West Coast recruiting boss Rohan O’Brien has warned the AFL against further Americanisation of the national draft, saying there was a danger the average footy fan would lose interest if the draft became too complicated.

The Eagles used a recruiter from superstar Ben Simmons’ NBA basketball team, the Philadelphia 76ers, to help them prepare their tactical approach for this week’s draft. West Coast and Sydney made history when they became the first clubs to conduct a live trade of picks during a national draft.

With live trading and academy player bid matching now features of the annual player ballot, the draft picks clubs eventually use now bear little resemblance to the picks they enter the draft with.

O’Brien said supporters could be put off if they didn’t understand the system.

“We need to be wary of that. I’m not sure, having been inside there, how it was perceived publicly,” he said. “But there was a fair bit going on for sure and I think potentially it will only increase.

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“But there is a point that we’ve got to be careful of where we keep the fans interested and don’t drive them away.”

Play Video WATCH: AFL Football Operations Manager Steve Hocking sent Twitter into meltdown when he had a day to forget at the draft. The West Australian Video WATCH: AFL Football Operations Manager Steve Hocking sent Twitter into meltdown when he had a day to forget at the draft.

O’Brien urged the AFL to resist following the lead of the NBA and NFL, who allow players to be on-traded once they had already had their names called out by a club.

He said 18-year-old footballers were not emotionally mature enough to deal with the prospect of being juggled between teams from different States on draft night.

“I know when they get drafted they can end up anywhere, but to then have them on-traded, it’s a different step again,” O’Brien said.

“For them and their families and really for the game in general, we just have to be careful that if we do things like that, that we’ve put the right things in place so it’s done in a manner that emotionally doesn’t be a negative for both the boys and the game.”

Fremantle football manager Peter Bell, who was part of his first draft in his new role, said live trading “added a different dimension and threw up some interesting curve balls for a few of the clubs”.

Play Video The Fremantle Dockers have taken Sam Sturt, Luke Valente, Lachlan Schultz and Brett Bewley with their top four picks in the draft. Source: Docker TV The West Australian Video The Fremantle Dockers have taken Sam Sturt, Luke Valente, Lachlan Schultz and Brett Bewley with their top four picks in the draft. Source: Docker TV

Bell predicted the national draft process would continue to become more complex in future.

“Obviously there’s calls to be able to trade picks not only one year ahead, but even two years ahead. So that will take a bit of getting used to,” Bell said.

“But it seems like the AFL do follow the American trends. It does give clubs a lot of flexibility, but it does make for a very stressful environment.”

O’Brien said the Eagles only agreed to two pick swap deals with the Swans, which allowed Sydney to temporarily “hide” their second-round pick so it couldn’t be used in a bid match, after the AFL had cleared the move. It also allowed West Coast to turn a future third-round pick into a future second-round selection for next year’s national draft.

“I don’t know they were cheeky, they were certainly creative,” he said. “It worked in our favour as well, so we were happy to explore it and once it was ticked off by the AFL we were happy to be part of it.

“(Sydney) did a good job initially coming up with the whole thing and then they worked with us to get it done.”