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The Greater Western Sydney Football Club will enter the Australian Football League (AFL) for the 2012 season. The club was founded in 2009 as an expansion team for the league, and competed in the TAC Cup in the 2010 season and the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) in the 2011 season, as well as two knockout competitions in 2011: the NAB Cup, the AFL's pre-season competition, and the Foxtel Cup. As part of its entry into the AFL, the club was granted a number of draft concessions, as well as priority access to a certain number of under-age and uncontracted players. According to the AFL, these concessions were designed "to make [the club] competitive in its formative years" and "help the new club compete with its rivals upon entering the national competition", and were similar in nature to those granted to the Gold Coast Football Club prior to its entry into the competition for the 2011 season.

Uncontracted player selections
As part of its concessions, Greater Western Sydney has access to up to 16 uncontracted players (one from each club excluding ) during the 2011 and 2012 AFL seasons.

Refers to the date the signing was announced, rather than the date on which the player actually signed, which may or may not be the same as when the signing was announced. Clubs that lose an uncontracted player to Greater Western Sydney are eligible to at least one compensation pick in the AFL Draft, depending on the age and ability of the player concerned.

2010 Draft
As part of the 2010 AFL Draft, Greater Western Sydney were granted the first eight selections in the 2011 Rookie Draft. The club used six of these selections, passing on selections seven and eight. The players selected were:
 * 1) Stephen Clifton, from North Ballarat in the Victorian Football League (VFL),
 * 2) Rhys Cooyou, from  in the West Australian Football League (WAFL),
 * 3) Jonathan Giles, from Sturt in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL),
 * 4) Andrew Phillips, from Lauderdale in the Tasmanian Football League (TFL),
 * 5) Jimmi Savage, from Norwood in the SANFL, and
 * 6) Isiah Stevens, from  in the WAFL

2011 Draft
Greater Western Sydney had 20 selections in the 2011 National Draft, and selected the following players:
 * 1. Jonathon Patton, from the Eastern Ranges in the TAC Cup,
 * 2. Stephen Coniglio, from in the West Australian Football League (WAFL),
 * 3: Dom Tyson, from the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup,
 * 4: Will Hoskin-Elliott, from the Western Jets in the TAC Cup,
 * 5: Matt Buntine, from the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup,
 * 7: Nick Haynes, from the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup,
 * 9: Adam Tomlinson, from the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup,
 * 10: Liam Sumner, from the Sandringham Dragons in the TAC Cup,
 * 11: Toby Greene, from the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup,
 * 13: Taylor Adams, from the Geelong Falcons in the TAC Cup,
 * 14: Devon Smith, from the Geelong Falcons in the TAC Cup,
 * 56: Tom Downie, from the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup,
 * 79: Setanta Ó hAilpín, from in the AFL, and
 * 87: James McDonald, from Old Xaverians in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA).

Greater Western Sydney also had selections 90, 92, 93, 94, 95 and 96, but passed on each of them. Of the 14 players selected, 12 were "first-entry"; that is, they had not been listed at an AFL club before. The two other players, Setanta Ó hAilpín and James McDonald, had previously been listed at and  respectively.

Criticism
The AFL acknowledged that Greater Western Sydney would "gain more player concessions for its inaugural squad than its predecessor AFL club Gold Coast when it enters the competition in 2012."