Rookie rules-

[saintbrat]

rather than clutter up the other thread
here are the rookie rules
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rookie_list

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 rookie draft, which occurs annually during the off-season, immediately after the 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:

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 Sydney and Greater Western Sydney from New South Wales or the ACT
Zone selections by Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast from Queensland
Players from other sports, who have not been registered with an Australian rules football club for three years

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, with the others having to be either delisted or elevated to the primary list at the time of the National Draft. Only half of the salary paid by a club to players on the rookie list counts towards the league's salary cap.

Generally speaking, a rookie-listed player cannot be selected to play in the senior AFL competition, and must play in state-level 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

[saintsRrising]

If you did not want to "clutter" up the other thread, why ask the question you did? Posting this after I have already replied is a pretty much unwarranted dig.

I answered your question querying what I stated in that thread, the appropriate thread.

[saintbrat]

If you did not want to "clutter" up the other thread, why ask the question you did? Posting this after I have already replied is a pretty much unwarranted dig.

I answered your question querying what I stated in that thread, the appropriate thread.

I didn't see your answer till after I posted this ... so absolutely no dig intended.

[Rosco]

Were they actually going to phase out the rookie list? Or was that just talk?