JACKPOTTING draft picks, a 17-year-old 'mini-draft' and longer access to pre-listing players are part of the suite of list concessions the AFL is preparing to hand Tasmania for its entry into the competition.

But at this stage the Devils aren't going to be given pick No.1 in their first draft as the AFL gets closer to finalising its proposed package of draft and trade rules for the start-up club.

AFL.com.au can reveal the range of list rules being built for the Devils ahead of their entry into the competition in 2028, including new elements.

Like Greater Western Sydney, the AFL has plans to provide the Devils multiple 'mini-draft' selections, which would see the Devils be able to create a bidding war among other clubs for the right to select highly rated 17-year-old players from the mini-draft pool.

That mechanism saw the Giants do deals with rival clubs for access to Jaeger O'Meara and Brad Crouch in 2011, and Jack Martin and Jesse Hogan in 2012 a year before the players' respective draft years, and was a pivotal difference in the concessions handed to the Giants compared to the Suns.

The mini-draft spawned seven first-round picks for the Giants in a boon for the club as they used the access to the gun youngsters to boost their early draft stocks over two years.

A longer signing period to pre-list 17-year-olds also looks likely to be part of Tasmania's initial list build in 2026.

Jeremy Cameron, Dylan Shiel and Adam Treloar were among the 17-year-olds signed by GWS, taking them out of the 2011 draft crop, with Gold Coast also doing the same in its build without having the same top-end talent to pick from.

Where those clubs could only sign players born in the first few months of the year, the Devils' rules are expected to see them be able to sign players who are born in the first six months of the year, making for a larger eligible group to convince to sit out the draft in favour of a guaranteed AFL home.

Under the current iteration of Tasmania's list rules, the club will be given around a dozen first-round picks over its first three years, with the majority set for the 2027 draft ahead of its proposed start in the AFL in 2028.

However, at this point, the Devils' draft hand doesn't include the No.1 pick that year – with six picks inside the first 13 slated for the maiden year. Whether club feedback in coming months could sway the AFL into giving the Devils the No.1 pick remains to be seen, with clubs anticipating the full hand to be confirmed around mid-season.

The AFL will also put caveats on a number of those to be traded for experienced players, but the picks could be held over for multiple years if no player/s worthy of the selection are considered to be available and 'jackpot' in value.

There will be a cap placed on how many draft points those picks can be traded for under the Draft Value Index, which is meant to encourage Tasmania to trade the picks for players and enable better competitiveness early, rather than stockpiling more picks.

The proposed Tasmania list concessions were built in 2022 by the AFL and a number of experienced list bosses from around the competition, but have continued to be tinkered with by the League since then to progress to their current iteration.

Among the other list concessions being workshopped for Tasmania's entry into the competition are:

• Access to uncontracted players as 'free agents' across two trade periods. A maximum of one player from every club, with the clubs that lose players to be given draft compensation picks.
• A sign-on bonus fund of more up to $1 million to help attract players.
• Access to Tasmanian father-son selections.
• Access to Tasmania as an Academy zone.
• Access to multiple Tasmanian prospects eligible for the 2026 draft who can opt to sign with the Devils instead of entering that year's draft. Instead they would play in the VFL the following year, ahead of the Devils' AFL debut in 2028.
• Multiple early selections in rookie and mid-season drafts.
• Selections at the start of rounds two onwards in the draft.

The Devils' new chief executive, Brendon Gale, met with the AFL earlier this year around his club's proposed list build rules, saying they weren't shaping to be as "generous" as those given to GWS and Gold Coast.

The addition of each club having an Academy now, however, has made comparing the draft concessions from that era to 2025 an impossible task given the far more compromised drafts in the game now.

Tasmania is getting close to making its first set of key football appointments under Gale, with AFL.com.au revealing last week the club has started advertising for its football operations manager and list/player acquisition and strategy manager positions.