Get everything you need to know, including how to watch and what picks the Pies have, ahead of the 2025 AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft on Wednesday.
What is the AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft?
The Mid-Season Rookie Draft (MSD) is the only chance clubs have during the season to add players to their list. Outside the Trade Period and Telstra AFL Draft at the end of each season, the only opportunities clubs have to sign new players is during the Pre-Season Supplemental Selection Period – which runs over summer – and the MSD.
The MSD was reintroduced in 2019, having been scrapped way back in 1993. It's designed to limit the impact long-term injuries and premature retirements can have on a club and allow teams to replenish their list for the second half of the season.
When is it?
The 2025 AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft will be held on Wednesday, May 28, between rounds 11 and 12, from 6.30pm AEST.
How can I watch?
The only place to watch the 2025 AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft is on AFL.com.au and the AFL Live Official App. Gettable co-hosts and draft experts Cal Twomey and Riley Beveridge will lead the coverage along with host Nat Edwards from 6.30pm AEST on Wednesday, May 28. See every pick as it happens and get instant analysis of what the new signings can mean for the second half of the season.
What picks do the Pies have?
The Pies will take two picks in the 2025 draft, with the pair of spots opened due to long term knee injuries to Reef McInnes and Harvey Harrison.
The Pies will take picks eight and 15 into Wednesday, with the order determined by reverse ladder position. West Coast, the team at the bottom of the ladder after Round 11 received pick one, whileNorth Melbourne, given 17th-placed Richmond do not have a list spot available, to have pick two, and so on. Only eight Clubs have a pick in the first round, with the Pies having the final selection of Round One as they sit first on the ladder.
Who have the Pies taken in the past?
The Pies have had great success with the mid-season draft since it was reintroduced six years ago.
John Noble was taken back in 2019 and went on to play 112 games in the black and white, before moving to the Gold Coast SUNS over the off-season.
Ash Johnson and Aiden Begg were taken in 2021 (there was no mid-season draft in 2020 due to the pandemic), while Josh Carmichael was selected in 2022. While Begg and Carmichael are no longer with the Pies, Johnson has notched up 27 games since he joined midway through 2021 and will imminently return from a leg injury sustained earlier this year.
No pick was available to the Pies in 2023, however last year two players who remain on the list today were added. Breakout star Ned Long was elevated from the Club's VFL list last year and has since played 18 games, while ruck Iliro Smit was selected out of the Eastern Ranges and has been a consistent player at VFL level.
Have any of our VFL players nominated?
A host of current VFL-listed Pies have thrown their hat in the ring for Wednesday's draft, making them available to be taken by any of the 18 clubs.
Josh Browne, Riley Mason, Zane Cochrane, Josh Murphy, Boston Dowling, Harry and Max Mahoney, Conor Willis and Liam Hude have all nominated.
