THE AFL will put its Draft Combine in America on hold this year as the League prioritises Ireland in its search for international talent.

The AFL has travelled to the US annually since 2012 to hold the trials for American athletes in a bid to add more ruck and key position players to the club ranks.

AFL club recruiters have also often headed to Los Angeles to scout the prospects at the Combine, which has hosted college basketballers, soccer players and footballers from around America in their bid to land a professional sports career.

But the AFL informed clubs at a meeting of recruiters on Wednesday it has paused the US Combine for at least this year, with more of a focus to be placed on building its footprint in Ireland.

"We haven't dismissed it in the future, and we'll still scout to see what prospects are around," the AFL's national talent manager Kevin Sheehan told AFL.com.au.

"The collective Combine for this year we won't go with. But that won't stop clubs from going to scout individually."

International athletes are essentially free agents and can sign with a club at any time. Eric Wallace was the first graduate from the US Combine, joining North Melbourne in 2012.

Jason Holmes at St Kilda was another to have come out of the Combine and make an AFL list, while Collingwood's Mason Cox is its biggest success, having starred at the 2014 testing then heading to trial at several AFL clubs before choosing the Magpies. He has played 20 games for Collingwood.

The AFL generally holds its Irish Combine in December each year, and is set to boost its investment there with more scouting and better development programs on the ground.

Recruiters at the meeting also received an update on the AFL's plans for its NAB AFL Academy program, which appears headed for a restructure later this year.

As reported by AFL.com.au earlier this month, the League has been canvassing clubs about its hopes to expand the pool of draft prospects under the guidance of the AFL each year.

One option floated has been to streamline the Academy to be a more over-arching program that sees five talent 'hubs' set up around the country based around the same teams that compete in the division one under-18 carnival – Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia, Western Australia and the Allies.

The AFL believes this concept would see a bigger group of draft hopefuls benefiting from more specialised pathways, although an investment into the state Academy programs could see the League end its high performance camp in America for its top talents.

The Academy has travelled to Florida and other parts of the US the past four years for a training camp, having been to Europe and South Africa for international tours before that.

A formal proposal about the possible restructure of the national Academy system is yet to be officially tabled.