Draft concessions for Greater Western Sydney announced by the AFL on Tuesday are geared towards the acquisition of established players ahead of the club's entry into the competition in 2012.
The concessions broadly mirror those in place for GC17 with a handful of exceptions including access to four 17-year-olds who must be traded to rival clubs, zoned access to players from NSW/ACT and the Northern Territory, and the ability to sign up to 16 uncontracted players over two years.
GWS will have the first pick in each round of the 2011 national draft along with selections 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 15 which is the same as GC17's entitlements for 2010.
Other concessions include:
* The right to select up to 12 17-year-olds at the end of 2010 with the option to relocate to Sydney for the 2011 season
* GWS to have selections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 at the 2010 rookie draft
* Capacity to pre-list 10 players who had previously nominated for the AFL draft or were previously listed with an AFL club and capacity to sign up to 16 uncontracted players over 2011-12
AFL legal and business affairs manager, Andrew Dillon, believes that granting access to four 17-year-olds who must be traded in the 2011 and 2012 post-seasons will provide GWS with four experienced players and rival clubs with an incentive to trade.
"It's to make it more attractive for the current AFL clubs potentially to allow one of their players to leave," said Dillon.
"It's just to give (GWS) something to trade with given that they won't have a list of players."
"Because (the player) has to be traded ... it gives them some flexibility but also to guide their hand and make it attractive for (rival) AFL clubs to lose a player as well."
Dillon forecast a competitive debut season from GWS but was not prepared to nominate just how many games the club was expected to win.
"It's not getting beaten by large amounts, it's winning games at home, but it's not four games, six, games, eight games," he said.
"It's more the style of football they play and how they play and also more crucially how they can build for the medium to long-term."
"It really will come down to what players they identify, how they get them to the club, how well they're developed when they're there,
"But you would hope in a five-to-seven year period that they're up there on an equal footing able to fight for the finals."
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the league was confident its $200 million commitment - $120 million into GWS over six years plus $80 million in funding for grass roots development in NSW - would prove a sound investment.
"It's a long-term strategy that we will see the benefits of, we hope, 10, 20 years down the track," said Demetriou.
"It's the right time, the right opportunity and we'll give it our best."
Meanwhile Demetriou said he hoped the appointment of former Manly CEO Grant Mayer as GWS's corporate promotions manager would be the start of a long-term relationship.
He said the AFL had fielded numerous approaches from leading figures in rivals codes about employment prospects with GWS.
"He'll bring a degree of expertise that would have taken is years and years to acquire so that sort of quality person is really important," Demetriou said of Mayer.
"The fact that people from other codes are approaching us to get involved is a real confidence boost."