On September 25th, 2024, Major League Rugby held it’s 3rd dispersal draft in as many seasons following the news on September 19th that the Dallas Jackals were withdrawing from the 2025 MLR season, becoming the 5th team to withdraw from the competition since 2022.
The dispersal draft functions very similarly to the Collegiate Draft, with teams drafting in reverse order of where they finished in the 2024 season. As the bottom team during the season, Anthem RC drafted first and the Champion New England Free Jacks drafted 11th, with the order repeated until no more Jackals players are available. As with the Collegiate Draft, teams are free to trade dispersal draft picks and no doubt we will see these appear on the MLR trade wire in about a week.
Now, just because a player is selected by a team in the dispersal draft does not mean they will play for that team. For example during the Dispersal Draft for NY & Toronto last year, star winger Nate Augspurger (who had moved from San Diego Legion to the New York Ironworkers in what would’ve been a high profile move…if it were ever announced) was selected by the NOLA Gold, but traded to the Chicago Hounds shortly after. I would expect to see a flurry of trades in the weeks that follow this Draft, as teams and players pivot to find teams and locations preferable to them.
For Dallas fans waiting to hear where their favourite players are headed, or fans of other teams waiting to hear what new players their team has looted from the Jackals wreckage, I wouldn’t hold your breath. In the previous two dispersal drafts, no results have been published by MLR and instead fans have had to wait for the information to leak (which it inevitably does), or for teams to announce the newly acquired players themselves. While some may argue that this is because the events surrounding the need for an dispersal draft (a team withdrawing) is something that MLR does not want to highlight, it’s worth pointing out that in the past MLR has not even published the results of expansion drafts for new teams joining the league, such as Chicago or Miami.
The Dallas Jackals have not yet folded like the other four teams to withdraw from competition (Austin Gilgronis & LA Giltinis in 2022, and the Toronto Arrows and NY Ironworkers in 2023) and are instead “continuing to evaluate a controlling interest transfer”, which essentially means a sale. As a fan who has lost an MLR team, I remain hopeful that a sale can take place even if the rumor is that this would result in the team relocating. Losing the Arrows has decimated support for MLR in Toronto and I’m one of the very few Arrows fans who still follows the league closely. I hope this doesn’t happen in Dallas, and with MLR’s HQ there, it should be in their interest to bring a team back.
For now, we wait to see if the results of this draft are made public, either by MLR themselves, or another source. You can watch my reaction video to the League’s announcement below, or by clicking here.