The 2015 Australian Football League draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League can trade and recruit players following the completion of the 2015 AFL season. Additions to each club's playing list are not allowed at any other time during the year. The key dates for the trading and drafting periods were:
Academy players to be nominated by 15 September. With a bidding process held on 24 November along with father–son selections during the national draft.
The free agency offer period; held between 9 October and 18 October. Three further free agency periods are held for delisted players, between 31 October and 9 November, 11 November to 20 November, and 25 November to 26 November.
The 2016 pre-season draft; which was to be held on 27 November, but was cancelled when all clubs declined to take part, and
The 2016 rookie draft; which was held on 27 November.
Additionally, following the guilty verdicts handed down to 34 past and present Essendon players in January 2016 for doping violations, Essendon was given the opportunity to recruit top-up players between January and March 2016.
The initial list of free agents, published in March 2015, consisted of 74 unrestricted and restricted free agents, however, 35 of those players re-signed and 15 retired during or after the home-and-away season.
For the first time, clubs were allowed to trade future selections from the next year's draft as well as the current draft. Geelong became the first AFL club to trade a future draft pick on 14 October 2015 when they traded their 2016 first round pick to Carlton for Lachie Henderson.
#
Player
Traded from
Traded to
Traded for
Ref
1
1
1
2
3
first round pick
4
4
5
6
7
7
7
8
second round pick
9
9
10
10
11
third round pick
11
third round pick
12
12
13
14
fifth round pick
15
15
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
17
second round pick
17
18
18
second round pick
18
18
second round pick
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
20
20
20
first round pick
21
22
22
23
23
23
23
first round pick
23
first round pick
24
24
24
first round pick
25
26
26
26
27
27
28
28
second round pick
28
28
28
28
28
28
third round pick
29
29
30
30
third round pick
31
32
32
32
32
33
fourth round pick
33
fourth round pick
34
34
second round pick
;Note:
The numbering of the draft picks in this list may be different to the agreed draft picks at the time of the trade, due to adjustments from either the insertion of free agency compensation draft picks or clubs exiting the draft before later rounds.
The 2015 AFL national draft was held on 24 November 2015 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. For the first time, live bidding occurred during the draft for selections made under the father–son rule and from the northern state's development academies, whereby each draft selection is allocated a points value. Clubs nominating a player were forced to use their existing draft selections to match the points value of the pick used by the club bidding for the player.
Draft-eve selection order, club by club, and points value of each pick
Academy player; Gold Coast's bid matched with pick 11
1
8
WAFL
Traded from
1
9
Eastern Ranges
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
1
10
Gippsland Power
TAC Cup
Traded from
1
11
SANFL
Traded from
1
12
Geelong Falcons
TAC Cup
Traded from
1
13
Collingullie-Glenfield Park
RFNL
Academy player; Richmond's bid matched with picks 34 and 40
1
14
NEAFL
Academy player; Richmond's bid matched with picks 36 and 37
1
15
North Ballarat Rebels
TAC Cup
1
16
Mangoplah-CUE
RFNL
Academy player; Adelaide's bid matched with picks 48, 50, 55 and 59
1
17
Geelong Falcons
TAC Cup
1
18
Northern Knights
TAC Cup
Traded from
1
19
SANFL
Traded from
1
20
Northern Knights
TAC Cup
Traded from
1
21
Gippsland Power
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
1
22
TSL
1
23
Oakleigh Chargers
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from ; received from via a trade in 2012; received from in 2011; compensation pick from 2011
2
24
NEAFL
Academy player; Western Bulldogs' bid matched with Brisbane's next pick
2
25
Gippsland Power
TAC Cup
Traded from ; father-son eligible, but did not match bid
2
26
Dandenong Stingrays
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
2
27
North Ballarat Rebels
TAC Cup
Traded from
2
28
SANFL
Traded from ; received from
2
29
Oakleigh Chargers
TAC Cup
Traded from
2
30
SANFL
Traded from
2
31
Eastern Ranges
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
2
32
Northern Knights
TAC Cup
Traded from
2
33
TSL
Traded from ; received from ; received from ; received from ; received from
2
34
WAFL
Traded from, received from
2
35
WAFL
2
36
Bendigo Pioneers
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
2
37
SANFL
Traded from
2
38
Sandringham Dragons
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
3
39
Geelong Falcons
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from ; free agency compensation pick
3
40
Dandenong Stingrays
TAC Cup
3
41
Narrandera
RFNL
Academy player; Melbourne's bid matched with GWS' next pick
3
42
Murray Bushrangers
TAC Cup
3
43
NEAFL
Traded from ; academy eligible, but did not match bid
3
44
Eastern Ranges
TAC Cup
Traded from
3
45
Bendigo Pioneers
TAC Cup
Traded from ; received from
3
46
Dandenong Stingrays
TAC Cup
Traded from
3
47
Gippsland Power
TAC Cup
Traded from
3
48
SANFL
3
49
Dandenong Stingrays
TAC Cup
Father–son rule selection ; Richmond's bid matched with St Kilda's next pick
3
50
SANFL
3
51
Northern Knights
TAC Cup
Traded from
3
52
TSL
Traded from
3
53
Oakleigh Chargers
TAC Cup
Father–son rule selection ; Essendon's bid matched with Carlton's next pick
3
54
VFL
Traded from
4
55
VFL
Traded from
4
56
SANFL
4
57
Dandenong Stingrays
TAC Cup
Traded from
4
58
Oakleigh Chargers
TAC Cup
4
59
TSL
4
60
WAFL
4
61
WAFL
4
62
SANFL
5
63
VFL
Traded from ; received from
5
64
North Ballarat Rebels
TAC Cup
5
65
Oakleigh Chargers
TAC Cup
5
66
WAFL
5
67
WAFL
6
68
VFL
6
69
Mount Gravatt
QAFL
7
70
SANFL
; Notes
Compensation picks are selections in addition to the normal order of selection, allocated to clubs by the AFL as compensation for losing uncontracted players to the new expansion clubs, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. The picks can be held for up to five years and clubs declare at the beginning of the season of their intent to utilise the pick at the end of the season. Picks could be traded to other clubs in return for players or other draft selections.
Free agency compensation picks are additional selections awarded to teams based on their net loss of players during the free agency trade period.
Academy players are local zone selections available to the four NSW and Queensland clubs. Both academy and father-son selections are subject to a bidding process, where the club with the family or academy connection must match any opposition club's bid with their next available selection.
Rookie elevations
Clubs were able to promote any player who was listed on their rookie list in 2015 to their 2016 primary playing list prior to the draft. In total, 14 players were promoted.
Player
Club
2016 rookie draft
The 2016 AFL rookie draft was held on 27 November 2015. The official rookie draft order was released on 26 November and each club, with the exception of who are still operating with an expanded list, can have between four and six players on their rookie list, as long as they have a maximum of 44 players on their combined primary and rookie lists. The pre-season draft was not held as all eligible clubs informed the AFL they would not be participating.
Player breakdown
A total of 134 players were drafted across the national and rookie drafts. The following is a breakdown of players drafted by position and the league they were drafted from:
Defender – 16
Half-back – 14
Midfielder – 49
Half-forward – 22
Forward – 19
Ruckman – 10
Utility – 3
The TAC Cup was the league with the highest number of players drafted, with forty-five in total. The Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup had the most players drafted out of any team with seven players.
Essendon top-up signings
On 12 January 2016, thirty-four past and present Essendon Football Club players – twelve of whom were still on the Essendon list – were suspended until November 2016 after being found guilty of being injected with the banned substance thymosin beta-4 during the 2012 season, significantly compromising Essendon's playing list for 2016. The club received permission to augment its list by recruiting up to ten top-up players from lower levels on contracts which would last until 31 October 2016. The club was limited to players who had been on an AFL list in either 2014 or 2015, with no more than one player to be taken from any state-level club; or, it could recruit any VFL-listed player from its own reserves team without restriction.
