The changes have been made after clubs continued to make clear their annoyance at Greater Western Sydney's priority access to players from the football-strong Riverina region. Clubs have questioned why the Giants have easy access to players they have had little or no contact with prior to their emergence in their draft year. Under one change, the northern clubs will be required to lodge an individual development plan for each player at state or national academy level with the AFL at the start of each season. The clubs are able to spend $25,000 per academy player outside the salary cap each year, in some cases helping them relocate and covering school fees. The northern clubs will have to outline to the AFL their planned contact or meeting schedule with each player as part of his plan.

The plans must also detail each player's intended match schedule and list any specific skill development focus areas or other activities planned for the player through the year. The clubs must make their players available for medical testing at any time at the request of the AFL, and run any changes to a player's plan by the AFL for approval. The league told clubs in the memo sent out this week that all the individual development plans would be reviewed and "where necessary validated" at the end of each season. They also said discussions would continue with each northern club on the "investment and programs they deliver in each region to warrant the access to players/discounts." Greater Western Sydney's region has come under strong and constant criticism from other clubs, who believe the Giants' region will allow them access to an annual string of players.

They believe good players will always emerge from the Riverina in particular, without the club necessarily having to invest much time or effort in the region to ensure this is the case. The broad objective of the northern academies was originally to grow the game in areas of Australia where Australian Rules football is not the first choice sport of young athletes. The Giants recently signed key forward Todd Marshall and ruckman Max Lynch, who have both returned to football from other sports and were identified by the Murray Bushrangers late last year. Both have made bright starts to the year. Marshall, a former cricketer, and Lynch, a soccer goalkeeper, had the option of entering the draft having had no previous involvement with the GWS Academy but have chosen to sign on. That each player's development plan must be submitted prior to the season - in January - casts some doubts over the club's future right to similarly late developers.

The Giants will this year go without their part-time scouts in South Australia and Western Australia because they have access to so many talented academy prospects and no real need to consider players from other states. Defender Harrison Macreadie shapes as a very early pick in this year's draft for the club, who last year drafted three first-rounders in Jacob Hopper, Matt Kennedy and Harry Himmelberg. Albury player Will Setterfield, who moved to boarding school in Melbourne for Year 10, is highly regarded, with utility Harry Perryman from Collingullie-GP in strong early-season form. Zac Sproule and Kobe Mutch were part of this year's AFL Academy with Macreadie and Setterfield, with Canberra's Tom Highmore and Jacob Turner from Temora shaping as other potential draftees. The players the Giants decide not to match bids for under the new draft night system will be claimed by the clubs that bid for them, or be available again to the Giants as rookies.