West Coast premiership player Karl Langdon has slammed the way some AFL clubs are using the rookie list, saying it’s become an “absolute rort”.
It comes after North Melbourne committed to selecting Jared Polec in the rookie draft after being delisted with two years to run on a big-money contract.
Fremantle looks all but certain to re-select delisted pair Mitch Crowden and Connor Blakely on rookie deals for 2022.
“A rookie draft is for picking blokes like Dean Cox, Chad Fletcher, Quinton Lynch. Blokes who have never played a game of AFL football,” Langdon told Sportsday WA.
“They’ve turned this part of the game into an absolute rort. It stinks and it’s time that it ends.
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“I’ve got no problem if they want to change the name, but you cannot have blokes we’ve just talked about being put on a rookie list. It makes no sense.
“You know what shouldn’t be allowed? How do you have a bloke that you’ve just described in that scenario, at 29 years of age and has played 141 games of AFL footy and they can put him on as a rookie?
“It’s junk. It’s actually a way to manipulate the system. It’s the AFL’s fault. They’ve allowed it to happen.”
Retired pair Eddie Betts and Lachie Henderson played several games off the rookie list for Carlton and Geelong respectively in 2021.