THE AFL will closely monitor where star academy prospects attract bids at this month's NAB AFL Draft, but the League is confident they will come at picks that reflect their talent.
Some clubs have raised concerns about the bidding process after the trade period, which saw several clubs early in the order involved in deals.
Callum Mills (Sydney Swans), Jacob Hopper and Matthew Kennedy (Greater Western Sydney) and Ben Keays and Eric Hipwood (Brisbane Lions) are all academy players tipped to be taken in the first round on November 24 in Adelaide.
Many recruiters rate midfielders Mills, Hopper and Kennedy inside the first five or six players in this year's draft pool, but a number of clubs fear bids may not be placed on the highly rated players until deeper into the draft.
But the AFL's head of competition integrity Brett Clothier, also one of the leading forces behind the new points-based bidding system, told AFL.com.au's Road to the Draft podcast the League did not believe clubs would do deals that encouraged no early bids.
"Obviously we have a real problem with collusion and if any clubs were colluding not to bid on players, we would come down terribly, terribly hard on that. The question is whether you can prove that obviously," Clothier said.
"Like any new system, we'll be looking at what happens on draft night this year and in future years and deciding the best way to respond to that.
"But I think the important thing to remember is there's an awful lot of clubs who are potential bidders on players, so I think it'd be pretty hard for the collusion to be really effective."
The bidding system will be a live element of draft night for the first time this year, with the selection process to be undertaken through a computer program.
Recruiting teams will sit in a separate room to the crowd and players at the Adelaide Convention Centre, and selections will be broadcast to the room once they are put through the application built for the night.
Before this year, the bidding meeting for academy and father-son prospects was held on the opening morning of trade period. Clothier said collusion concerns had been raised before regarding which clubs make bids.
"It's something we'll monitor closely. Even when we had the bidding process at the start of [trade period] there were questions raised about collusion in that context," Clothier said.
"That's something we're constantly looking at, and this system is no different. We want to minimise the incentives and opportunities for collusion."
The bidding system will create a fluid draft order, with selections to move up and down throughout the night as bids are matched.
The system is complex but has been designed to make clubs pay closer to market value for top-end players on a consistent basis.
Clothier said the League sees the bidding system as a long-term part of the player movement and draft landscape.
"We don't set around to make these changes to make everyone's life harder," Clothier said.
"We really looked at this in a long-term way and we decided that if the club academy model is something there's a future in, we actually need a sophisticated system that can handle lots of players coming through."
