SIGNIFICANT changes to the Academy and father-son bidding points system will be introduced in 2025, after the AFL decided against bringing it in for this year.

But clubs will be able to match bids on Next Generation Academy players from pick No.1 again this year after the AFL Commission this week approved the rule change.

The League wrote to clubs on Friday detailing a range of new draft, trade and free agency changes which were rubberstamped this week and will come into effect across the next three seasons after the AFL's thorough competitive balance review.

The most significant outcome of the Commission meeting was that the League will wait until next year before implementing its new points system.

It means clubs such as Brisbane (who have Levi Ashcroft and Sam Marshall coming through this year), Carlton (for the Camporeale twins) and Richmond (who traded in extra picks to move up the draft board), which had all rallied against changing it in 2024, will be able to use the draft picks they collected during last year's trade and draft period in preparation for this year, under the same system.

The League has also chosen to wait until 2025 before it allows clubs to trade picks two years into the future. It will remain at one year into the future this off-season. 

For 2024, the main changes will be:

• Clubs having access from pick No.1 onwards for NGA prospects in a return to previous rules to align with northern Academy and the father-son bidding system. The AFL has prioritised this change, revealed by AFL.com.au last month, because it does not want to further see a decline in diverse and Indigenous talent.
• The AFL will also continue to run its review on changing the NGA zones ahead of Tasmania's entrance into the game and the required eligibility and sign-up process for NGA draftees.
• Free agency compensation picks will from now take into account contract length as a determining factor, however contracts less than two years, or more than five, will not be given any weight. The League will be more transparent with its free agency compensation formula using the year lengths of deals.
• Clubs will be able to retain rookies for up to a maximum of five years, up from the current three years. This is to help give clubs more time to develop key position and taller talents as well as players from different backgrounds. Stipulations will mean the player cannot have played more than 10 games at the end of his fourth or fifth season to retain rookie status.
• More flexibility in the drafting of father-son prospects as primary-listed players or rookie-listed players. Current rules mean clubs have to nominate before the national draft if a player will be a national or rookie father-son, with the tweak giving more scope to make decisions during the live draft.

For 2025, the main changes will be:

• The revised draft value index and bidding system will be introduced. The new DVI will make it harder for clubs to stockpile draft selections to match multiple bids on Academy and father-son selections.
• As part of this, the 20 per cent points discount applied to matched bids will be reduced to 10 per cent. However, the AFL will continue to review this and assess whether it should apply to all or some of father-son, NGA and northern Academy players.
• The new DVI will see points attached to only the first 54 picks (down from the current system of the first 73 picks). There will be more than 10,000 points shaved off the value of the next DVI.
• Future trading of picks will be extended to two years in advance.

For 2026, the main change will be:

• Live trading will be introduced for the 2026 mid-season rookie draft, allowing clubs to move up and down in the order or trade into the draft using end of year selections.

The League considered bringing the expanded future trading of picks in for this year's trade period, as well as mid-season draft pick trading for 2025, but decided against it so that all moves were made with the new system at once from the start of the 2025 trade period onwards.

After Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was the No.1 pick as a Western Bulldogs NGA player in 2020, the AFL changed the rules so that clubs couldn't match NGA bids in the top-20 (in 2021) and then the top-40 picks (2022, 2023).

However the change means that the immediate beneficiaries will be Essendon, who will now have first access to talented draft prospect Isaac Kako this year who shapes as a potential top-15 pick.