The AFL is not a meritocratic competition. A competition that is not fair damages the integrity of premierships, disillusions fans in expansion markets and ultimately prevents Aussie rules from becoming Australia’s national game.
There is a trade-off between celebrating the traditions of the game and awarding it the dynamism to become truly fair and modern. The AFL is not getting this balance right, enabling this issue to become more damaging with the potential introduction of a 19th and possibly 20th team in small markets.
It’s time to reform the AFL’s outdated trade period rules. The current rules force some to ask why the AFL is not years but decades behind foreign sporting code innovations and talent equalisation efforts.
The answer is simple. This is an issue of vision, complacency and an over-romanticisation of traditions, not one of collective bargaining agreements or financial resources.
The point of these ideas is not to have a competition where every club wins the premiership an equal number of times. It is also not to have every team be perfectly balanced in its roster talent. Rather, it is to establish an environment where club success is based on player development, skilful roster management, board stability and good coaching rather than systemic inadequacies in the AFL’s off-season structures.
This article presents ideas embedded within foreign sporting codes to modernise the game’s off-season rules, providing clubs, new and old, with an equal playing field to compete in talent acquisition and roster building.
Clear fixes
A compromised national draft
A national draft is supposed to allow the worst teams unfettered access to the best young talent entering a sporting code. The AFL has comprehensively failed in this regard, with huge chunks of the best young talent already committed to clubs further down the draft board. Other leagues, like the NBA and NFL, succeed in what should be the relatively straightforward task of holding an uncompromised national draft. So how does the AFL get it so wrong?
Father-son rules
There is an undeniable romanticism in watching another generation of iconic names compete in their family’s club colours. But as the rules currently stand, historic clubs get unfair access to sometimes generationally talented players.
If father-son rules are to survive in a fair offseason system, historic AFL clubs with access to highly converted talent need to be paying much more than they currently do. Players like Garry Ablett Jr, Nick Daicos and Will Ashcroft should cost historic teams at least two first-round picks rather than an assortment of mid to late-round ‘junk’ capital.
Expansion clubs are also at a severe disadvantage when generating father-son prospects. How long do you think it will be before the Suns or Giants get a father-son player? 2040? 2050? Longer?
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
The academies and zoning rights
By expanding the game into new areas at a grassroots level, AFL academies provide an undeniable good to the game. They introduce young talent into the AFL system that would have otherwise committed to other sporting codes. Isaac Heeney, an uber-talented footballer from NRL’s heartland, exemplifies this.
It should be the AFL, not clubs, footing the bills and driving the expansion of these grassroot academies. Talent drawn from academies should be put in the national draft and left unprotected.
Clubs will argue that academy players will not fully participate in the AFL system if they do not get to dictate, for the entirety of their career, where they get to live. Players who are unwilling to commit long term to an interstate or struggling team fall into a similar ‘homesick’ bucket.
This is the fundamental issue with the AFL today. Playing in an elite, high-paying national competition is a privilege and not an ordinary job. No one player or club is bigger than the code or the meritocratic integrity of the competition. If you don’t want to participate in a system that fairly equalises talent, then the game will survive without you.
This is rarely an issue in the NFL or the NBA because those competitions understand this principle and ruthlessly implement it for the better of the league. The rare exceptions to this rule are players who are extremely valuable to the league’s brand, like John Elway. However, these controversies are usually accompanied by severe fan and owner outrage.
Free agency failures
Draft capital
Allow clubs unfettered access to their future draft capital. This provides front offices with the flexibility required to undertake bolder list management decisions.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images)
The preseason draft
Just stop this. No other sport has such a ridiculous mechanism. Clubs routinely game the system – see Josh Dunkley trade talks – by threatening to let players walk to the preseason draft.
It boggles the mind that uncontracted players need to be traded in the first place rather than having the freedom to move clubs if they choose. Hard salary caps are a good enough mechanism in other sports to prevent teams from stockpiling prime-age talent acquired via free agency.
Rookie contracts
First and second-round AFL players drafted should receive five-year base contracts. Other draft picks should receive three-year deals. Teams should then have the ability to match the next contract offered to that player for up to two years. Under this model, the first time a first or second-round AFL player taken in the national draft can hit the unfettered open market is after they turn 25.
A midseason trade deadline
Don’t close the trade window until the middle of the AFL regular season. Give teams the mobility to move contracted players during the season and address their list flaws as they are identified.
Year-round list mobility
Allow teams to delist and sign uncontracted players from the state leagues as the season occurs.
Other ideas
Super max contracts and a soft cap
This is an idea from the NBA to assist small market teams from losing their superstars. Essentially it awards loyal players with a much larger payday than players who choose to switch teams.
This mechanism is not directly applicable to the AFL, as the AFL does not have ceilings on player earnings. However, the ability to exceed a hard salary cap (a soft cap) could be awarded to star interstate players who choose to stay. This mechanism should only ever be a temporary equalisation instrument, as its real-world implementation results have had mixed success.
A ‘franchise’ tag
In the NFL a franchise has the right to tag a player who has just concluded the final year of their contract. This tag lets a franchise automatically hold onto a player, awarding them a lucrative one-year deal – the contract is calculated by averaging the five highest earners at that position.
This mechanism was designed to prevent teams from losing a highly coveted player and gives the club more time to negotiate a long-term deal. Franchise tags are a mechanism that has been gamed in the past – see Josh Norman in the NFL – and as such are not a comprehensive solution to the issues the AFL faces.
Player loans
Interclub player loans are a staple of soccer. Damien Hardwick has personally advocated for their introduction into the AFL system. Loans in sport are when one team borrows a contracted player from another team for a set period of time. In exchange, the team that has a player loaned to them pays a portion or the full amount of that player’s salary.
The team that loans out a player gives that individual the opportunity of getting valuable playing experience that otherwise would have been hard to facilitate. Player loans could be part of the puzzle, but ultimately they are not assets a struggling team can invest in long term.
The AFL’s sluggish offseason rules need a shake-up, that much is clear. Of these options that have been tried and tested in foreign sports, which do you believe would make the biggest impact on equalising the competition?
Bangkokpussey
Roar Rookie
I think the author has disregarded Australian culture. We tend not to have the American penchant of money over all in sport. We regard loyalty highly, hence why one team players are so loved. Bob Murphy comes to mind among many others. Even many non magpie fans would recoil in horror if Pendles were to play for another team. In short we value tradition and loyalty and take pride in one of the oldest football competitions in the world that is uniquely Australian. As in all professional sports excellence is a driving factor. One of the reasons that the draft system does not do the equalisation that the AFL craves is not the fault of the draft system but of the clubs themselves beset with poor administration from top to bottom. We all know who they are and their on field performance reflects that. The draft is using a band aid when major surgery is required. It rewards the mediocre and penalises excellence. Equalisation does not always lift the poorer up the ladder but can leed to an overall mediocrity in the competion which may end up losing more followers than it gains. Over my many years, many of my friends have lost interest in football as it has changed. In trying to attract new people to the sport we must not lose sight of the people that support it now if it is to grow. Maybe an increase in allowance for weaker clubs to attract better administrators and other staff. Although there is no one magic panicea. It took Richmond 20 years to be a competitive force again despite its large supporter base. How long will it take lesser clubs like North, Gold Coast etc. GWS has shown arguably the best priority draft picks in history alone doesnt work.
Cat
Roar Guru
How can a club ‘be in the wrong’ if they haven’t actually broken any rules? You seem to want to tighten up a system and that’s all well and good but unless and until it is it’s not ‘wrong’. Actually happened … okay cite a credible source.
FR
Guest
The two examples I provided, actually occurred. I cited them not to single out any club but to suggest the AFL needs to clean up it's act. I certainly will not name clubs or players, as I have do desire orinterest in litigation. But as a matter of interest what substance would satisfy you? No evidence is ever enough for a clubs supporters to believe their club was in the wrong - just ask a Demon, Bomber or Trump supporter.
Cat
Roar Guru
Not leaping to anything. Just asking if you have anything of substance.
FR
Guest
Normally when salary cap rorting is mentioned, it's the Collingwood, Carlton, Hawthorn and Essendon fans that leap to the defence. On this occasion, it's a Geelong fan. The thing is I didn't name any particular club, just listed a couple of examples - guilty conscience?
Cat
Roar Guru
Got some actual examples of what you claim?
FR
Guest
So the solution to the expansion zone clubs being used permanently as feeder teams is to shut down their academies. What twaddle. The academies are: A) The only tool that has ever effectively expanded the talent pool - unlike the AFL's repeated failure in that area. B) The only chance to develope talent that is predisposed to stay in a northern club. The only cure for the de-equalisation of the competition is for the AFL to actually shut down the salary cap rorting by the powerful clubs. A) A property development run by club benefactors that guarantees a 400% return on investment by a player is a rort. B) A club sponsor that pays a players partner $20k as a social media influencer, when the tweet once a month is a rort. There's hundreds more, and by deliberately keeping the Integrity Unit completely toothless as the AFL does only makes rorting easier.
David
Guest
How about centralised wage fixing? Every year, the players wage is set by a ranking system. The highest ranked players get the highest wages. There can't be any human intervention. It's just a complex algorithm that doesn't change. Each club is then forced to manage the playing list to stay under the salary cap. The salary cap should allow a limited amount of banking and borrowing across 3-5 years. This would prevent players accepting less dollars to play at clubs that are contending for premierships. You will get paid the same regardless of club. The only way to increase your pay is to lift your ranking. It should spread the talent across clubs more evenly. Of course, whether we just want to support different laundry on an ever-changing list of players is a different matter.....
BillyW
Roar Rookie
hmmm....like others I think you missed with this one.... Father Son- has to stay...sometimes it's not fair, so be it!...and there's no way a first round F&S should cost a team 2 first round picks, that's ridiculous....maybe if they're selected first round it cost a first round + what ever for points....none of this 20 5th round picks crap....again, has to stay...I don't even care it's not fair 1st & 2nd round picks contracts- um you want to lock in todays youth from fresh out of school for 7 years! Good luck with that....just keep off these kids backs when the % of kids breaking these contracts goes through the roof! All of it pales into insignificance while we have a compromised draw anyway...scale back melb teams, in particular, more if necessary until we can have a true Home and Away season.....(removing a few teams will have the added benefit of better spreading the talent)
Maximus Insight
Guest
Jesus Christ! The AFL is not subject to the European Court of Justice. Surely you know this? The Bosman ruling is irrelevant to the AFL Honestly, that, alone, eliminates you from having a credible opinion on the topic. As does this glib nonsense "When your contract with your current employer is up would you be happy for them to be able to restrict who you can work for?" Go read up on non-compete clauses in employment contracts. People can be hired and work on the basis that they are not allowed to work for a competitor for a period of time after they leave. Players willfully submit to the player movement rules of the AFL. They are not compelled to play in the AFL. The rules of the AFL can easily be demonstrated to be in the public interest because they have 30 years of astronomical growth and competitive balance to point to as evidence. You have no idea.
Maximus Insight
Guest
"This is an issue of vision, complacency and an over-romanticisation of traditions, not one of collective bargaining agreements or financial resources." The irony in this statement. Someone who can only compute something as valid if they can find an equivalent in a foreign sport really can't be critiquing "vision" There are a number of differences between the AFL and the NFL/NBA that contribute there being a different "optimal" system for the AFL and stronger need for pragmatism in how it is set up. 1. The AFL needs to develop its own players. There is no equivalent to the college system let-a-lone the high school system in Australia. Clubs drafting players only have a period of time that 2. Partly due to (1), the AFL players only receive 28% of defined revenues, up to half of what NFL/NBA players receive. This not only increases the pay discrepancy but it means the AFL needs to negotiate better conditions and control over destiny to players in exchange for less money. Any idea that reduces players control over their playing destinations is a non starter. So the differences are very much about collective bargaining. 3. The AFL operates over a highly imbalanced cultural landscape. South West of the Barassi line and the AFL is as popular as NFL in the heart of the mid west. North East of the Barassi line and the AFL is a second tier sport in a country that is saturated with professional sporting clubs. There are four clubs up there but barely enough players produced to support two. The Northern Academies counter balance the implications of this to a degree in addition to attracting talent the game may otherwise miss out on. The whole point is that these academies can bring talented kids into the professional club environment. There are obviously always room for improvement. But please don't preach "vision" and then just guilelessly shoe horn the AFL into the NFL and NBA setups.
Johnny
Guest
It certainly will! When your contract with your current employer is up would you be happy for them to be able to restrict who you can work for? In European football once a player contract is up he / she is a free agent under the Bosman rule - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosman_ruling
Maximum Insight
Guest
Will it really? I hear this often from people who don't know what they are talking about but actual considered expertise I have read on the topic suggests the AFL is as safe as houses. Both the rules (eg free agency) and the "in-practice" culture of facilitating trades to "nominated clubs" allow for considerable control over movement and the AFL can easily establish the draft system has been a key part of an enormously beneficial equalisation system. People get caught up in the NSWRL system being knocked down which had completely different characteristics
John J
Guest
It will only be a matter of time before all of the AFL player movement rules are tested in court under restraint of trade.
Cat
Roar Guru
Easiest way to balance out academy and father/son more equitably is any bid on a player in the first round must be matched with points from first round picks only. Second round from second round picks etc.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And the entire relationship between the AFL and feeder leagues was not broached. These comps should be treated with more respect.
J.T. Delacroix
Guest
Very true, Gyfox. The writer seems to be implying that the AFL is behind the other football codes in this country when it comes to fairness in the recruitment process & therefore can’t be taken seriously as the true ‘national game.’ He cites the father/son rule as an example. Gee whiz!
Gyfox
Roar Rookie
I had to laugh at the opening paragraph. Aussie Rules is Australia’s national game. Having the 2 British rugby sports dominate in Sydney doesn’t make them Australian. And the father-son (& daughter) rule is one sign of how uniquely Australian the AFL is.
Gary
Roar Rookie
Interesting and informative article :thumbup: What is the draft age in NFL and NBA? I was under the impression that players are primarily drafted from college/university competitions, meaning the players are older, and most likely already living away from home… i mention this in regard to ‘go home’ issue affecting some AFLclubs, and NBA and NFL doesn’t have a similar burden of development as it has already been undertaken at college level.
Boo
Guest
We have to give prospective father sons a reason to sign with the bottom club .The only one I can think of is money .On a sliding scale first round draftees payed a sign on bonus for the bottom six clubs .