Rookie Draft prospects

JOEL Macdonald, Adam McPhee and Daniel Bradshaw are lock-ins for the NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft, but will the likes of Joe Dare (Geelong Falcons), Dylan Grimes (Northern Knights) and Northern Territorian Liam Patrick join them?

At this stage, there will be six selections in the pre-season draft, with Melbourne set to use its first pick to claim former Lion Macdonald.

Richmond will have pick No.2, followed by Fremantle (No.3), Sydney Swans (No.4), West Coast (No.5), Port Adelaide (No.6) and Essendon (No.7).

West Coast, Port Adelaide and Essendon enter the pre-season draft as McPhee has officially been removed from the Bombers' list, Tyson Stenglein is off the blue and gold list, having retired, and the Power have delisted Glenn Dawson.

McPhee is destined to return to his original AFL club Fremantle and Bradshaw looks headed for the Swans - assuming the Tigers, West Coast and Dons don't select them beforehand. It remains unclear at this point which players will be selected by the latter three clubs.

But with defenders Dare and Grimes and the exciting Patrick among the contenders, they loom as possibilities. Otherwise they seem certain to be rookies.

Dare and Grimes were surprisingly overlooked when most recruiters believed they would be selected in the top 50 of last week's NAB AFL Draft.

Patrick has been playing with Wanderers in the NTFL and has created plenty of interest, particularly on the back of his cousin Liam Jurrah's success this year. Jurrah was the first pick in last year's NAB AFL Rookie Draft.

Sudanese-born Majak Daw, a 194cm athlete, and South Australians Matthew Panos, Derick Wanganeen (the cousin of 1993 Brownlow Medallist Gavin) and Jack Hannath will also come into play during the rookie draft. 

VFL stars Michael Barlow (Werribee) and Sam Iles (ex-Collingwood) also look set to join AFL lists next year. 

Mitch Fisher (Geelong Falcons), Josh Donaldson (West Perth), Jack Weston (Gippsland Power), Serhat Temel (Calder Cannons), Andrew Hooper (North Ballarat Rebels) and Josh Dyson (Eastern Ranges) are others likely to become rookies.

With clubs now allowed to select two players more than 23 years old, this also opens the door for players with AFL experience.

The new rules mean the likes of former Demon Russell Robertson, ex-Tiger Mark Couglan and 2005 premiership player Luke Ablett could become (mature-age) rookies.

Mitch Thorp, Kane Tenace, Cameron Cloke, Scott Harding and Sam Power are just some of the players looking for new homes via the final two drafts.

45 names to watch

Follow the NAB AFL Pre-Season and Rookie Drafts LIVE on afl.com.au on Tuesday, December 15

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL