Get all the latest news in the trade, free agency and draft landscape in Inside Trading, AFL.com.au's dedicated column for player movement. Find out the latest on contracts, deals, trades, draftees, rules, agents and who is going where from the AFL.com.au team.
ROO TO REMAIN
NORTH Melbourne young gun George Wardlaw will remain at Arden Street for at least the next two seasons.
The Kangaroos have finalised a contract extension that will keep the young midfielder at the club until at least the end of 2028.
Wardlaw was a key reason why Alastair Clarkson's side recovered from a 43-point deficit to beat Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium last Saturday.
The 21-year-old has played eight of the past nine games after recovering from a hamstring strain in the pre-season and is in the form of his career to date.
North Melbourne has already won five games this year - more than they did across entire seasons between 2019-2024 - and Wardlaw has been central to that.
Wardlaw has endured a challenging run with hamstring strains and concussion to start his career, but is showing why he was taken at pick No.4 and looms as a future captain at North Melbourne. – Josh Gabelich
DEALS FOR MID-SEASON RECRUITS REVEALED
EIGHT of the 18 players selected in the mid-season rookie draft on Tuesday will have 18-month contracts.
Players can opt to nominate for the draft under short or longer-term deals – be it six or 18 months – when they put their names in for AFL selection.
Of Tuesday night's intake, nearly half will be signed through to the end of 2027.
Essendon's No.1 pick Jaxon Artemis and No.2 pick defender Kye Annand, who went to Richmond, are among the longer-term deals, while West Coast's Ollie Francou, Western Bulldogs ruck Caleb May and Port Adelaide duo Xavier Bamert and Alex Van Wyk will be on 18-month deals.
St Kilda's Campbell Lake nominated under a six-month term but is understood to be getting an 18-month deal.
Collingwood trio Harrison Coe, Liam Puncher and Mitch Podhajski, Carlton's Flynn Riley, North Melbourne's Ollie Griffin, Adelaide's Hugo Hall-Kahan, Melbourne pair Lukas Cooke and Joel Fitzgerald, Hawthorn's Max Beattie, West Coast's Marcus Herbert and Demon Max Mapley all nominated on six-month terms to the end of the 2026 season. – Callum Twomey
CROW TO SIGN ON
ADELAIDE wingman Brayden Cook is set to be rewarded for a breakout season with a new two-year deal.
The Crows are finalising an extension that will take the South Australian through to free agency in 2028.
Cook played only 30 games across his first five seasons at West Lakes, but has played every game to start 2026 after 65 appearances in the SANFL.
At the halfway mark of the home and away season, Cook is the No.2 rated wingman, according to Champion Data's AFL Player Ratings, behind only Greater Western Sydney's Harvey Thomas.
New Adelaide list manager Jarryd Roughead has a stack of contract calls to make with the Crows list management department, but Cook will soon be sorted. – Josh Gabelich
TIGERS CONFIDENT ON LALOR CALL
RICHMOND says its former No.1 pick Sam Lalor is in "no rush" to re-sign amid significant interest from Tasmania, but the club is confident the gun midfielder will commit his future at Punt Road.
As revealed on AFL.com.au's Gettable earlier this month, the Devils hold a keen interest in pairing Lalor with his former Vic Country teammate and good friend Finn O'Sullivan ahead of the expansion side's entry into the competition in 2028.
Lalor's initial three-year rookie contract expires at the end of next season, coinciding with Tasmania's arrival, though Richmond recruiting manager Rhy Gieschen has declared the club is comfortable with how the situation is playing out.
"He's a Richmond player," Gieschen told Gettable on Wednesday.
"He loves our club. You only have to walk through the changerooms and see how popular he is and what an impact he has had on our club. You watch his on-field talent and he's pretty special, but then you see the impact he's had and what a great person he is and how much he's bought into our culture.
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"He's a future leader and we're really confident he'll stay. He's in no rush to sign, nor should he be. He's contracted for another year after this. But we're fully expecting him to stay at Richmond and have a really fruitful career."
Richmond has undergone a full list rebuild in recent years, snaring eight first-rounders in the last two drafts in a crop led by Lalor, Josh Smillie, Taj Hotton, Jonty Faull, Luke Trainor, Harry Armstrong, Sam Cumming and Sam Grlj.
However, the Tigers are ready to transition their focus towards the trade and free agency space and have put forward the most lucrative offer to Port Adelaide free agent Zak Butters in a deal worth close to $2 million per year for at least eight seasons.
"We looked at players last year," Gieschen said.
"We have list management meetings about players we're looking at and what the best thing for Richmond is. It's not as though we stepped away from trade. We assess all the players that are up for grabs and open. That's something we're constantly discussing.
"We've stockpiled a lot of young talent, we're keen to hit the draft again this year. But if players of interest are available to us and it's the right thing for us, we're open to everything." – Riley Beveridge
TASSIE COMPO PICKS MODEL UNDER WRAPS
THE COMPENSATION picks formula for clubs who lose players to Tasmania will be tightly held by the AFL in a similar way to the free agency picks system.
Clubs who have uncontracted players depart to join Tasmania in 2027-28 in the Devils list concessions will be awarded at least one draft compensation pick.
However the model will be kept in-house by the League, giving it discretion to offer more than one selection in the case of certain scenarios of young, high-end players leaving to join the Devils on mega and record deals.
Free agency picks are divided into bandings, with band one picks falling after the receiving club's first natural pick in the draft order and then band two, band three and band four selections available later in the draft.
But with the Devils to be offering market-breaking deals for players at varying stages of their careers than free agents, clubs will be compensated under a more fluid model.
The AFL released full details of the Tasmania list build rules last week to clubs, but the compensation mechanism was not included in the memo.
Each club is only able to lose a maximum of one player across the two seasons under the uncontracted player rules. – Callum Twomey
BOMBERS TO CAST EYE ON AMERICANS
ESSENDON is the only club to have registered its attendance for the US Combine in Dallas next month as the League looks for its next American athlete.
After five clubs sent list managers or recruiters to last year's event, this year the Bombers are at this stage the only club to have put up their hand to go next month.
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Other clubs will take the vision supplied from the testing and three-day trials and make assessments on the prospects.
There have been around 10 athletes so far locked in to trial at the Combine, including a basketballer who is 223cm tall in Matthew Van Komen, as well as Hayden Curtiss, who attended last year's Dallas Combine.
Port Adelaide's 2004 premiership coach Mark Williams will be in attendance to assist the development of the prospects, while former Sydney captain Jarrad McVeigh has also been enlisted by the League to help across the program.
McVeigh departed the Swans at the end of last season to move to America with his family. – Callum Twomey