View source for Rookie list

{{Short description|Australian rules football player type}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
[[File:Luke Breust 2018.3.jpg|thumb|right|[[Luke Breust]] holds the record for most AFL games played by a player recruited from the rookie draft, with 300 matches and counting.]]
The '''rookie list''' is a means for [[Australian Football League]] (AFL) clubs to maintain additional players outside the 38-man primary or senior list. Category B rookie-listed players are not eligible to play in AFL home-and-away or finals matches unless they are elevated to the senior list, either to replace a retired player or a player with a long-term injury.

==Recruitment==
There are two categories of rookie: Category A and Category B. Category A primarily represents players with a traditional Australian rules football development; Category B rookies are players from non-traditional recruiting backgrounds. Category A rookies are usually placed on the list via the [[AFL Draft#Rookie draft|rookie draft]], which occurs annually during the off-season, immediately after the [[AFL Pre-season Draft|pre-season draft]]. As is the case with the AFL's other drafts, clubs are given the opportunity to select rookies in reverse ladder order, based on the previous season's results.

Several types of Category A rookies may be recruited directly by the clubs, without the need to put up for draft (although all such players are recorded against a late draft pick as a formality). This includes:
* International rookies
* Father-son selections – which are permitted only if the player has nominated for and not been selected in a National Draft

===Category B rookies===
Each club is permitted to recruit up to three "Category B" rookies. Category B rookies are recruited directly rather than drafted, and represent players from non-traditional recruiting backgrounds. Players who may be recruited as Category B rookies include:<ref name="details" />
*International players, who are neither Australian citizens nor residents
*Players from the New South Wales scholarship program
*Players from the International scholarship program
*Zone selections by {{AFL Syd}} and {{AFL GWS}} from New South Wales or the ACT
*Zone selections by {{AFL BL}} and {{AFL GC}} from Queensland
*Players from other sports, who have not been registered with an Australian rules football club for three years
*Indigenous and multicultural players through their Next Generation Academy zones

In the specific case of Irish international rookies, a club may have no more than one Irish Category B rookie at a time; but, the club is permitted to recruit other Irish players as Category A rookies, and may still recruit them directly without putting them up for draft.

==List maintenance==
Each club is allowed to maintain a list of up to six eligible Category A rookies and three Category B rookies. Up to three rookies can be retained, with the player's permission for a second or third season,<ref>{{cite news | author=Murnane, Justin | url=http://www.aflpa.com.au/index.cfm?id=E8FF57A2-D05F-2987-BFC3195520041CA6 | title=2007 Key Draft Dates and Information | publisher=AFL Players Association | date=2007-10-29 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721003459/http://www.aflpa.com.au/index.cfm?id=E8FF57A2-D05F-2987-BFC3195520041CA6 | archive-date=21 July 2008 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> with the others having to be either delisted or elevated to the primary list at the time of the [[AFL Draft#National Draft|National Draft]]. Only half of the salary paid by a club to players on the rookie list counts towards the league's [[Salary cap#Australian Football League|salary cap]].

Generally speaking, a rookie-listed player cannot be selected to play in the senior AFL competition, and must play in state-level [[Australian Football League reserves affiliations|affiliated teams]], except in two circumstances:
* At the start of a season, a club can nominate up to two veterans from its senior list for salary cap reasons; if a team does not have a full quota of veterans, it can make up the balance by nominating rookies to be eligible for senior selection. These players are known as nominated rookies.
* If a senior-listed player is moved onto the long-term injury list, a rookie-listed player can be temporarily elevated in his place, becoming eligible for senior selection, while the senior player remains injured.
There are usually plenty of opportunities to enact one of these rules, so rookie-listed players who are playing well enough for senior selection are seldom deprived of the opportunity by list management constraints.

==History==
The rookie list was established in 1997. It was initially aimed at providing recruitment opportunities for young players, in part filling a gap which had been left by the reduction in size of AFL lists from 52 to 42 players in 1994. At that time, rookie players must have been between the ages of 18 and 23 to qualify.<ref name="details">{{cite web|url=http://www.afl.com.au/afl-hq/the-afl-explained/rookie-players|title=Rookie players|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref> In 2006, this was relaxed to allow each club to recruit a rookie older than 23 if he had never previously been on an AFL list. This has since been relaxed further, and now there no upper age or experience restrictions on Category A rookies.

In 2006, "International rookies" were identified for the first time as a separate class of rookie, covering international players from any countries except Ireland, in order to protect the AFL's relationship with the [[Gaelic Athletic Association]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Quayle |first=Emma |url=http://newsstore.theage.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?docID=AGE060825D07L16MT7PN |title=Clubs to get new overseas talent scheme |publisher=The Age |date=2006-08-25 |access-date=2007-05-11 | location=Melbourne}}</ref> The "International rookie" category has since been expanded to the broader Category B.

The relaxing of eligibility criteria have resulted a notable semantic anomaly with the rookie list: that highly experienced players may serve on a club's rookie list, even though the word "[[rookie]]" is widely understood in most sports and professions to refer to a new or inexperienced person. For example, {{AFL Car}}'s [[Heath Scotland]] spent his sixteenth and final AFL season on Carlton's rookie list, mostly to free up space on the club's primary list.<ref name="rookiedraft">{{cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/carltonwood-blues-pick-another-exmagpie-in-rookie-draft-20131127-2y8ob.html|title=Carltonwood: Blues pick another ex-Magpie in rookie draft|date=27 November 2013|newspaper=The Age|publication-place=Melbourne, VIC|access-date=27 November 2013}}</ref>

Before eligibility criteria were relaxed, special dispensation was granted for [[Adam Ramanauskas]] to be played on [[Essendon Football Club|Essendon]]'s rookie list in 2006. Ramanauskas had played over 100 AFL games for the club, but there was uncertainty over his playing future as he underwent treatment and recovery for cancer.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rielly |first=Stephen |url=http://newsstore.theage.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?docID=AGE0611228ON984GPC8E |title='Rama' rookie-listing gets nod |publisher=The Age |date=2006-11-22 |access-date=2007-05-11 | location=Melbourne}}</ref>

In 2014, [[Matt Priddis|Matthew Priddis]] was awarded the [[Brownlow Medal]] as the AFL's best and fairest player. Polling 26 votes, Priddis became the first player to win the award having begun his career on the rookie list.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brownlow shock: West Coast long-shot Matt Priddis sweeps to win in thrilling count|url=https://www.afl.com.au/news/73900/brownlow-shock-west-coast-long-shot-matt-priddis-sweeps-to-win-in-thrilling-count|access-date=2021-07-08|website=afl.com.au|date=22 September 2014 |language=en}}</ref> 

==Future==
The [[AFL Players' Association|Australian Football League Players' Association]] (AFLPA) has stated a desire to abolish the rookie list, in favour of an expanded 46 player roster. The AFLPA's main argument is that rookies now have the same workload as senior players &ndash; which was not necessarily true in the early days of the rookie list &ndash; but that their pay and opportunities are much lower than that of senior players.<ref>Warner, M., [http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/aflpa-push-to-axe-rookie-list/story-e6frf9jf-1226018000524 Herald Sun], "AFLPA push to axe rookie list", 9 March 2011, Retrieved 27 March 2011.</ref>

==Most successful rookies==
Some of the most successful players (having played over 100 AFL games and/or kicked over 100 goals in the AFL) originally drafted into the AFL via the rookie system<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/sporting-life/2005/12/14/1134500913669.html?page=2 | location=Melbourne | work=The Age | title=Sporting life | date=2005-12-15}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081218020143/http://afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=70812 afl.com.au] History's best bargains</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101119105522/http://www.afl.com.au/development/nabaflrisingstarsprogram/nabafldraft/drafthistory/rookiedraft/tabid/15530/default.aspx afl.com.au] AFL Rookie Draft History</ref> are:
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Tom Atkins (footballer) | Tom Atkins]]
* [[Liam Baker]]
* [[Michael Barlow]]
* [[Nathan Bassett]]
* [[Jarryd Blair]]
* [[Mark Blicavs]]
* [[Nathan Bock]]
* [[Matthew Boyd (Australian footballer)|Matthew Boyd]]
* [[Luke Breust]]
* [[Dean Brogan]]
* [[Greg Broughton]]
* [[Shannon Byrnes]]
* [[Charlie Cameron (footballer, born 1994)|Charlie Cameron]]
* [[Levi Casboult]]
* [[Jason Castagna]]
* [[Andrew Carrazzo]]
* [[Robert Copeland (footballer)|Robert Copeland]]
* [[Dean Cox (Australian footballer)|Dean Cox]]
* [[Stewart Crameri]]
* [[Ed Curnow]]
* [[Aaron Davey]]
* [[Matthew de Boer|Matt de Boer]]
* [[Michael Doughty (Australian footballer)|Michael Doughty]]
* [[Paul Duffield]]
* [[Aaron Edwards]]
* [[Michael Firrito]]
* [[Chad Fletcher]]
* [[Nathan Foley (footballer)|Nathan Foley]]
* [[Josh Gibson (footballer)|Josh Gibson]]
* [[Antoni Grover]]
* [[Heath Grundy]]
* [[Jarrod Harbrow]]
* [[Pearce Hanley]]
* [[Leigh Harding]]
* [[Roger Hayden]]
* [[Jack Henry (footballer, born 1998) | Jack Henry]]
* [[Kieren Jack]]
* [[Sam Jacobs (footballer)|Sam Jacobs]]
* [[Mark Jamar]]
* [[Mark Johnson (footballer)|Mark Johnson]]
* [[Darren Jolly]]
* [[Brett Jones (footballer)|Brett Jones]]
* [[Tadhg Kennelly]]
* [[Jake King]]
* [[Brett Kirk]]
* [[Rory Laird]]
* [[Kane Lambert]]
* [[Tarkyn Lockyer]]
* [[Nathan Lovett-Murray]]
* [[Heritier Lumumba]]
* [[Quinten Lynch]]
* [[Martin Mattner]]
* [[Nick Maxwell]]
* [[Sam Menegola]]
* [[James McDonald (Australian footballer)|James McDonald]]
* [[Jeremy McGovern]]
* [[Ben McGlynn]]
* [[Mal Michael]]
* [[Stephen Milne]]
* [[Dale Morris]]
* [[Shane Mumford]]
* [[Robin Nahas]]
* [[Mark Nicoski]]
* [[Michael Osborne (footballer)|Michael Osborne]]
* [[Joel Patfull]]
* [[Danyle Pearce]]
* [[Damien Peverill]]
* [[Liam Picken]]
* [[James Podsiadly]]
* [[Jason Porplyzia]]
* [[Matt Priddis]]
* [[Dean Rioli]]
* [[Russell Robertson]]
* [[Max Rooke]]
* [[Ben Rutten]]
* [[Aaron Sandilands]]
* [[Brad Sewell]]
* [[Jayden Short]]
* [[Cheynee Stiller]]
* [[Bret Thornton]]
* [[Greg Tivendale]]
* [[Shane Tuck]]
* [[Zach Tuohy]]
* [[Clinton Young]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Australian rules football terminology}}
{{Afldraft}}
{{AFL Women's drafts}}

[[Category:Australian Football League]]
[[Category:Australian Football League draft]]
[[Category:AFL Women's draft]]
[[Category:Australian rules football terminology]]