Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann says the Club is contemplating a push for extra assistance in this year’s AFL Draft.

"As a club, we're considering whether we put in an application for a priority pick,” Swann told The Age.

"We understand that there will be plenty out there saying they're self-inflicted wounds but there's some things that are outside our control which have made it difficult for us."

The Lions have slumped to 2-14 on the back of a crippling injury list and a lack of scoring potency.

But Swann thought there were deeper issues which meant that the Lions are set to be left with just a handful of first-round draft picks on their list.

Swann also said Victorian clubs had "hijacked" the reshaping of the northern academy draft bidding process.

Swann lamented what he felt was a looming loss of young footballers in developing states, who will not as readily be able to stay in their home cities.

"The re-jigging of the academy bidding is going to make it harder for us," Swann told The Age.

"That's been another thing that we think has been hijacked a bit from down south that's probably going to have a bigger effect on us than people realise."

The new points-based system - unveiled in May - was designed by a working party of club list managers.

It was implemented after a mass outcry followed Sydney taking boom Newcastle youngster Isaac Heeney late in the first round of last year's draft.

Brought in alongside a revamped bidding system for father-son selections, the Lions, Gold Coast, Sydney and Greater Western Sydney will be forced to pay a considerably steeper price for talent from their academies.

Swann said it would now be difficult for his club to land the likes of midfielder Ben Keays and tall forward Eric Hipwood - both the fruits of their Hyundai Help For Kids Lions Academy, and prospective first-round selections.

Swann, a former Carlton and Collingwood chief executive, believed that the changes had stemmed in part from Victorian skepticism surrounding academies.

"I just think there's an agenda down south that the academies are no good. There's two aspects to the academy. One is the development of the code and the other is putting fair value on them."

"With this new mechanism, it's going to make it harder for us and Sydney and Gold Coast and GWS to put the home-grown talent on your list because it's going to be so much more costly under this new regime.

"Especially if you've got two or three in one year, it's just really difficult to get enough points to get them on your list."

Swann believed that those who had pushed for the removal of concessions to the northern clubs failed to realise how important a mechanism the academies were in luring young athletes away from the rugby codes.

"If you can't get them onto your list, it's going to make it difficult."

"I think the growth [in Australian football] up here is really good, but that's part of why it is good, because those academies are helping locals think 'OK good, I can join the academies and stay in Brisbane.'

"And I don't think the people down south realise that."