THE BRISBANE Lions will encourage the AFL to avoid placing any restrictions on recruiting academy prospects as the League considers another overhaul of the bidding system.
The AFL wrote to clubs recently asking for feedback on proposed changes to the academy bidding structure, with clubs having to submit their suggestions by Friday this week.
The possible rewriting of the academy rules include a system where top-four clubs would access just one academy player in the first 20 draft picks if a bid falls in that range.
Teams that finish in the second half of the top eight would be able to select two in the same bracket of picks, while clubs that finish outside the finals would not be subject to any restrictions (as is the case currently).
A watering down of the 20 per cent discount afforded to academy clubs (and those with father-son prospects) has also been mooted.
Brisbane Lions football manager David Noble said the club, which had two top-25 academy picks in 2015 (Eric Hipwood and Ben Keays), is reluctant to see the system changed.
"We're a growing economy here and we're an aspiring football academy, and I think any restrictions that get placed on us is really tough," Noble told AFL.com.au.
"We're in an area that we need to grow pathways and aspiration, and we'll put a submission in and we'd be concerned about that aspiration not having the full light of day with restrictions."
The Lions look set to land one of the leading players in this year's NAB AFL Draft pool, with No.1 contender Connor Ballenden tied to the club's academy. The 200cm key forward is a powerful mark and straight kick for goal and has already played for the Lions' NEAFL team.
The possible redesign of the academy rules comes just two years after it was totally reshaped and became a live element of draft night.
Each of the northern clubs have been given a 20 per cent points discount when matching bids for prospects, and Noble said it was vital that remained if the system is changed.
"We commit and invest a lot of time. I think it's now well justified that there is a discount and to remove it would be detrimental to your return on investment. It really diminishes as a result of that," he said.
"It's to just take the discount in isolation and say we'll remove it because of where you potentially finish on the ladder. There's a lot of backend areas that need to be considered in that: whether it's a non-footy state, if the player has been in the academy for four or five years, the number of hours invested.
"There's a whole scope of variations that go into the mix of what should be considered for that discount."
Noble, who joined the Lions at the end of last year after being football manager at Adelaide, is a part of the AFL's player movement advisory group.
He said the Lions understand "the essence" of why the AFL is looking to reshape the academy rules, but that it should be given time to mature, like has been given to free agency since it was introduced in 2012.
"We do need a little bit of time to see how the bidding system comes through," he said.
"You really need to be careful that the results that you've captured in the first couple of years are not outliers in data. That's something we're a bit conscious of as well."
