Over the past month, the four AFL New Zealand Premiership sides have revealed their retained players for the 2020 season. We list the stars that have already been retained.
The “Retained Players List” was added to the AFL New Zealand Premiership as an additional tool to create balance and competitiveness within the competition.
With study, work, injury and locational alterations playing a role in player availability from season to season, it is important that each team is afforded the opportunity to retain players from the previous seasons list from each of the established draft categories.
Once the “Retained Players List” has been finalised by the Premiership teams, the remaining players will be re-entered into the national draft and will be available for selection by any of the four teams. This ensures an even spread of all draft categories across the four team rosters and equalises player availability that can be restricted due to location.
The 2020 AFL New Zealand Premiership will contain the following categories within the Retained Player list.
RPL Category 1: Retention of Auckland based players who have played for the New Zealand Senior team.
RPL Category 2: Retention of Regional based players.
RPL Category 3: Retention of Auckland based players who have not played for the New Zealand Senior team.
Central Giants
Category 1: Sam McKenzie (Captain), Harison Manks, James McKenzie.
Category 2: Nicholas Rhodes, Layton Cahill, Will Kempt.
Category 3: Troy Brown, Tristan Burnett, Elliot Bennetts, Steph Tabaillou, Ethan Halton, Seb Serrano, Jarrod Hill.
Northern Suns
Category 1: Ben Hick (Captain), Will Dickinson, Liam Beattie.
Category 2: Paul Hogan, Josh Mackie, Alex Awatere.
Category 3: James Considine, Liam Mayes, Heta Scarf Matthews, Akuhata King, Tom Hayhoe, Dave Abetz, Lewis Gill.
Southern Saints
Category 1: Michael Boyce (Captain), Carlos Donnell-Brown, Andriu Sucu.
Category 2: Andrew Bissett, Hayden Johnston, James Southby.
Category 3: Alex Fakatoumafi, Nico Donnell-Brown, Dom Parkes-Dolan, Harley Jenkins, Keegan Pook, Travis Walker, Jono Ilaua.
Western Crows
Category 1: Sam Anderson, Shane Leat, Te Kopa Tipene Thomas.
Category 2: Jay Johnson (Captain), Daniel Howie, Thomas Turner.
Category 3: Alastair Maisey, Jay Green, Luke Williams, Josh Copeland, Jacob Tucker, Vandyn Hartman, Luke Dunning.
