Seven Ex-AFL players in NEAFL Mini Draft

Monday the 20th marked the end of the 2017 NEAFL Mini Draft with clubs Palm Beach Currumbin, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Labrador all bidding on players at the Southport event.

The Mini Draft started on the 15th of March with the Aspley and Redland drafts, though those player alignments took place over email correspondence due to smaller numbers.

NEAFL Operations Coordinator Brad Howard spoke about the draft and was encouraged by the continuous communication between the QAFL and NEAFL leagues.

“The pleasing thing from our end is that, over the four years since this arrangement has been in place we’ve had 80 players go from QAFL clubs into the NEAFL and we’ve had 78 players go back the other way,” said Howard.

The mini draft is a facility that allows players from NEAFL clubs who have not been selected to play in a given round, to go back and play for their assigned QAFL club.

Should these NEAFL players earn a spot in their NEAFL side, they return to play their footy in the NEAFL.

“It’s almost a reverse draft, I suppose, in terms of what the usual format is. Obviously in the AFL draft the number one pick is always the best player and so on, where as the concept of this draft, is that primarily the QAFL clubs are trying to select players who they think might play a fair bit of QAFL football,” said Howard.

Out of all the QAFL clubs the Sandgate Hawks will have the most new players walk through their doors with a total of 10, while Morningside will only gain two new faces, as a large contingent of NEAFL players are already aligned with the Panthers from previous seasons.

Seven of the draftees have played at AFL level, perhaps the most notable being Clay Cameron (SUNS) and Jackson Paine (Lions/Collingwood) going to Mt Gravatt and ex SUNS player Seb Tape, who was drafted to Labrador.

Complete list of player alignments:

By Sean Melrose.

Twitter: @seanmelrose.