HAWTHORN has had its attempt to list draft talent Ollie Greeves as a Next Generation Academy player rejected by the AFL.
AFL.com.au revealed last week the Hawks had put through a submission to list Greeves as an NGA product ahead of this year’s Telstra AFL Draft, which would give the club first access to selecting the potential top-20 pick.
The Hawks have been working with Greeves for more than 12 months and had applied to list him in the NGA under his Indigenous background.
But the AFL has decided against permitting Greeves as a member of the Hawks’ NGA, with the decision to knock back the bid understood to have come in recent days.
The Eastern Ranges prospect trained with Hawthorn over summer as part of the Marsh AFL Academy program and the 191cm midfielder will start the season as one of the leading ball-winners in the draft crop.
This year’s draft pool is stacked with Northern Academy and NGA prospects across the competition.
The AFL opened up its NGA rules last year, allowing clubs to match bids on players at any stage of the draft again, returning the rules to the former NGA system, which allowed Essendon to match a bid on Isaac Kako at pick No.13
