Dear Members, Supporters and Club Partners,
Today the AFL confirmed changes to the National Draft bidding rules — changes that Port Adelaide has strongly and consistently opposed, and which I want to address with you directly.
This is not the outcome we wanted.
Our position has been clear. It hasn't changed.
For more than 12 months, Port Adelaide formally and publicly advocated for a responsible transition period before any changes to the NGA and Father-Son rules took effect. We wrote to the AFL, met with senior league figures, and presented an alternate model (as requested by the AFL) which more fairly recognised the impact of the DVI changes when Tasmania comes into the 2027 Draft.
Our position was straightforward: clubs have made long-term list management decisions in good faith under an agreed set of rules. Changing those rules without adequate transition time does not merely inconvenience clubs — it undermines the integrity of list management planning and strategy, for some clubs, creates a material competitive disadvantage.
The AFL confirmed today it will proceed with immediate implementation. We maintain that decision is wrong, and it is unfair.
The AFL has framed these changes as a competitive balance measure.
The data tells a different story: the cost falls heaviest on the clubs that can least afford it.
When the Tasmania Football Club's priority picks enter the 2027 draft, every other club's selections slide down the Draft order. A pick that starts at number 10 could land at number 17. Under the current Draft Value Index, that movement translates to a loss of hundreds of DVI points in real list currency — points that cannot be recovered.
Port Adelaide advocated for a straightforward fix: anchor DVI values to the original pick position, so a club holding Pick 10 retains Pick 10 value regardless of where it lands in the final order. That proposal was rejected.
Tasmania's inclusion in the 2027 draft is negatively impactful for clubs who finish lower on the ladder, with a compounding effect the lower you finish, creating material inequity for clubs who finish lower on the ladder — especially from a Draft Value Index (DVI) perspective.
These tables highlight the impact on clubs through the DVI impact of the Tasmania Draft concessions. Click here to view.
The clubs who will feel this most acutely are those finishing in the lower half of the ladder — the very clubs the draft is supposed to help most.
That is the opposite of competitive balance.
In 2024, Port Adelaide made decisions based on rules that existed at the time.
In 2024, our list management team made critical strategic decisions — about our players, our picks, our future — based on the rules that were in place. Those decisions were made in good faith. They were made professionally, in the interests of the club and our members.
To have the framework shifted underneath us, without a sensible and quite frankly professional transition period, creates a material disadvantage that cannot simply be absorbed or planned around.
Other clubs have already benefited from the previous, more favourable system. Our window of opportunity arrives precisely as the rules tighten and a 19th team is added to the equation.
The world's most sophisticated sporting competitions — the NFL, NBA and NHL — understand this. They routinely build grandfather clauses and multi-year transition periods into structural reform because they recognise that teams make investment decisions based on the rules at the time. The AFL had that model available to it. It chose not to follow it.
What happens now.
I want to be straight with you: this decision has real consequences for our list strategy. Our football and list management staff will now work through the implications in detail, and we will pursue every available avenue to position this club as strongly as possible for the drafts ahead.
I also want to be clear: our disappointment with this decision does not diminish our commitment to our NGA program or to the players and communities it serves. That work matters, and it will continue, and in fact we will be increasing this investment.
We are a club that has always found a way. We will find a way again.
But I owe it to you — as members and supporters who invest in this club with your passion and your loyalty — to be honest when a decision has been made that we believe is wrong. Today's announcement is one of those moments.
We will keep you informed as the implications become clearer. And as always, we are grateful for your unwavering support of our club.
We are Port Adelaide.
