Collingwood is one club which can elevate one or more rookies to its primary list before the cut-off date of March 19, without having to place a player on the long-term injury list.
Dwyer and Frost will be vying for one of the two spots the Magpies have available.
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Fighting for their right to wear the black and white won't be a new experience for either player, with both paving an unconventional path to an AFL career.
"I guess the thing with me was just that persistence and just proving that I was resilient," Dwyer told AFL.com.au.
Frost's frustrations were comparable: "I always thought my story was always pretty significant, but it's sort of dwarfed by Sammy's," he said.
"(But) the three years I was trying to get picked up were pretty tough because each year you get knocked back and knocked back."
The 26-year-old Dwyer was floating around the AFL fringes for several years, producing on a consistent basis for VFL club Port Melbourne, before the Pies made the jump at selection No. 27 in the 2013 Rookie Draft.
Frost (pick No. 42) was right on the brink of being drafted in 2010, out of TAC Cup side the Sandringham Dragons, but had until he was 21 for his chance to come.
The pair had their first taste of NAB Cup football in round one against the Western Bulldogs and Essendon, with both admitting it took time to adjust to the increased tempo.
And they have been named in Collingwood's 27-man squad to take on West Coast in Perth on Sunday afternoon.
At 26, Dwyer is expected to make an impact straightaway. He was a possession machine for Port Melbourne, winning the club's 2009 best and fairest and being part of Port's 2011 premiership triumph.
Dwyer brings energy and pace in his midfield role and is creative and constructive with his disposals. He's also tough. That he played in the 2012 VFL Grand Final with a broken leg is testament to that.
It's also fair to say he's had his patience tested.
He first nominated for the draft in 2005. And year after year the dream seemed to move further and further out of reach.
"He didn't let himself get distracted by the what-ifs, unlike a lot of young men," Port Melbourne coach Gary Ayres told AFL.com.au.
"'What if I get drafted? Who's looking at me? Are the recruiters talking to the coaches?' And that can sidetrack their performance.
"But if they take care of actually what they can control, and that's exactly what Sam did, if you persevere long enough, you'll be able to get what you want."
Dwyer admits it was a testing period in his career.
"The easy option was to go play local or chase money, but it was that dream of playing AFL which was the driving force," he says.
West Coast v Collingwood
Similarly, Frost watched on as Sandringham teammates Ben Jacobs (Port Adelaide), Daniel Farmer (ex-Collingwood) and Jarryd Lyons (Adelaide) were drafted in 2010.
An athletic key defender (at 194cm), Frost had shown snippets of his talent throughout 2010. But in the words of his then Sandringham coach Dale Tapping, who is now, ironically, Collingwood's VFL coach, there was "an element of rawness about him".
Frost is still very much a work in progress, according to Tapping, but has already shown a willingness to compete and a strong desire to improve since arriving at the Pies.
After being overlooked again in 2011 following a solid year for Williamstown in the VFL he decided to undergo necessary hip surgery, having both hips shaved and realigned, which further delayed his chance of winding up on an AFL list.
"I had the feeling that I was pretty close (to getting drafted) but that (surgery) felt like I'd gone quite far backwards," Frost says.
Despite the subsequent mental hurdles, he threw himself into his rehabilitation to keep the dream alive.
Fit again, he broke in to Williamstown's senior team late in 2012 and acquitted himself well in last year's VFL finals against quality opposition.
Tapping, who coached Jack's brother Sam – who was recently re-signed by Greater Western Sydney until the end of 2015 – made sure he stayed in touch with Frost during that time.
Tapping said the relationship between the Frost brothers would help push Jack along through his AFL career.
"As much as they're very close, I think there's a little bit of family competitiveness amongst them," Tapping said.
Both Dwyer and Frost are under no illusions to the further challenges that await.
They understand the importance of impressing the Pies, given their one-year contracts as rookies with the club.
They are ready should their chance arrive.
"You've just got to do everything you can, so, if that opportunity does arise, then you're ready to go," Dwyer says.
Frost agrees: "Until it's there, you never know when it's going to come, but you don't want to be on the back foot at that stage, because if you let it slip that could be it."
Ben Guthrie is a reporter for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter- @AFL_BenGuthrie
