As it stands there will be six participants at the December 16 pre-season draft meeting, but that number will not be confirmed until the AFL's investigations department finishes its assessment of the total player payment estimates supplied by each of the 16 clubs.
The news is a blow to former Demon Nathan Carroll, who has been training with St Kilda in the hope of rekindling his faltering career.
The Saints used their full complement of picks at Saturday's NAB AFL Draft and will not take part in the pre-season draft after spending the last 'live' pick of the day on Irishman and ex-Lion Colm Begley, who had been training with Collingwood.
The absence of any late list manoeuvring is also bad news for fallen champion Ben Cousins, with his bid to return to AFL ranks now surely all but over.
Of the three clubs that expressed any real interest in recruiting the former Eagle – St Kilda, Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions – only the Lions now have a selection in the pre-season draft and they publicly closed the door on Cousins shortly before the national draft took place.
With Port Adelaide committed to picking up 2004 premiership player Josh Carr and Carlton pledging to select ex-Demon Chris Johnson there will effectively be just four live picks at the pre-season draft, in which Melbourne has the first choice.
Just four players with AFL experience – Leigh Brown, Tom Hislop, Jason Davenport and Begley – were thrown lifelines at the national draft, with Carr and Johnson likely to round out the list of 'recycled' players after the 2008 season.
The pre-season draft has traditionally been seen as a 'second-chance saloon' for discarded players with AFL experience, but the four remaining clubs at this year's selection meeting – Essendon, Richmond, the Lions and the Demons – are considered more likely to take a punt on one of the talented youngsters who missed out at the national draft.
Nick Davis, Greg Bentley, Darren Pfeiffer, Sam Iles, Danny Meyer and Jace Bode are among the experienced players currently still training at an AFL club hoping that won't be the case.
