Amidst the meagre trade news from last week came an announcement from the AFL that received very little publicity, in spite of its likely long lasting impact. The AFL introduces free agency from October 2012, and we now have a good idea of how it is going to work.
Players will earn full or partial free agency via a two trigger mechanism.
The first trigger kicks in after a player has been at a single club for eight years, with the following provisos:
a) The top 10 players by salary have restricted movement in that they must stay if their current club matches the salary offer from a prospective club.
b) For the remainder, there is unrestricted movement.
c) Players who are delisted can deal directly with other clubs without resorting to the draft.
The second trigger kicks in if a player has been at a single club for ten years, after which he earns the right of unrestricted movement to the club of his choice.
This second trigger is reminiscent of the ten year rule that was brought in back in 1973 which effectively allowed North Melbourne to recruit Doug Wade, Barry Davis and John Rantall, on the way to winning the first ever premiership in 1975.
Clubs that lose players under either trigger will be compensated with draft picks in a manner similar to what has operated with the introduction of the Suns and Giants.
There are some interesting names that fall into the respective triggers as of next October. rett Deledio falls into the first trigger category, while Brendon Goddard will have earned unrestricted movement.
There is one other interesting aspect about the introduction of free agency: the complete trade period will blow out to something approaching a full month.
Given that the current one week trade period appears to last an eternity, one wonders how the footy public will take a whole month of no news?
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