1996 AFL draft

The 1996 AFL draft was held at the conclusion of the 1996 Australian Football League (AFL) season. The inaugural rookie draft was held with the 1997 pre-season draft.

The AFL draft is the annual draft of new unsigned players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.

Clubs receive picks based on the position in which they finish on the ladder during the season, although these picks can be swapped around by teams for trading players.

Adelaide

 * Brett James from for Jonathon Ross
 * Trent Ormond-Allen from for draft pick #83
 * Clay Sampson from for Nick Pesch
 * Tim Cook and Aaron Keating from for Scott Hodges
 * Nick Laidlaw from for David Brown
 * Barry Standfield from for draft picks #32 and #47

Carlton

 * Ben Nelson and Andrew Balkwill from for Brent Heaver
 * Mick McGuane from for draft picks #19 and #65

Collingwood

 * Anthony Rocca from for Ben Wilson, Mark Orchard and draft picks #14 and #33
 * John R. Barnett from for draft pick #70
 * Richard Osborne from for draft pick #61
 * Jonathon Ross from for Brett James

Geelong

 * Hamish Simpson and Cameron Roberts from for draft pick #37
 * Tim Hargreaves from for Aaron Lord

Hawthorn

 * Aaron Lord from for Tim Hargreaves
 * Justin Crawford from for David McEwan and draft pick #17

North Melbourne

 * Kent Kingsley and Wade Kingsley from for Paul Geister

Melbourne

 * Nick Pesch from for Clay Sampson

Port Adelaide

 * Shane Bond and Brayden Lyle from for draft pick #57
 * Shayne Breuer from for Hamish Simpson, Cameron Roberts and draft picks #8 and 43
 * David Brown from for Nick Laidlaw
 * Paul Geister from for Kent Kingsley and Wade Kingsley
 * Brent Heaver from for Ben Nelson and Andrew Balkwill
 * Scott Hodges from for Aaron Keating and Tim Cook
 * For zone and uncontracted player selections see below

Richmond

 * Trent Nichols from for draft pick #50

St Kilda

 * Troy Gray from for draft pick #34

Sydney

 * Mark Orchard and Ben Wilson from for Anthony Rocca
 * David McEwan from for Justin Crawford

West Coast

 * Ilija Grgic from for Luke Trew and draft pick #20

Western Bulldogs

 * Simon Minton-Connell from for draft pick #29
 * Luke Trew from for Ilija Grgic

1997 rookie draft
The first AFL rookie draft was held on 25 February 1997. Only players aged between 18 and 23 were eligible to be drafted. Whilst each club could draft up to six players onto their Rookie Lists, only, and  selected a full complement, whilst  and  declined to take part.

Port Adelaide zone selections
As part of Port Adelaide's entry to the AFL they were entitled to recruit some uncontracted players from other AFL clubs and players from the SANFL prior to the national draft. Clubs that lost players were entitled to compensation selections before both the first and second rounds of the 1996 national draft.

Uncontracted player selection

 * Ian Downsborough : compensation selections #1 (Michael Gardiner) and #24 (Josh Wooden)
 * Gavin Wanganeen : compensation selections #2 (Chris Heffernan) and #25 (Andrew Bomford)
 * Matthew Primus : compensation selections #3 (Rory Hilton) and #26 (Tim Notting) to
 * Adam Heuskes : compensation selections #4 (Mark Kinnear) and #27 (Troy Cook)
 * Scott Cummings : compensation selections #5 (Daniel McAlister) and #28 (Jason Johnson)

Brisbane Lions pre-draft selections
As part of the conditions of the merger between Brisbane Bears and the Fitzroy Football Club, Brisbane was able to recruit up to eight players from Fitzroy into the newly created Brisbane Lions.


 * Scott Bamford
 * John Barker
 * Brad Boyd
 * Nick Carter
 * Shane Clayton
 * Simon Hawking
 * Chris Johnson
 * Jarrod Molloy