Free agency was never intended to be an equalisation measure (though the AFL may have tried to sell it that way)
It was intended as a compromise, throwing a bone to the players to reduce the likelihood of some player suing the AFL for restraint of trade and bringing the AFLs entire flagrantly illegal draft & salary cap system crashing down around Gil’s ears.
Yeah and I understand that, but the effect is cumulative - and has an impact on every club, whether they’ve participated or not. Some years the 3rd “round” of picks starts as late as pick 42 because of all the compo picks. Only going to get worse if they drop the qualification for FA to 6 years service.
I don’t think you can really rebuild through the draft any more and IMO this is the big reason why.
IMO what should happen with compensation is one of your picks moves up the order - not having magical new picks created and inserted into the order. Then it will always be 18 picks per round. They now have a mechanism to make it happen pretty easily now, with the pick-to-points equivalence table.
That or the club picking up the player forfeits a pick, which goes to the club who lost the player
I don’t think you’ve read my post correctly
(Also: if your argument is Brisbane, GC & St Kilda are thriving now under the current system…)
Isn’t the alternative, like what us mere mortals suffer, finding another job?
This was predicted by many (including myself) all along. Anyone paying attention has know that FA would be, and has, been a huge blow to equalisation and the ability of clubs to rebuild. It is no coincidence that certain clubs have been able to stay at the top for a long period in the last decade, something much harder in the decade preceding. Or that rebuilding has become harder.
The players have unionised, and therefore have all the power. That’s what these discussions often choose to ignore (or at least some posters). Yes, the players want their cake (money) and to eat it (choose destination), but because they’re powerful they can.
But what the AFL didn’ t have to do was create a compo system that benefited currently successful clubs in most areas over clubs near the bottom.
The only option a professional Aussie rules player has to earn a crust is the afl. There’s an effective monopoly on the employment market.
Law courts look poorly on organisations that have monopolies and which abuse them. The AFL has an effective monopoly on employing footy players.
Everyone on all sides of the footy industry knows that the way the afl handles player employment is illegal and has been for years. This is really, really uncontroversial, legally. So far the players have been aware that a pure open bidding market on players would drive clubs out of business and be catastrophic for the game and their employment prospects, so they’ve accepted it, but FA was one of the prices of that acceptance.
I’m being belligerently obtuse here.
but what about all the idiots that devote their teens to football and aren’t good enough? what protection do they get?
They end up on here, accusing 50% of the blokes who WERE good enough to make it of being talentless hacks and demanding they be delisted immediately.
Jokes on you, I was not good enough at other sports!
People in Sydney can live on 120k.
If not, re-introduce COLA.
SJW, and / or uni student by any chance?
You miss my point.
And
These guys are professional athletes.
Professional athletes in our nation’s no.1 sport (with the AFL CEO and directors making millions) deserve more salary than one in which affords you a Kia Rio and a share apartment.
If he keeps up the good form, why not?
I like free agency, and compensation picks. I even think FA should available to players earlier. And if teams recruit and/or develop a valuable player who wants to play at another club, the club should be rightly compensated. But rather than the compensation being based on what the destination club offers, it should be based on the highest offer even if not accepted by the player.
Increase the minimum salary then.
Keep it simple - contract > club’s own you
No contract > do what you like
People compare free agency to American sports where the minimum salary is circa 500k - 1million
You can’t have true free agency and club initiated trades when you have some salaries lower than accountants…
Why not? Companies transfer staff (accountants for example) all the time, their relocation expenses are paid and salary changed to allow for higher cost of living and free flights to their home location at various points of the season. There are plenty of calculators just for this in Government and non Government. If you go to Sydney perhaps you get more money, Brisbane/Gold Coast perhaps less. No player should be worse off for moving. At the end of the day how is a sports person any different to any other person who moves because their employer requires them elsewhere
If an accountant is told their employer requires them to pack up everything and move to the Adelaide office for work, the accountant has the option of saying ‘no thanks’ and going to work for another accountancy firm.
There is no other league for an AFL player to play in. If the Essendon branch of AFL Inc tells a player to go worth for the Gold Coast branch but the player doesn’t want to leave family/etc, then it’s not like the player has an alternative employer they can resort to.
The accountant does have that right but by leaving has no guarantee of obtaining the same employment terms and conditions as they had with their original employer or any employment at all.
An argument could be made that the player is more than welcome to seek employment in any of the lesser leagues that employ players to play football should they wish to do so. Again the wages may not be as high as they were used to nor do thay have any guarantee of employment at all. All that would be required is an AFL fund to pay out contracts of players who refuse to move.
The analogy only works if you look at AFL clubs as departments of one employer, rather than companies in an industry.
As the clubs are competing, I don’t think that’s appropriate.
Your contract is up, another company wants your services and is prepared to pay.
Boom. Done.
Is Hartley worth anything and could we use him as a sweetener to lure somebody with picks? With Hooker, Hurley, Ambrose, Francis, Zerk all vying for 2.5 spots do we really need him?
Given we also have Gleeson, Ridley and Redman who can all play the third tall st times I just don’t see him getting a game, yet is AFL capable an may have value to a Carlton or Dogs.