“My personal opinion is that there should be a minimum list, but no maximum.” That was Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell, speaking to reporters, and he meant it literally.
Under current AFL rules a club carries 36 to 38 primary-listed players, six to eight Category A rookies and up to two Category B rookies. In practice most clubs end up with 44 to 46 players across all categories.
That structure is already due to change. From 2028, when Tasmania joins the competition and a new collective bargaining agreement starts, rookie lists are understood to be on their way out. “Rookie lists appear to be dead,” Tom Morris told The Agenda Setters on Wednesday night. “At the end of next year, club CEOs are expecting the rookie list to be gone, and the AFL to move forward with one list and then Category B rookies as well.”
Mitchell would go further than a single list.
“You should have any number of players on your list that you think you can manage,” he said. “So, if you want to have 34, (that) might be the minimum, so be it. But if you want 60 and you think that’s the best way to manage your salary cap, then my take is you should be able to do that.”
What the panel made of it
St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt was enthusiastic. “If you’re a list manager, it’s Christmas,” he said, because it hands clubs discretion and room to be strategic. A clever club, in his view, could open a bigger gap on the rest of the competition.
Under the idea, a club could concentrate its player payments on a few names or spread them thinly. Riewoldt said the choice would depend on ladder position. A team in contention might list only 34. “But if you’re at Richmond, well, maybe you’ve got 60 on your list and you’ve got a bigger pool to be able to maybe pluck one or two stars from.”
Mitch Cleary pointed to the salary cap. “Developing clubs struggle to hit the 95 per cent minimum on the salary cap as it is,” he said, adding that they are already front-ending contracts and paying players on potential. A club playing 45 or 50 players, he said, “might be able to spread that money more even.”
