As many will know over the years I've had a huge interest in the draft and trade periods.
The good clubs primary focus was to get the balance right in a never ending search for ways to improve their playing list. This was done after after they had completed an honest assessment of their strengths and weaknesses and they then mapped out a plan for the future.

I suspect the AFL sees both the trade and draft periods as a way of dominating the news stories and have tinkered with the process that had been in place for a number of years to either:
1) Draw it out a lot longer than it needs to be
2) Make it more in line with the hugely popular American professional sports
3) Try and create a buzz that culminates with a rushed final hour or two of the trade period.

I wouldn't even put it past the AFL to encourage teams to defer some of the more critical the trades to the last day to help create that feeding frenzy.

All this might sound like a decent approach for a business competing against sporting competitions with world wide appeal.

The problem for someone like me now is that the trade period has become a lot more than addressing gaps within the playing list of clubs its become more about acquiring points for father son selections or dumping money off the salary cap by trading good footballers for bugger all compensation. That doesn't sit well with me, it just doesn't.

This goes against what I believe to be the essence of the trading period. Contracts are being broken by so many players who are in the infancy of their career's, good draft picks are being traded to acquire later picks to top up draft points for father son or NGA picks. That just isn't right.

There is something fundamentally wrong that we aren't looking to trade Marcus Adams for the best draft pick we can get because it could work against us in our efforts to acquire Rhylee West.
It's wrong that a deal for Jack Scrimshaw can be completed for a basic upgrade in the draft order that might just be a few picks difference and it's especially wrong that Tom Scully can be offloaded for next to nothing because a club has salary cap issues.

How I would fix it:

Father son and NGA will cost each club their natural 2nd round pick moving to the 3rd and 4th picks etc if there is more than one.

This will stop this nonsense of trading draft picks for draft points. It won't be perfect but it's consistent.

If a player who isn't a Free agent etc wants to break a contract and go home then his club can trade with the clubs in that state to acquire the best deal for them. If a player requests for a contract to be broken they automatically lose the right to veto some clubs and the contract that is in place can not be reworked ie upgraded.

Players know the score, they receive an unprecedented amount of education that the the industry they are entering means you can end up playing anywhere. This will also stop players breaking contracts because another club back home can offer them a better deal.

Lift contracts for 1st round picks to a minimum of 3 years

This will give clubs a better chance of settling the player into their environment. Players are being chatted by other clubs before they have completed their first year so no wonder they are developing homesickness in almost epidemic proportions.


We simply have to get back to the trade period meaning something more than a Flight Centre departure lounge

Rant over