The 2021 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) could trade and recruit players during and following the completion of the 2021 AFL season.
The National Draft returned to being a two day event in 2021, after being held on a single night in 2020.
After coming 18th in the 2021 AFL season, the North Melbourne Football Club held the number one draft pick in the National draft for the first time, selecting midfielder Jason Horne-Francis.
Key dates + Table of key datesEventDate(s)Mid-season rookie draft 2 June 2021Free agency period Restricted and Unrestricted: 1–8 October 2021 Delisted: 3–15 November 2021Trade period 4–13 October 2021National draft First round: 24 November 2021Second and subsequent rounds: 25 November 2021Pre-Season and Rookie draft26 November 2021 Pre-season supplemental selection period 10 January 2022 - 9 March 2022
2021 mid-season rookie draft The mid-season draft was held after the conclusion of Round 11 of the 2021 AFL season on 2 June. The draft was only open to clubs with inactive players on their list and vacancies available, such as long term injuries or retirements.
+ Mid-season draft selections Round Pick Player Club Recruited from Pick due to Club League 1 1 Sandringham Dragons NAB League Flynn Perez long-term injury 2 Box Hill Hawks VFL Jonathon Patton retirement 3 SANFL Passed selection at the 2020 Rookie Draft 4 Murray Bushrangers NAB League Tyson Stengle delisting 5 Oakleigh Chargers NAB League Jarrod Witts long-term injury 6 VFL Caleb Marchbank long-term injury 7 Sandringham Dragons NAB League Dylan Roberton retirement 8 VFL Lachlan Keeffe long-term injury 9 VFL Irving Mosquito long-term injury 10 WAFL Ivan Soldo long-term injury 11 WAFL Daniel Venables long-term injury 12 VFL Passed selection at the 2020 Rookie Draft 13 SANFL Passed selection at the 2020 Rookie Draft 14 WAFL Cam Rayner long-term injury 15 Werribee VFL Aaron Nietschke long-term injury 2 16 Geelong Falcons NAB League Passed selection at the 2020 Rookie Draft17 SANFL James Sicily long-term injury18 Eastern Ranges NAB League Passed selection at the 2020 Rookie Draft 19 Passed — — Rory Thompson long-term injury 20 Footscray VFL David Cuningham long-term injury 21 SANFL Jade Gresham long-term injury 22 Passed — — Michael Hurley long-term injury 23 WAFL Jarrod Cameron long-term injury 24 Murray Bushrangers NAB League Marty Hore long-term injury 325 Passed — —Sam Philp long-term injury26 Passed — — Ben Paton long-term injury 4 27 Passed — — Passed selection at the 2020 Rookie Draft
Previous trades Since 2015, clubs have been able to trade future picks in the next year's national draft during the trade period. As a result, a total of 30 selections for the 2021 draft were traded during the 2020 trade period. Further trades of future picks can be made before or during the 2020 national draft. The selection order for each of these picks is tied to the original club's finishing position in the 2021 season.
+ Table of previously traded selectionsNew ClubAcquired via1 Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft Pick swap Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft2 Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft Jack Higgins tradevia (Jye Caldwell trade)on-traded to (Jeremy Cameron trade) Jeremy Cameron trade Adam Treloar trade Pick swapvia (Aliir Aliir trade)on-traded to (Tom Hickey trade) Pick swap3 Oleg Markov trade Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft Pick swap at the 2020 National Draftvia (pick swap)on-traded to (pick swap) Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft Alex Witherden trade Tom Hickey trade Mitch Hannan trade Orazio Fantasia tradevia (pick swap)on-traded to (Nakia Cockatoo trade)on-traded to (pick swap)4 via (Ben Brown trade)on-traded to (Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft) Pick swapvia (Kyle Hartigan trade)on-traded to (Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft) via (Jack Higgins trade)on-traded to (Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft) Pick swap Peter Wright tradevia (pick swap)on-traded to (Ben Brown trade)via (pick swap)on-traded to (pick swap)via (Jeremy Cameron trade)on-traded to (Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft)on-traded to (Pick swap at the 2020 National Draft)
Player movements Free agency
+2021 AFL free agency period signings Player Free agent type Recruited from New club Compensation Ref Unrestricted 3rd round Unrestricted End of 2nd round Restricted End of 2nd round Unrestricted None Unrestricted None Delisted Delisted (SANFL) Delisted Delisted (SANFL) Delisted
Sam Skinner was delisted by in 2020 Tyson Stengle was delisted by during the 2021 pre-season
Trades + Table of trades Clubs involved Trade to (from )
second round pick () third round pick () fourth round pick () to (from )
pick No. 22 pick No. 46 pick No. 58 pick No. 79 fourth round pick ()to (from )
Nathan Kreuger pick No. 55to (from )
pick No. 41to (from )
Jeremy Finlaysonto (from )
third round pick ()to
pick No. 17 (from ) pick No. 37 (from ) pick No. 49 (from )
to
pick No. 23 (from ) pick No. 44 (from ) pick No. 45 (from )to
pick No. 33 (from ) pick No. 75 (from ) first round pick ()
to
pick No. 62 (from ) pick No. 66 (from ) fourth round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 22to (from )
pick No. 27 third round pick ()to (from )
Will Brodie pick No. 19 pick No. 61 pick No. 69to (from )
second round pick () fourth round pick ()to (from )
Adam Cerrato (from )
pick No. 6 third round pick ()to (from )
Sam Petrevski-Seton
to (from )
Lewis Youngto (from )
pick No. 52to (from )
Callum Coleman-Jones pick No. 42 pick No. 47 fourth round pick ()to (from )
Robbie Tarrant pick No. 40 second round pick ()to (from )
Patrick Lipinskito (from )
pick No. 43to (from )
Jordan Dawsonto (from )
first round pick ()to (from )
Darcy Fort pick No. 41to (from )
pick No. 50 third round pick ()to (from )
Jonathon Ceglar fourth round pick ()to (from )
third round pick ()to (from )
Jordan Clark fourth round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 22 third round pick ()to (from )
Peter Ladhams pick No. 16to (from )
pick No. 12 third round pick ()to (from )
Max Lynch third round pick () fourth round pick ()to (from )
third round pick () third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 27to (from )
pick No. 38 pick No. 40 third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 54to (from )
third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 55to (from )
fourth round pick () Picks swapped at the 2021 National Draftto (from )
pick No. 23to (from )
pick No. 32 pick No. 34to (from )
pick No. 32 pick No. 52 third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 42 pick No. 47 third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 36to (from )
pick No. 48 third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 12to (from )
pick No. 14 second round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 48to (from )
fourth round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 43to (from )
third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 55to (from )
fourth round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 45to (from )
pick No. 47 third round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 51to (from )
fourth round pick ()to (from )
pick No. 62to (from )
fourth round pick ()
List changes Retirements
+ Table key R Rookie listed player B Category B Rookie listed player
+ Table of player retirementsNameClub (B) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (B) (R) (B)
Delistings
+ Table key R Rookie listed player B Category B Rookie listed player
+ Table of player delistingsNameClub (B) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (B) (R) (R) (R) (B) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (B) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (R) (B)
2021 national draft
+ Table of national draft selections Round Pick Player Club Recruited from Notes Club League 1 1 SANFL 2 Oakleigh Chargers NAB League Father–son selection (son of Luke Darcy), matched bid by , used picks 34, 42, 43, 44, 45 3 Sandringham Dragons NAB League ← (2020) 4 Oakleigh Chargers NAB League Father–son selection (son of Peter Daicos), matched bid by , used picks 38, 40, 42, 44 5 Dandenong Stingrays NAB League 6 Murray Bushrangers NAB League 7 Northern Knights NAB League 8 WAFL ← 9 GWV Rebels NAB League 10 WAFL 11 SANFL 12 Sandringham Dragons NAB League ← (draft) 13 GWV Rebels NAB League 14 Sandringham Dragons NAB League ← (draft)← 15 SANFL 16 Northern Knights NAB League 17 Murray Bushrangers NAB League ← (2020) 18 WAFL ← 19 WAFL ← 20 GWV Rebels NAB League ← (2020) 2 21 WAFL ← (priority pick) 22 Calder Cannons NAB League 23 GWV Rebels NAB League ← (2020) 24 Geelong Falcons NAB League ←←← 25 Geelong Falcons NAB League ← (draft)← 26 Dandenong Stingrays NAB League 27 WAFL 28 Eastern Ranges NAB League 29 Tasmania Devils NAB League ←← 30 Dandenong StingraysNAB League ← (2020) 31 WAFL 32 SANFL ← (2020)← (2020) 33 Sandringham Dragons NAB League Next Generation Academy selection (Japanese descent), matched bid by , used picks 48 and 54 34 SANFL 35 Western Jets NAB League ← (draft)← (draft)← (2020) 36 Eastern Ranges NAB League←← (2020) 37 WAFL ← (2020)← (2020) 38 Dandenong StingraysNAB League ← (draft)← (2020) 39 Sandringham Dragons NAB League ←← (2020) 3 40 WAFL Free agency compensation pick (Hewett) 41 WAFL ←← 42 Queanbeyan Tigers AFL Canberra Academy selection, matched bid by , used picks 47 and 89 43 WAFL ← (draft)←← (2020) 44 Calder Cannons NAB League ← (draft)← 45 SANFL 46 SANFL 47 Sandringham Dragons NAB League Next Generation Academy selection (Indigenous), matched bid by , used pick 57 48 Eastern Ranges NAB League ←← (2020) 49 SANFL ← (draft)← (draft)←←← (2020) 50 VFL ← (2020) 51 SANFL ← (draft)← (2020) 52 SANFL ←← (2020)← (2020)← (2020) 4 53 Gippsland Power NAB League ← (2020)← (2020) 54 WAFL Next Generation Academy selection (Indigenous)← 55 SANFL ← (2020)← (2020) 56 Sandringham Dragons NAB League← (draft) 57 WAFL 58 Oakleigh Chargers NAB League 59 Northern Knights NAB League Father–son selection (son of Glenn Archer)← (2020)← (2020) 60 SANFL Father–son selection (son of Peter Burgoyne)← (2020)← (2020)← (2020) 61 Sandringham Dragons NAB League 62 WAFL ← (draft) 63 AFL 64 Geelong Falcons NAB League 65 WAFL Father–son selection (son of Shane Woewodin)
Rookie elevations Clubs were able to promote any player who was listed on their rookie list in 2021 to their 2022 primary playing list prior to the draft.
+ Player Club
2022 pre-season draft + Table of pre-season draft selections Round Pick Player Club Recruited from Notes Club League 1 1Passed — — 2Passed — — 3 AFL 4 Sandringham Dragons NAB League 5Passed — —
2022 rookie draft
+ Table of rookie draft selections Round Pick Player Club Recruited from Notes Club League 1 1 AFL 2 Williamstown VFL 3 AFL 4 AFL 5 Northern Knights NAB League 6 AFL 7 AFL 8 Oakleigh Chargers NAB League 9Passed — — 10Passed — — 11 Oakleigh Chargers NAB League 12 AFL 13 Bendigo Pioneers NAB League 14 AFL 15 Old Carey GrammariansVAFA 16 AFL 17 SANFL 18 WAFL 2 19Passed — — 20 AFL 21 AFL 22Passed — — 23 Passed — — 24 AFL 25 AFL 26Passed — — 27 Passed — — 28 Passed — — 29 AFL 30 Passed — — 31 AFL 32 FootscrayVFL 3 33 Passed — — 34 AFL 35 Passed — — 4 36 WAFL Academy selection 5 37 Broadbeach QAFL Academy selection
Category B rookie selections + Table of Category B rookie selectionsNameClubOriginNote Northern Knights (NAB League) Next Generation Academy selection (Sudanese descent) Westmeath GAA International selection (Ireland) NT Thunder (NAB League) Next Generation Academy selection (indigenous) Sandringham Dragons (NAB League) Next Generation Academy selection (indigenous) Dandenong Stingrays (NAB League) Next Generation Academy selection (indigenous) Western Jets (NAB League) Next Generation Academy selection (indigenous)
Pre-season supplemental selection period
+ Table of Pre-season supplemental selection period signings Player Club Recruited from Notes Club LeagueWilliamstownVFLSANFLSon of Gavin WanganeenWAFLSANFLAFLSANFLAFLSydneyVFLPreviously listed with WAFLPreviously listed with WAFLPreviously listed with AFLAFL
See also