The problems arose when the internet at the rehearsal crashed. The dry run was intended to trial in real time how live trading of draft picks - which has been introduced this year for the first time - would work. With the internet at Marvel Stadium going down, the five minute deadline for picks and negotiation of any trading had to be extended to up to 15 minutes per pick to allow for the problems. The league had planned to rehearse 50 draft selections under real-time pressure but scrapped the rehearsal after 31 picks done in unrealistic time. The AFL told clubs on Wednesday night they would fix the problem but a back-up plan would be for the clubs to lodge their picks by pen and paper with AFL-employed runners scuttling along the corridors from club boxes to the AFL hub. The event is being broadcast live on Foxtel.

"It was a complete shambles," one club recruiter said. "They said they had done their own rehearsal but not at that time of night when people are at home and using their internet. The internet in the stadium crashed so it was a complete waste of time. They called it off after 31 picks - we were meant to do 50 - because it was just pointless." Another club recruiter said: "It was shocking. Strap yourself in for tonight!" Troublingly the rehearsal connectivity problems arose without media also there also using the WiFi.

"We were laughing about it because they said they go back to pen and paper and hire people to run the picks in from the rooms. So the runners are back! They tried to kill them off but they are back." The common concern from clubs was that the motivation for changing the draft and bringing in live trading was to satisfy broadcasters, not clubs, and the problems reflected the haste in making the change. An AFL spokesman admitted "there were some stadium connectivity issues" but he said they were confident they would be rectified by Thursday night's first round of the draft.