'd make differently; we'd position ourselves very differently in this draft to how we have.
"Right now, we're really comfortable with the points system and where we're at and whether we have enough points to fulfil that and execute that strategy. But if the proposed changes are made, then we fall somewhat well short."
While unlikely to have father-son access to high-end prospects this year, Richmond too could be heavily impacted by short-term changes to the draft system should they be implemented.
The Tigers significantly strengthened their 2024 draft hand last year through the trade period and on draft night via live trading, with the Punt Road club holding nine selections for this year to tally a current league-high 5344 points.
The extensive selection of picks gives Richmond the chance to work with clubs like Carlton who are likely needing to trade out their earliest selections for a suite of later ones, giving the Blues more draft points and the Tigers better access to this year's top draft stars.
But should the AFL alter the type of selections needed for priority access bidding, Richmond's stocktake of selections could damage their planning for this year's draft, which has been in the works for some time.
"Blair Hartley our list manager is aware of the conversations, but you plan for list management over three, four, five years at a time," Richmond president John O'Rourke told ABC Melbourne.ย
"Our view is it needs to be a transition if there is going to be change."
Contrastingly, GWS football boss Jason McCartney said the club won't be surprised if the planned changes are brought into effect for this year.
Understanding changes from the AFL are "always going to impact someone", McCartney said clubs might be 'overreacting' and may need to wait to see how the changes impact them before being critical.
All the clubs have been heavily involved since we knew about the process late last year. All clubs are involved in surveys in January," McCartney toldย RSN.ย
"It's been interesting listening to some of the commentary from some of the clubs who thought there wouldn't be anything happening this year. I actually always thought there would be, because there's been a lot of work done.
"While there's been no announcements, I feel like we've been kept in the loop the whole way through this process. In the next week or so we'll get a bit of a better guide of what may be the changes for this year will look like.
"If you're going to make change, there's never going to be an absolute ideal time, it's always going to impact someone. I feel like the consultation has been very, very good. We've all had input.
"Sometimes we can overreact until we know what (the changes are). I'd like to see what they are first, because there are going to be some shifts but maybe not as dramatic as what maybe some are thinking."
Brisbane (through father-son prospect Levi Ashcroft and Academy talent Sam Marshall), Gold Coast (through Academy prospect Leonardo Lombard) and Adelaide (through father-son teenager Tyler Welsh) join Carlton in having priority access to some of this year's top-rated draft names.
