GREATER Western Sydney is poised to select skilful onballers Jed Anderson and Jake Neade from the club's Northern Territory zone, but Gold Coast is faced with the possibility of losing out on the young talent on offer in its Queensland zone.

The Suns have first call on tall forward Jordon Bourke - after Geelong opted not to take him as a father-son pick - versatile defender Clay Cameron and midfielder Andrew Boston in the last year of their priority access to Queensland players.

AFL recruiters have deemed the trio worthy of a pick anywhere between the second and fourth rounds at this year's NAB AFL Draft.

But Gold Coast is faced with the prospect of on-trading the youngsters or letting them through into the draft pool, as the AFL requires its senior list to shrink from 46 to 42 players for the 2013 season.

"As much as our establishment rules were exciting and great, we knew there would be a tough couple of years [after the first]," Suns list manager Scott Clayton said of the job ahead of his team during this year's draft and trade period.

"We've got to pull back four players, which doesn't sound like much, but you add to that you want three draft picks in a good draft, we'll clearly be putting [Jaeger] O'Meara on from last year's trade and then you upgrade a rookie.

"We have Queensland as a zone for the last time and we want to use that to our advantage, so all of a sudden you've got 10 or 11 players and you've got to decide their future.

"It's very difficult."

GWS list manager Stephen Silvagni has no such restrictions this year, with the Giants allowed up to 50 senior-listed players up to and including the 2014 season.
 
As part of its list establishment rules, GWS has priority access to players from the Northern Territory until next year with Anderson and Neade, who have both received All Australian honours in the past two years, the pick of this crop.
 
"We feel as though they're quite capable to be on our list," Silvagni said of the pair.

"At this stage we're thinking that they are going to be on our list, but anything can happen."

How the Gillette AFL Trade Period and free agency plays out for both clubs will have a large say in their ability to sign players from their zones, with the deadline to do so November 16.

Gold Coast football manager Marcus Ashcroft agreed the club faced some tough decisions on all three players, but especially with regard to Bourke and Cameron, who already have close links with the Suns.

"We've seen a bit of Jordon and Clay this year," Ashcroft said.

"They did a pre-season with us 12 months ago and played some reserves footy with us this year, so they've been around our club and they know a lot of our players and coaches.

"We've been impressed with the way that they've gone about it - they're certainly great kids - but we have to wait and make that decision in due course.

"We need to sit down once we get through the trade period and work out whether we can include one or a couple or none.

"We need to weigh them up against the players that we've already got that aren't contracted next year as well as our draft picks, which will be finalised after the trade period.

"Until we get to that point we can't make any decisions on that."

Jason Phelan covers the NAB AFL Draft for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @AFL_JasonPhelan.