UPDATED: The deadline for the 2022 National Championships Player Draft has now been extended until Friday, the 4th of March. Read more here.

Softball Australia would like to advise that applications for the 2022 National Championships Player Draft are due by COB this Friday, the 25^th of February.

The player draft ensures a fair distribution of key players who are on the fringe of selection and unable to be utilised by their home state, or who would not be able attend the National Championships because their home state is not participating.

Accordingly, with some minor exceptions, players are only eligible to enter the draft if their home state is not entering the National Championships, or if they were not selected by their home state and are endorsed by their state to enter the draft.

The draft can also allow states to enter teams where attendance would otherwise have not been possible, and is open to all players from Under 14s to Open age.

Player Draft Regulations can be found here.

Player Draft Nomination forms are available here.

Players nominating for the draft are required to pay a bond of $500, which is refunded if the player is not selected in the draft. If the player is drafted, the bond is transferred to the state that selects the player, who deducts the bond from the total player levy charged to the drafted player.

The sequence for selecting players in the draft is based on the reverse order of state seeding, with the lowest seeded state having the first pick, the second lowest state having the second pick, and so on. Higher ranked states may also be ineligible to select players in the early rounds.

A player who nominates for the draft but is not selected will be placed in a pool list. Players in the pool list may still be selected after the draft by a state who has not used all of their draft selections, up until two weeks prior to the beginning of the Event.

Administration and management of the draft is coordinated by Softball Australia. if you require further information or clarification about any aspect of the player draft, please contact events@softball.org.au