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Rookie list
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rookie List is a means for Australian Football League clubs to maintain additional players outside of the 38-man primary list.
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In order to be eligible for rookie status, players generally must be between 18 and 23 years of age. However, each team can select one older player, providing they have not been on a primary or rookie list previously. One notable exception to this is the case of Adam Ramanauskas at Essendon. Special dispensation was granted to allow the club to place the 26-year-old Ramanauskas, who had played over 100 AFL games, on the list due to his ongoing fight against cancer.[1]
Rookies are usually placed on the list via the Rookie Draft, which occurs annually during the off-season, immediately after the Pre-Season Draft. However, to encourage investment in local players, Brisbane and Sydney are additionally allowed to recruit eligible rookies who have resided for at least three years in Queensland or New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory respectively.
Each club is allowed to maintain a list of up to six eligible players, whilst Brisbane and Sydney can list a maximum of nine. Up to three rookies can be retained 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, and in general they cannot be selected to play. However, any club that has less than two veterans outside of its primary list can nominate two rookies to be available for normal selection. In addition, teams can promote a rookie temporarily to replace a senior player who has been moved to the long-term injury list.
From 2006 onwards, clubs have been additionally allowed to sign up to two international rookies each year. The total number is limited to a maximum of six players at any one time, and payments do not count towards the salary cap. Players may remain international rookies for three years, instead of the usual two.
In order to be eligible players must be aged between 15 and 23, and cannot be Australian citizens. Additionally, in order to protect the AFL's relationship with the Gaelic Athletic Association, Irish players do not qualify, and as such most be signed to either a club's primary or rookie list.[2]