Draft Preview: The intrigue around the 2026 class

With the AFL season wrapped up and the Trade Deadline passed, only the AFL Draft remains on the league's 2026 calendar.

A night where dreams come true, the next crop of our game's best talents will land at their first AFL clubs in one of the competition's most exciting nights.

And with just one month before Essendon are officially on the clock with Pick 1, draft expert Mick Ablett has previewed some of the talents making up the upper echelon of this year's class.

The 2026 class brings some serious excitement, with an even spread across the top 10 making it difficult to predict where each top talent will land at the National Draft on November 19.

While Port Adelaide NGA talent Dougie Cochrane all but locked in for a bid at Pick 1, and Carlton father-son Cody Walker widely regarded as the second-best talent on the board, the top two talents are fairly clear and have been well covered over the course of 2026.

However, it’s the depth of the remaining talents and the curiosity around the talents beyond that intrigue Ablett.

“This draft does bat deep,” Ablett told SEN’s The Captain’s Run.

“It’s a midfield, half-forward, half-back type of draft, and as we know, the game is being played quite significantly off half back these days, with the ability to run and overlap.

“It’s going to be interesting.”

Essendon currently holds the first overall pick in the draft, opting against splitting the pick over the trade period.

With the Dons expected to bid on Cochrane at Pick 1, their call on what will become the second pick is still up in the air.

“If you go back a few years now, I remember the Adelaide Crows had Pick 1 and called Jamarra Ugle-Hagan ahead of Riley Thilthorpe,” Ablett continued.

“It was the Bulldogs that ended up with the number one pick. I’m really hoping that Essendon this year do call Dougie Cochrane or Cody Walker with Pick 1. We are hearing it’s likely to be Cochrane.

“What that will then do is trigger compensation picks for Richmond, West Coast and Essendon at the start of Round 2.

“It gives them access to another pick in those early to mid-20’s, which will certainly help those three clubs under the new guidelines of what the AFL have put out with the bidding system.

“After they do potentially call one of those two players, they will have a number of guys in the mix.

“Whether it’s an Arki Butler, a Gus Teixeira, Ethen Drever is one that I’m really excited about. Or do they go for the number one ruckman in the draft in Harry Van Hattum?

“They will be mulling over a few different options. It won’t necessarily come down to need; it will come down to best available.”

The top 10 currently sees Richmond follow Essendon at Pick 2, with West Coast rounding out the top three.

Melbourne made a late trade with Port Adelaide to secure Pick 4, while the Tigers also traded with the Power to move into Pick 5, bringing two top five picks into this year’s draft.

Sydney, Port Adelaide, Gold Coast, GWS and St Kilda round out the top 10, with changes set to occur on draft night as a result of bid-matching early in the order.

INDICATIVE ORDER FOR THE 2026 AFL DRAFT

Outside of club-tied players, the order of talents from three and beyond remains to be seen.

“There was a bit of intrigue last year and not as much certainty – a lot of the phantom drafts play out as a lot of people expect them to,” Ablett said.

“Last year didn’t, and I think this year might be a little bit the same.

“There is some evenness around the top five to seven guys; any one of those guys could be taken at picks one through four, taking Cochrane and Walker out.

“There’s a good mix as well. Whether it’s a mid like an Ethan Drever that moves a little bit like Willem Duursma, or Heath Mellody, who won the Larke Medal for the MVP of the U18 Championships – he is a really smooth moving, high work ethic type of player out of Western Australia.

“And as I mentioned, Harry Van Hattum, who is the number one ruckman in this year’s draft. He’s probably a little bit similar to Cooper Duff-Tytler in how he can get around the ground and he’s more than adept at ground level as well as his aerial prowess.”

Van Hattum, clearly the best ruckman in the crop, is the talent that most intrigues Ablett.

The Northern Knights product stands at 205cm, and with his elite ability to cover ground, cleanliness below the knees and high athletic profile, Van Hattum boasts the perfect archetype for the modern game.

“I just love his instinctive follow-up at centre bounce,” Ablett continued.

“He is like a Luke Jackson in the sense that he will compete for the tap, and then he is one of the first down at ground level as well.

“His attack on the contest is absolutely outstanding for a big guy. He finished fifth overall in the running vertical jump at the AFL Draft Combine, so he is certainly an athletic type, and he’s just got these really soft hands at stoppage.

“When you talk about ruckmen and their ability to give the mids first use, he is really soft in that space and he does put it just about on a dime for the mids around him.

“He is exciting – the challenge of a lot of these clubs, as we’ve seen over the last seven to 10 years, clubs are reluctant to take big fellas early.

“Cooper Duff-Tytler was a bit of a unicorn – we know West Coast had multiple picks in that draft and could afford to take a big guy early, but history is littered with clubs that generally wait for them to develop at other clubs and pick them off 3-5 years into their careers.

“The Harry Van Hattum one is going to be very, very interesting to see how early he goes, whether clubs do think he is similar to a Cooper Duff-Tytler and can impact AFL football early.”

The first round of the 2026 AFL National Draft is locked in on November 19th, with the following rounds to commence on the 20th.

Listen to Mick Ablett’s full discussion on the 2026 AFL Draft below: