North Melbourne will be well placed to bid on its 2018 father-son and academy prospects after a late trade with Port Adelaide on Thursday.

The club received two 2018 third-round selections, in exchange for its 2017 third-round pick (currently 46) and its 2018 third-round selection. 

"We will have picks 4 and 23 going into the draft and what we’ve done with our third-round selection this year is we’ve just deferred it a year," North GM Football Cameron Joyce said.

"We’ve got some potential academy and father-son players next year, so this gives us the ability to have some more points if those players are available for us."

Earlier in the day, Sam Gibson was traded to Adelaide for pick 91 in the 2017 NAB AFL Draft.

"Obviously we delisted Sam a few weeks ago and Adelaide were keen to put him on their list for 2018, so they could’ve picked him up as a delisted free agent, but obviously how good Sam has been with us we’re happy to trade him for a late pick to Adelaide to make it pretty seamless for him," Joyce added.