Today the Free Agency was announced after the AFL and the AFL Players Association managed to agree on how it will be set up after 2-3 years of negotiations. The result has some people scared that it will open a Pandora’s Box where players will want to switch to successful clubs pushing for premierships, while others like me think it wont affect AFL as much.
Luke Ball & Shaun Burgoyne last year would have benefited if the new Free Agency rule was in for last years Trade Period
I know only time will only tell whether it will be a Pandora’s Box or not but today we at Kick2Kick will look at the rule and then we will note what we think of the new rule. We would love your opinion as well so it can be discussed…
The first thing we need to note is that the new rule will come into play after the 2012 season, which will be after the new Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney team come into the competition. However as news hit last week, the Gold Coast has already started signing players that will be out of contract at the end of this year. Which is a BIG worry even for me.
Second note is that we have discussed AFL Free Agency before and as we looked at then, Free Agency has been in the VFL before and it saw North Melbourne rise from 10th to 6th in 1973.
The Rules of Free Agency
You can read the full details of the Free Agency over here but we have listed the basic rules below:
- A player is only a Free Agent after 8 years of service at the ONE club.
- If a player is delisted, you do NOT have to go through the draft, you can go straight to a club.
- If a player is a Free Agent & in the top 25% of money being earn, the club can match the offer from the rival club. If the club matches the offer and the player then refuses to resign with his current club, he then has to go through the draft or get traded.
- If the player after 8 years is NOT in the top 25%, the current club CANNOT match his offer before he chooses to leave for a rival club.
- If a player leaves through Free Agency and is NOT delisted by the current club, the club that losses the player will be compensated with a National Draft pick that will be determined by the AFL.
Kick2Kick Writer’s Opinions on the Free Agency Rule
Jermayn’s Opinion
These rules still have holes but they do have 3 years to refine the rule. A few of the holes I see at the moment are:
- If Luke Ball (for example) goes to St Kilda and says Collingwood offered me $x and if they agree to that. Can Collingwood reset the offer?
- Will this Free Agency period happen during the Trade Period, before or during the final season of his contract like the Gold Coast is allowed to do this year?
- Will players make sure their contracts end at the end of the 8 year period?
I am sure the answers will be answered by 2012 but still…
Personally I like the idea and the rules set by the AFL to me is fair enough especially the fact that the club gets compensated with a draft pick.
The biggest worry is that the big clubs (ie: Collingwood & Essendon) will always win the Grand Final, the ONLY way I can see that this will happen is that the AFL continues to allow 3rd party payments to be unmonitored like it is currently, with the perfect example Chris Judd being payed by Vissy a sponsor of Carlton.
The thing I do agree with is what Frank Costa said and that it will force the clubs to have better relationships with their players. In the real world, if we do not like our employment, we move, so why cannot they do the same?
Depps Opinion
In an effort to please clubs, players and mangers the AFL have devised a free agency system cluttered with technicalities and regulations, something that is sure to confuse fans and divide loyalties between a player and his club.
Free agency is nothing new to sport with most of the major sporting codes worldwide utilising it and the little brother in Australia doesn’t want to feel left out. In typical AFL fashion they have done it in the most complex way possible, remember the ridiculous post it note system the AFL introduced for interchanges where several people had to approve an interchange before it happened? That system lasted all of one week and I can see the free agency rules going to the same way.
I’m sure that you have all browsed over the guidelines for free agency and probably didn’t grasp all the in’s and out’s of it so here is my proposal for a simple free agency agreement:
- If a player has played at the club for less than seven years and is delisted then he can become a free agent and move to whichever club he wants.
- If a player has played at a club for more than seven years then he becomes a free agent and can move to whatever club he likes but only if the current club cannot match the offer the new club has offered the player.
- To prevent an A-League style player transfer, players must not be approached until October 1st of every year, any club found to breach this rule is subject to disciplinary action.
- Players and clubs must honor contracts.
In 3 simple steps I have made a better free agency agreement than the AFL. Because the AFL has a salary cap it puts the onus back onto clubs, learn to juggle your player payments better. If, after 8 seasons at the Hawks, Lance Franklin is offered $1 million dollars to go join Judd, Gibbs, Murphy, Kruzer and co at Carlton why shouldn’t he be able to go? The Blues can fit him into the salary cap and the Hawks cannot so Buddy now gets to decide if he wants to play at Carlton for more or stay at the Hawks for less.
Say Buddy takes up the offer and moves to the Blues, what should Hawthorn get in return for losing it’s superstar? Nothing. Yep thats right the Hawks should not be entitled to anything, they have the same salary cap as the Blues so if they are paying players based on ability they should have a squad equally as good, albeit with a gap where Franklin was which they can now use to lure a new player or increase wages of the current players.
Free Agency is not being introduced until 2012 so this gives clubs plenty of time to sort out who will be eligible and who won’t be and to plan accordingly.
I’m sure there is several flaws in this method but I can’t seem to find them so let me know and ill address them in the form of Q and A in the comments section below.
The_Tony’s Opinion
Free Agency, what does it mean?
I don’t have a huge problem with the system but I do have concerns about the compensation pick formula. I hope it is not the same formula that is being used for the Gold Coast and GWS poaching compensation. There is too much head room in saying a player is worth a 1st round pick when he could be valued as a top 5 pick rather than a top 18 pick (as it will be at the end of 2012).
I hear some people grumbling about the player managers being the masterminds behind this scheme, but I think while they will be skimming some extra here and there, they will lose it elsewhere as team make cuts to make room. Overall, the salary cap will even that out.
Michael’s Opinion
Think its all smoke and mirrors as not many players who are let go or not wanted by their club would get picked up by another club. You need to remember that the average career is 4 years and if a player moves on, its to their benefit in the fact that they do not have to worry about the trade period which will be less stress and anticipation for them.
Your Opinions on Free Agency
I am sure every AFL fan has an opinion on this, so please let us know what you think of the new rule in the comments section below.
Some others on Twitter have also expressed their views by using the #hashtag aflfreeagency, and you can read what some others have also said.
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February 24th, 2010 at 9:46 am
The Biggest problem that I see is that the thought is that this will help the teams down the bottom be able to rise up the ladder quicker. The problem with this is that if you are in a bottom 4 side, you now have a method to get out of that situation and move to a contender, even if that means forgoing a little money.
I guess against that is that the players in a bottom side that would have been there for 8 years aren’t likely to be out of the top 25% of paid players.
So further thinking, list management will be hugely important! Have cap space free when a player you want comes available. Also is important to make sure players coming out of contract that you want to keep are in the top 25% of paid players at your club and others aren’t! Hmm…
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Thanks for your thoughts Molly
Personally I only see Free Agency affecting and being beneficial for the delisted players who now do NOT have to go through the drafts and also for the bottom range players who do not fit in the top 10 money earners of the club. For the main money earners it will still be as hard to move to another club as it was previous.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Have you thought about the Top 25% of players? The first time round this might be a large number. But clubs aren’t dumb, after the first go around, they will stagger the best players coming out and if I was a smart club (and depending on how the 25% is worked out) I would be giving higher contracts in the last year to make sure any 8+ year player I was likely to want to keep was in the top 25% players. I agree its a win for Delisted players, but surely they are in high demand! Name me the last player actively DELISTED that got a lot of interest from multiple clubs?
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Agree that yes this Free Agency does not benefit the top 25% players and only the ‘lower’ type players.
With the risk of opening up a can of Kennett worms, how would you fix the rule?
February 24th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Aghh…Glad you asked. The Molly Free Agency/Drafting system: http://www.aflspace.com/2009/11/24/podcast-the-famous-molly-afl-drafttradefree-agency-plan/
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:44 am
The following was posted by AFLPA GM – Player Relations Ian Prendergast regarding the changes to the Veterans list.
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- The AFL and AFLPA have also agreed to a restructure of the Veterans’ List rules as follows:
- The Veterans List will be replaced with a salary cap allowance to clubs, applicable to players with 10 or
more year’s service with their current club.
- The previous requirement of also being 30 years of age shall no longer apply.
- The amount of the allowance to apply will be fixed as the same amount for each eligible player, the total pool of the allowance being calculated as a fixed percentage of Total Player Payments.
- The restructure is designed to achieve the original objective of the Veterans’ List – to extend the careers of all veterans, rather than to provide salary cap relief to clubs often used to back-end the contracts of highly paid players.
=============================================================
February 25th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
What the? (on the Verterns list ruling especially the last two points).
Okay, here is what I see happening. Hawks have 3 players lets say Roughy, Buddy and Ossie.
They pay Roughy and Buddy big dollars but say, hang on, you mean if we get rid of Ozzie, 100% of roughy/buddys salary will get a 50% discount to the cap rather then 66% if we sign Ozzie? Hmmm…. Anyone want to trade for Ozzie?
Just a thought.
Molly
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Winning a premiership may get very costly. You would likely need to have an experienced list many of whom would be approaching the 8 year mark to win a premiership so you may be vulnerable to poaching, look at Gellong’s list for eg.
All of a sudden say Ablett, Bartel, Scarlett, Chapman etc all decide they want to look after themselves for retirement and get offers made by clubs with a lot of salary cap room.
What do you do- you can’t keep them all- if you matched the offers your salary cap gets blown to pieces. You know those players only have 3-4 good seasons but you sytill eed them to compete over the next few seasons because you haven’t had any draft picks for a while?
February 26th, 2010 at 8:27 am
But Bob premierships should not be easy to win.
If you look at when the AFL started in 1990, we have in 20 years, 11 different teams winning the premiership with only Brisbane and the Eagles able to win more than 2 premierships in that time. Yet you look before in the 80s etc it was the same teams that won.
Some people ie: Kennett thinks it will return to that but it wont. He uses the example that the NBA owners are running out of money but he fails to mention that they do NOT have a salary cap like the AFL. He is just scare mongering…
I have yet to hear anything that gives anyone any proof that this will be bad for the league…. Molly??
February 26th, 2010 at 8:48 am
a) Make sure you read Jeff’s response to critics of his:
b) Okay, firstly, have you read that alledged Veteran list change? wow! Secondly, there are sides paying 92% of the cap. They will have to pay 100% unless they want players to walk. In so, clubs will go out of business!
c) By its very definition it has to help someone or why do it and therefor there has to be losers. I sort of see the top players getting a bit of a bump but it will be the players in the top half of the middle that will get the benefit and the lower half of the middle that will be hurt. Plus it will be the teams at the bottom of the ladder that are hurt as there middle rung of players will be more likely to try and leave inorder to have success.
d) I don’t understand the ideas that draft picks will be created out of the blue to compensate clubs. Either you have no compensation or the team getting a player must pay the compensation! That is the only way compensation should work!
Not sure if this shows how it will break the AFL or not
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Just had to fix up your comment a bit Molly, hope ya dont mind. Its so it can be read, it didnt like the Kennett’s link
That imo is the only thing that Kennett said that is a real scare/ worry/ issue, the rest is just smoke and mirrors and hot air which he is good at.
B) I will admit I only understand some of the Veterns list changes but what I understand I still cannot understand how that changes much.
and with the teams only paying 92.5% of the salary cap, i am sorry but in the real world when an employee pays less than everyone else, they should have the RIGHT to switch and this is what this allows.
C) I agree the middle rang off players will be benefited by this and whats wrong with that? The top players get enough benefits (ie they are prob the 114 players that get payed extra) and for arguments sake, I agree this should be capped.
However *most* players do not leave for success, most leave for personal reasons ie: Jolly, Ball, Judd, Williams, Chick, Headland just to name a few in the last 5-10 years.
This rule imo helps the mid range players like Ozzie (your player example) instead of being delisted, can move to another club to retire at (Freo has been hosting the Essendon retirement village for a while now).
D) I think (please note I Think) that you will get the picks at the end or the start of the rounds of the draft (ie: Ozzie would probably be worth a 3rd round pick).
February 26th, 2010 at 9:55 am
B) Firstly its (according to comment above)purely 10 years no 30 year old marker. Meaning it will always be 2 years after your 8 years when you become a free agent. Also having it over all your 10 year players is going to get you to ship off players you normally would keep and wear all there salary in the cap. Now you don’t have that choice.
c) I think saying middle rung is too simple. Its the top half of the middle. The ones that are perhaps under paid and can see value in.
Also all the players you mentioned got to where they need too. So why have Free Agency that could lead to other undesirable outcomes?
On delisted players, what player has ever been delisted that has been picked up by a club they didn’t want to go to? Most are lucky to be picked up at all!
D) But why should the Pick come out of thin air? I am a strong believe that if you have compensation, it has to come from the club gaining the player.
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 26th, 2010 at 10:54 am
I agree that their is no real need for Free Agency but like I said to you before, the AFLPA wanted, no I mean DEMANDED that Free Agency come in. The AFLs hands where tied, they ever give them a restricted Free Agency or the players strike and they get full Free Agency, this is probably the best deal.
I wonder if the Hawks did not have a heap of young guns if you and Kennett would be as worried?
February 26th, 2010 at 11:07 am
As Jeff said, we (along with Collingwood and the interstate clubs) are likely to be the big winners out of Free Agency! It would want to be a lot of money to move away from the Hawks at the moment and plus we have Pelchin that is not only arguably the best list manager in the game, he practically drew up the rules on Free Agency! You don’t think he hasn’t worked out all the loop holes already?
I think Jeff’s history is that he talks his mind rather then just supporting the Hawks or his own best interest.
.-= Phillip Molly Malone´s last blog ..Podcast – 16th Feb 2010 – NAB Cup is here. New Rules =-.
February 26th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
If history is any guide clubs like Coll, Carl, Ess may end up hindering themselves if they go out and stack their team with past their prime has-beens. Remember Warwick Irwin, Graeme Allen, Frank Marchesani in the 1970s. They all let Fitzroy with big reputations and were total duds.