Free Agency

[Happy Days]

Re: Free Agency

Will this model of free agency also include the ability to sign players mid season to cover injuries, etc, like the American models do?

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Free Agency

How free agency in the AFL will work




1. A player has served seven seasons or less of AFL football at one club, and is now out of contract.

The player is not eligible for free agency if his club wishes to retain him. He may only move clubs via a trade or the Draft. If he delists himself, he is subject to the Draft, and may be selected by any club.


2. A player has served seven seasons or less of AFL football at one club, and has been delisted by his club.

The player is a Free Agent and is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs.

The player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club.

The player can move AUTOMATICALLY to the new club of his choice.

His original club, which chose to delist him, does not receive any compensation pick for the loss of the player.


3. A player has served eight or more seasons of AFL football at one club, is one of the 10 highest-paid players at his club, and is now out of contract for the first time since reaching eight seasons of service.

The player is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs.

If he wishes to change clubs, the player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club.

His club has the right to match the presented offer.

If the club matches the offer, he may choose to remain with his original club, seek a trade or enter the Draft.

If the club does not or can not match the offer, the player can move to the new club of his choice.

His original club will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player, on an AFL-determined formula to apply where clubs lose more free agents than they gain in any single transfer period.


4. A player has served eight or more seasons of AFL football at one club, is NOT one of the 10 highest-paid players at his club, and is now out of contract for the first time since reaching eight seasons of service.

The player is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs.

If he wishes to change clubs, the player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club.

His club does NOT have the right to match the presented offer, and the player can move AUTOMATICALLY to the new club of his choice.

His original club will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player, on an AFL-determined formula.


5. A player has served ten or more seasons of AFL football at one club, has already come out of contract once in the period after serving his first eight or more seasons at his club, and is now out of contract.

The player is eligible to field offers from all rival clubs.

If he wishes to change clubs, the player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club.

His club does NOT have the right to match the presented offer, and the player can move AUTOMATICALLY to the new club of his choice.

His original club will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player, on an AFL-determined formula.


Source: AFL.com.au

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Free Agency

Ryan Griffen - out of contract at the end of this year - re-signs for another two years. 2012 will be Griffen's 8th year at the club so if his manager allows him to sign for any longer he is totally incompetent.

Late 2010, when Griffen signs his contract extension, Griffen is not in our best 10 players. 2011 (his 6th season) is Griffen's breakout year and by 2012 he is one of the top midfielders in the league. he will be eligible for UNRESTRICTED free agency.

His only decision to make will be to take up the $1 million/year for the sports comments spot on Adelaide's channel 7 to go with the $300K/year he gets from the Crows or take the $1.2 million/year to do advertising for Lexus to supplement the $220K/year salary at Collingwood (that's all they can afford to stay under the salary cap).

[Rocco Jones]

Re: Free Agency

There will be a lot more players going back to their home states. Do you think this is going to affect the interstate clubs more than the Vics?

West Coast and Adelaide are financially stronger than Carlton and Essendon, even after giving millions back to their respective league each year.

I am not as cynical as Sockeye but if the under the table fears are true, Collingood, West Coast and Adelaide will rule the league. Gold Coast and GWS will be with them if all they don't totally waste their concessions.

If Sockeye's deepest fears are realised, the game will become a joke. Aussie Rules is a lot different to soccer when it comes to being competitive. In soccer, one side could have the best XI players on the pitch and still be held to 0-0 draws. Semi-pro/4th tier sides can draw and even beat EPL sides because of the low scoring nature. Footy is very unforgiving when it comes to being outmatched talent wise, like basketball. If the top sides have a monopoly on talent, we will see local footy type smashings in the AFL.

[divvydan]

Re: Free Agency

Ryan Griffen - out of contract at the end of this year - re-signs for another two years. 2012 will be Griffen's 8th year at the club so if his manager allows him to sign for any longer he is totally incompetent.

Late 2010, when Griffen signs his contract extension, Griffen is not in our best 10 players. 2011 (his 6th season) is Griffen's breakout year and by 2012 he is one of the top midfielders in the league. he will be eligible for UNRESTRICTED free agency.

His only decision to make will be to take up the $1 million/year for the sports comments spot on Adelaide's channel 7 to go with the $300K/year he gets from the Crows or take the $1.2 million/year to do advertising for Lexus to supplement the $220K/year salary at Collingwood (that's all they can afford to stay under the salary cap).

Why exactly would Griffen not be in our 10 most paid players by the end of 2012? Cooney, Lake, Gilbee, Hargrave, Boyd?, Cross?, Higgins? Gia? Murphy? might be ahead of him but I can't see there being 10 ahead of him. Even if all the players with ? are ahead of him, that would still put him 10th and that list would be a worst case scenario one.

Assuming Griffen is out of contract at the end of this year (I've heard some varying reports so I'm unsure) and assuming he re-signs for a further two year deal, that deal will be more than his current one and in my opinion, the club would ensure he would be in the top 10 money earners at the club, even if he wasn't going to be naturally.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Free Agency

Why exactly would Griffen not be in our 10 most paid players by the end of 2012? Cooney, Lake, Gilbee, Hargrave, Boyd?, Cross?, Higgins? Gia? Murphy? might be ahead of him but I can't see there being 10 ahead of him. Even if all the players with ? are ahead of him, that would still put him 10th and that list would be a worst case scenario one.

Assuming Griffen is out of contract at the end of this year (I've heard some varying reports so I'm unsure) and assuming he re-signs for a further two year deal, that deal will be more than his current one and in my opinion, the club would ensure he would be in the top 10 money earners at the club, even if he wasn't going to be naturally.

He will definately be in our top 10 by 2012 but until he re-signs at the end of 2012 he won't be acknowledged as such. the AFL will rate him as to where he was when he signed the contact two years previously. Right now he is not one of our best 10 players.


How about another example, then. Brian Lake was drafted in 2001. 2009 was his 8th year. It was widely reported that he was on about $275K in 2009, clearly outside our top 10.
We managed to hold onto him - just - but if another club could get him without having to ante up a trade don't you think they would have gone a bit harder? Say Hawthorn (wouldn't a gun key back go a long way towards winning them a premiership?) decided to risk cheating the salary cap with a dodgy property deal so they could get him for free, certainly the temptation would have to be there.

The best cheats will win.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Free Agency

Well it had to come and time will tell whether its a good thing or not. A couple of things I think which need to be considered/firmed up:

1) 3rd party payments - the AFL need to police this rigourously. If we see a Collingwood side with Franklin at CHF, Judd, Cooney & Ablett in midfield, Lake at the back etc then there is something seriously wrong. They simply need to get this right or the system will fall apart.

2) I think they have got it wrong re not compensating for player development. In the Football, small clubs often retain a stake in a player and when they are transferred frm say Crystal Palace to Chelsea for a nominal fee, earn additional transfer fees from the next sale....recognition almost of the role that the development club played. I think some clubs are going to have a massive re-think about investing in player welfare and development programs if a gun player leaves once they are really contributing for effectively nothing.

3) Not everyone is going to be a winner. I think the mid-range players will suffer most. Those in the top 10% will take a greater share of the Salary Cap pie forcing the good honest players who are key to a flag tilt to earn less. We have seen at our club that Aka and Eagle are playing for a pittance to accomodate Lake and Hall, both big money earners. If you have £6m to spend on salary and £1m is going to 2 or 3 players ea, it means you have lot of guys earning less than they are earing now without the draft/trade stick to keep them happy.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Free Agency

Ryan Griffen - out of contract at the end of this year - re-signs for another two years. 2012 will be Griffen's 8th year at the club so if his manager allows him to sign for any longer he is totally incompetent.

Late 2010, when Griffen signs his contract extension, Griffen is not in our best 10 players. 2011 (his 6th season) is Griffen's breakout year and by 2012 he is one of the top midfielders in the league. he will be eligible for UNRESTRICTED free agency.

His only decision to make will be to take up the $1 million/year for the sports comments spot on Adelaide's channel 7 to go with the $300K/year he gets from the Crows or take the $1.2 million/year to do advertising for Lexus to supplement the $220K/year salary at Collingwood (that's all they can afford to stay under the salary cap).

I actually rang KB & Patrick Smith this morning with your example. They said that the AFL have yet to decide how they will calculate the top 10 players from a clubs list. They believe it wont be as simple as the top 10 salaries of contracted players.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: Free Agency

Ryan Griffen - out of contract at the end of this year - re-signs for another two years. 2012 will be Griffen's 8th year at the club so if his manager allows him to sign for any longer he is totally incompetent.

Late 2010, when Griffen signs his contract extension, Griffen is not in our best 10 players. 2011 (his 6th season) is Griffen's breakout year and by 2012 he is one of the top midfielders in the league. he will be eligible for UNRESTRICTED free agency.

His only decision to make will be to take up the $1 million/year for the sports comments spot on Adelaide's channel 7 to go with the $300K/year he gets from the Crows or take the $1.2 million/year to do advertising for Lexus to supplement the $220K/year salary at Collingwood (that's all they can afford to stay under the salary cap).

Griff is contracted to the end of 2011 though, isn't he? In which case, we'll hopefully sign him to a 2+ year deal, and certainly in our top 10 $'s wise.

The Advertiser this morning is already jumping up and down about the Crows and Power being able to grab Cooney and Griffen. Clubs will need to be very mindful and probably a bit creative with how they manage players and the stages at which players receive their 'career contracts'.

The more I think about the "New AFL" the more I don't like it...but that's the direction of professional sport, and there is little that can be done. I guess we just need to brace ourselves and try to enjoy the ride, if that's possible.



AND - as far as the 'outside salary cap' payments go - the AFL is really going to need to stop turning a blind eye to this and limit the amounts and ways in which monetary and other remuneration can be paid to players outside of the salary cap. There is no doubt they are at least aware of this issue - but seemingly choose to turn a blind eye to it. It will need to be addressed, and urgently, otherwise the competition will suffer, and supporters will leave the game.

Or, alternatively, we need to find a sponsor or supporter who is happy to put our key players on their payroll so that we can cheat and enjoy the same benefits as all the other, richer clubs do.

[westdog54]

Re: Free Agency

I actually rang KB & Patrick Smith this morning with your example. They said that the AFL have yet to decide how they will calculate the top 10 players from a clubs list. They believe it wont be as simple as the top 10 salaries of contracted players.

Policy on the run. Even better.

The current administration have got a lot right in their time, but they've also managed to create farce after farce in terms of how the league is run, and the writing is on the wall if they've released details of a free agency model without it even being completed.

If it isn't to be based on salaries of contracted players, how do they plan to determine it. Supercoach values? Champion Data rankings? Possessions per game?

I'm sure they'll come up with a 'simple formula' that absolutely no-one in the football world will understand.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Free Agency

I'm sure they'll come up with a 'simple formula' that absolutely no-one in the football world will understand.

Duckworth-Lewis?

[LostDoggy]

Re: Free Agency

Duckworth-Lewis?

Hahahahaha. Very funny TCD. Maybe Rocket will carry a copy of it in his pocket during trade week and refer to it at the end of every over or when it starts raining.

[westdog54]

Re: Free Agency

Duckworth-Lewis?

Hmmm, the Demetriou-Anderson player valuing method.

Sounds catchy...

[Doc26]

Re: Free Agency

All the more reason we must take our opportunity this year otherwise it could end up being a 100+ year drought. Fortunately my children are about old enough now to see and appreciate a Bulldog premiership, as for their kids, that could be a whole other story. The odds of taking a premiership are increasing each time a new Team is added and free agency for the 'struggling' clubs with little top end corporate backing just increases these odds.

I'm with Sockeye on this. The third party payment issue coupled with free agency will promote a more uneven competition than we have today and unfortunately will lead to the demise of those less fortunate. Where there's a will there's a way and clubs will exploit it by finding creative ways to get the player/s they deem will make a difference ala Judd and Carlton and his Visy ambassadorial role. No amount of AFL rhetoric in tightening controls around payments made beyond the TPP will save themselves from the looming disaster that threatens clubs like ours.

It's a short sighted determination where the AFL has relented to the ongoing pressure from the AFLPA and restraint of trade fears. I feel for the competition whenthe Media landscape takes a different strategic direction, where the billion dollar contracts dry up. How exposed would the 'weak' be then ?

[Scraggers]

Re: Free Agency

Duckworth-Lewis?

Funny ... very very funny