This has been building over a few years now but I'm really starting to despise the way the trade period is being conducted

I get the game has moved into a more ruthless approach for many clubs but the clean out by North of contracted and non contracted players does nothing for the game as far as I am concerned. Way to build a culture North

The fire sale of 3 very good players by Collingwood and the reasons provided by the coach Nathan Buckley today is just a cover up for a series of exceptionally poor management and short term decisions by the club to back end so many player contracts and then bail out of them when a flag couldn't be won. To say that the club can make an assessment of how a player like Treloar will perform his duties because of new living arrangements he has made with his partner crosses the line of sensibility and what should be expected in the employment contract between clubs and players. "Side by side they stick together" hey?

The way Essendon chased after Josh Dunkley, who had two years to go on a contract, and the way that we fielded the offers doesn't sit well with me despite the fact that ultimately we were able to hang onto Dunkley.

To have Adelaide chase after Jackson Hately in a bid to bring him home to SA but then only offer pick 42 to GWS who have pumped two years of development into him and then pick him up in the pre-season draft isn't a good outcome for the competition from my perspective. If the AFL can plug the hole of the attempted manipulation of the Brad Crouch to StKilda effort means they should have been able to make sure that GWS was adequately compensated Hately

And finally, for many clubs the trade period has gone from acquiring players or picks to improve your list to an almost Jenny Craig type calorie counting exercise based on getting 'draft value index' points more giving something tangible to get something tangible back. Player for player trades are almost non existent


The clubs, players and their player manager leeches need to get back to the fundamentals of striking good contracts and sticking to them. How Tim Hazel allowed for Treloars contract to be back ended not once but twice to a point that he was nearly priced out of the competition is an indictment to the process

The AFL needs to bring in financial management rules that don't have clubs back ending or front loading contracts in an effort to position themselves for a short term effort at winning a flag.

Contracts shouldn't be allowed to move more than 15% of the average value of the term of the contract

Get rid of the current bidding process for NGA and perhaps we need to have a rethink of father son selections

There is some significant work to do to get this right, I'll add some more thoughts a bit later