PORT Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps has hit out at what he says are a series of "brutal and unprecedented challenges" inflicted by the AFL on the club as the Power look to overhaul their list over the next two trade and draft periods.

The Power will lose superstar midfielder Zak Butters to the Western Bulldogs during this year's free agency window, and are also looking to hoard high draft picks over the next two years to match bids on top prospects Dougie Cochrane (2026) and Louis Salopek and Zemes Pilot (2027).

The AFL's changes to the father-son and Academy bidding processes ahead of this season mean that clubs must now pay a higher price to match bids from rivals than in previous seasons, including using no more than two picks to match those offers.

Essendon is expected to bid on Cochrane, the son of former Power player Stuart, at pick No.1 at this year's Telstra AFL Draft. Port Adelaide currently holds pick No.4 and is expected to receive pick No.5 as free agency compensation for losing Butters.

Cripps told Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio on Thursday that the Power had been frustrated by the AFL's tweaks to the trade and draft rules, including a recent memo that blocked a proposed 'pick purchasing' deal between the Power and Bulldogs for Port Adelaide forward Todd Marshall.

"Now's not the time to go into the specifics or the detail of the option we were working through and what transpired," Cripps said.

"But what I will say is this – we live in a system where the rules are complex and ambiguous, and clearly the rules ... can be adjusted at any time at the AFL's discretion, even via a memo, which can be frustrating.

"The reality is we've been dealt a series of brutal, unprecedented challenges that we're attempting to navigate through and it's a long list that I'll save for another day."

Cripps said the Power was looking to accumulate both players and picks over the next three seasons as they undertook a list overhaul, but the entry of Tasmania into the AFL had made the club's task far harder.

AFL.com.au's Callum Twomey reported on Wednesday that 23 of the 46 players features in the 2026 Marsh AFL National Boys Futures game on Grand Final day were already tied to a club via some type of draft concession.

"Next year's draft, the way it's set up with Tasmania concessions, it's a compromised draft," he said.

"I think the general consensus is ... that this feels like a pretty strong draft, a pretty even draft, and clubs are looking to get into this draft and potentially trade out of next year's draft so we're going to be trying to find that balance because we want picks this year.

"It's been a clear focus for us with where we're at with our list. We want multiple picks, multiple players.

"Clearly we're going to have a heavy focus next year because we need points and there's been some significant changes around that and some real challenges ahead of us."

Cripps advocated for clubs to be given more autonomy to use the "mechanisms" available to them – draft picks, players or salary cap space – to do deals to improve their lists.

He said pick purchasing should be a greater part of deal-making and called on the AFL to free up the rules to allow clubs to pursue more innovative trades.

"I feel the AFL have created this landscape with recent draft rule changes and implementing them at the same time," Cripps said.

"Tasmania has been given excessive concessions. The buzz phrase we often hear is competitive balance. Well, then allow clubs to be creative, especially those closer to the bottom or who are re-building.

"There's nothing in the rules, and AFL has said this explicitly, (that) prevents a club from pick purchasing. The current challenge is the lack of a framework to establish a pick's dollar value. But any deal that involves top-up payments ... will be for the AFL to sit in judgment and whether that deal passes, as they call it, the pub test, as they do with all deals."

Cripps said there was no tension between Port Adelaide and Geelong, the other chief suitor that Butters eventually turned down in favour of the Western Bulldogs.

Rather, he said the draft assets that the Bulldogs already had made them a far more attractive option for the Power to negotiate with.

"From our perspective, there's no lingering tension from our end. In relation to how Zak decided his nomination, again, that's his story to tell. But it would be naive to think we didn't play a critical role in that process," Cripps said.

"I had many robust discussions with Zac's manager, Peter Lenton, and honest conversations with Zak around what a deal might look like. Because part of that process is ... choosing or nominating a club, but a critical part of that is also [that] a deal needs to be done.

"And I think Zak's been really clear – and certainly had been with us internally and publicly – and consistent throughout the process that he wanted us to be compensated fairly.

"Again, without going into further detail around those conversations, if we make the decision and choose to match and force a trade, clearly the Western Bulldogs start with a better hand, just based purely on ladder position."