MELBOURNE would not have been able to draft boom recruits Jack Watts or Sam Blease in 2008 if changes to the NAB AFL Draft rules had been introduced a year earlier.

The AFL has pushed the draft age back by four months, meaning recruiters will have a smaller pool of players from which to draft in 2009.

The new Gold Coast club will then have exclusive access to a dozen 17-year-olds born from January 1 to April 30, 1992, a group that under previous rules would have been available to all AFL scouts.

The changing landscape means Melbourne recruiting manager Barry Prendergast is planning for a weakened draft in November.

"It's not going to be as strong as last year by the sheer fact that potentially 25 per cent of the draft isn't going to be there with those under-17s out," Prendergast told afl.com.au.

"From a Melbourne footy club perspective, we won't get the chance to draft a Jack Watts or a Sam Blease (both of whom were born between January 1 and April 30), so that diminishes the draft.

"But I don't think the draft is as strong at the top end as it was last year, because players who were left over from the AIS squad the year before – like Nick Naitanui, Tyrone Vickery, Daniel Rich and Hamish Hartlett – don't appear to be left over."

Prendergast said the 2008 draft pool was an exceptional year.

"I think history will probably judge last year's draft as pretty rich in terms of talent, and that's starting to come through," he said.

"As to how deep [this year's draft] is, I don't think you can really judge that until the championships.

"I think a lot of teams probably looked to load up on last year's draft and maybe they'll look the other way this year."

Prendergast said trading or retaining players on lists may also become a greater option at the end of the year.

"The other side of it is that clubs might decide to hang onto some of their players and they might look at their players on their list and think that they're a bit more 'glass half-full' than empty," he said.

"They might look at their own playing stocks in relation to the draft itself, so I'd imagine trading will be dependent on recruiting staff and coaching staff getting together and evaluating lists versus the draft as clubs always do in this situation."