THE AFL expects the Brisbane Lions will apply for a priority pick this year, but has yet to consider whether the Lions will become the first team to receive such assistance since the rules were changed in 2012.
Before 2012, teams received priority selections at the NAB AFL Draft if they had five wins or fewer during the season.
But in February 2012 the AFL decided priority picks would be awarded at the discretion of the AFL commission, and only in exceptional circumstances.
The commission has yet to exercise its discretionary power despite applications from clubs including Melbourne in 2014 (after finishing 16th, 17th and 17th in the previous three seasons, with a combined total of 10 wins) and the Lions and Carlton (13th and 18th in the previous two seasons, with 11 wins) last year.
'Half our team shouldn't be playing': Leppitsch
In coach Justin Leppitsch's time, the Lions have finished 15th in 2014, 17th last season and again sit second last this season, having won 13 of 63 games in that time.
AFL chief executive Gill McLachlan said on Tuesday he had not thought about whether an priority pick application by the Lions would have any chance of success.
"It's about that time, three or four weeks to the end (of the season), that it gets raised," McLachlan said.
"I'm sure Brisbane will put it on the table and we'll address it then."
In the past, the AFL has awarded priority picks before the first round of the draft and at the end of the first round.
McLachlan was talking at the launch of the inaugural Pride Game, which will be played between St Kilda and the Sydney Swans at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
The AFL CEO was asked about Leppitsch's comments after the Lions' 138-point loss to Adelaide that the Lions had been "given nothing as a footy club" compared to the concessions bestowed on expansion clubs Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney.
McLachlan said he had taken Leppitsch's comments in the context that he had just suffered a demoralising loss and was under "a lot of pressure", but ruled out reintroducing salary cap allowances for the Lions.
"He's got a heap of injuries and when you've been beaten by 20 goals I can imagine how hard that press conference is," McLachlan said.
"We'll work with them. They are receiving substantial investment from the AFL. I think Justin was probably talking beyond that into additional salary cap. I think that was the concessions he was talking about.
"I can be clear on that – everyone in 2017 will be playing off the same salary cap.
"We've worked hard over the last two or three years to take the swings and roundabouts and the advantages out of our game."
McLachlan said the on- and off-field resurgences of Port Adelaide and Melbourne in recent years were examples of how quickly the Lions could get back on track.
"Clubs go through different periods, and our job is to be there when clubs are at rock bottom to support them and help them make the right decisions so they have the right people in the right slots and go forward," McLachlan said.
"If they do that history says we have a system that rewards percentage decision making."
