That's my understanding too. At present, AFL players have to consent to being traded. That's different to the NBA and maybe other US major leagues. Until the AFLPA is prepared to give this up, live trading of players on draft night isn't going to happen.
I can conjure up some scenarios where a mid draft pick trade might happen but they are few and far between and I doubt the competence of most clubs to execute them.
Say it's the 2017 draft and it gets to pick 14 - Sydney. The Swans had been hopeful ( but not optimistic that a particular player might slip to them but he's been taken a couple of picks earlier. Their next preferred player is Ling, but they think he is probably gettable with a pick in the early 20s. On the other hand, they have their eye on McCartin at pick 30 but they are worried he might go in the late 20s. There's another club with picks (say) 19 and 27 so they sound out that club about swapping 14 and 30 for 19 and 27. In practice, they'd probably have identified the scenario and possible trade partner before the draft started because otherwise the process would be impractical. But even if they had, they'd need to be pretty confident that a club wasn't going to snap up Ling in the next few picks.
As I've already said, I think such scenarios would be pretty rare. Plus executing them would depend on there being another club with the right combination of picks that sees value for them in doing the trade.
I see more value in allowing clubs to continue to trade picks after the end of the trade period, right up to the start of the draft. As the draft approaches, clubs will form better views on their targets and the likely draft ranges of those targets. I'm not convinced of the benefit of introducing a long, drawn out draft process to enable mid draft trading.
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