AFL Surprised Free Agency Not Working

[Demonic Ascent]

The problem is two-fold

1) not enough players qualify for FA each year due to the 8/10 year timeframes. This means the pool is extremely shallow with maybe one big fish, a couple of mid-range players and the rest close to retirement

2) clubs forced to pay a minimum amount of salary cap. This means when FA's do become available clubs aren't able to bank money to lure them across. They're effectively only able to offer similar salaries to what successful clubs or the FA's existing club can.

 

[The 747]

Thread title deadset reads like a headline from The Onion.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Yep. Lets just keep on messing with everything in perpetuity.

No other code in the world moves the goal posts as much as this one.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Hear that? The collective groans of draft hopefuls realising theres a greater chance of being sent to brisbane, or melbourne etc

Pretty sure Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, Tyson, Salem, Hogan, Weideman not to mention Hunt, McDonald et al are pretty happy with how the club is tracking at the moment.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I like the idea of top 4 (for that year) not having access to free agents, unless they lose a player of at least equal value of those they are chasing.

Then it's not Free Agency.

It's "Orchestrated Agency", where players don't get to go where they actually want to go.

For all of those people who whinge about players only going to successful clubs.

Suckling - Dogs
Ellis - Eagles
Young - Pies
Murphy - Suns

And that's just from Hawthorn.

 

[blaisee]

This talk of giving teams that have missed finals for three years an extra draft pick is ridiculous .

Why 3 years and why finals?

What about teams that haven't won a flag in 60 years like the bulldogs or the saints. Why should Hawthorn get a an extra draft pick in 3 years when they rebuild and all their stars retire.

If they want to give help to teams that have been unsuccessful, they should focus on premierships and go back 50 years.

Surely the loyalty of fans following unsuccessful teams should be rewarded. Give them some hope, they deserve it

 

[Smokeless Wardance]

Pretty sure Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, Tyson, Salem, Hogan, Weideman not to mention Hunt, McDonald et al are pretty happy with how the club is tracking at the moment.

Which goes to show that the onus should be on the club to get its act together, not the AFL arbitrarily handing out priority picks or salary cap concessions willy nilly. Melbourne sort themselves out off the field, get a decent coach in and lo and behold the early draft picks suddenly look like early draft picks and the club will probably make finals next year with a very exciting young team.

Clubs at the bottom already get an advantage in the draft by picking first. The AFL isn't a year 6 sports day where everybody gets a medal.

On free agency: Crameri to Bulldogs and Betts to Adelaide were moves for money and at the time Crameri's was very much down the ladder. And the two biggest moves in the history of free agency so far (Franklin and Dangerfield) were both to clubs that finished lower than their old teams the previous year. Free agency is working fine and the players deserve it.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Which goes to show that the onus should be on the club to get its act together, not the AFL arbitrarily handing out priority picks or salary cap concessions willy nilly. Melbourne sort themselves out off the field, get a decent coach in and lo and behold the early draft picks suddenly look like early draft picks and the club will probably make finals next year with a very exciting young team.

Clubs at the bottom already get an advantage in the draft by picking first. The AFL isn't a year 6 sports day where everybody gets a medal.

On free agency: Crameri to Bulldogs and Betts to Adelaide were moves for money and at the time Crameri's was very much down the ladder. And the two biggest moves in the history of free agency so far (Franklin and Dangerfield) were both to clubs that finished lower than their old teams the previous year. Free agency is working fine and the players deserve it.

Definitely have to sort themselves off field - we could've had GWS type concessions in 2008/9 and it wouldn't have made much if a difference. We've restructured our FD got a new head recruiter in who knows what he's doing and of course new Coach and President no doubt at least in part thanks to the afl.

Back to FA though the salary floor is a real hindrance. Lower clubs only have one thing to appeal to FA's and that's fat contracts. With the salary floor at 95% this option is taken away and so of course players will elect a top club over a bottom one if the salary is comparable.

 

[JohnnyFontane90]

the only players that tend to chase flags are the 27-28+ plus like waite, lake etc

the rest of the time i think location and money are bigger lures in that order IMO.

 

[Pessimistic]

Pretty sure Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, Tyson, Salem, Hogan, Weideman not to mention Hunt, McDonald et al are pretty happy with how the club is tracking at the moment.

Good, then melbourne wont be the one getting extra picks. melb might go close to top 4 next year and such as David King thinks they should get one more draft pick?

and its taken a decade for melb to get on the page. How many early picks have been wasted? they cleared a shitload out a few years back
How long will Brisbane take?

 

[Smokeless Wardance]

Definitely have to sort themselves off field - we could've had GWS type concessions in 2008/9 and it wouldn't have made much if a difference. We've restructured our FD got a new head recruiter in who knows what he's doing and of course new Coach and President no doubt at least in part thanks to the afl.

Back to FA though the salary floor is a real hindrance. Lower clubs only have one thing to appeal to FA's and that's fat contracts. With the salary floor at 95% this option is taken away and so of course players will elect a top club over a bottom one if the salary is comparable.

The floor is a player's union issue, won't change. All sports with salary caps have similar rules. The contracts themselves don't need to add up to 95% of the cap though, just the total amount paid out. No reason that the club can't either front load contracts or make up the 'gap' at the end of the year by spreading the shortfall amongst the playing group evenly to retain space for future years (76ers have quite famously done this over the past few years in the NBA).

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Nothing to do with team results. Free agency is "not working" because they haven't actually implemented it properly. The system we have is half-arsed and illogical.

If you're out of contract, you should be unattached, free to sign with whatever team you want to go to that has salary cap space to accommodate you. It shouldn't still require a trade to move on. Trades should be for contracted players, or players and draft picks, provided the outgoings and incomings all match within the salary cap and list places available.

It works easily and simply this way in nearly every other professional sport. Why can't it here?

Agreed - the other side of it is draftees should be tied up for 4 years on 2+1+1 contracts exercised at the clubs discretion. Additionally, contracted players should have no say in where they are traded, the club should own the rights to that player once they are contracted for the season and have the ability to trade those rights to another club.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Good, then melbourne wont be the one getting extra picks. melb might go close to top 4 next year and such as David King thinks they should get one more draft pick?

and its taken a decade for melb to get on the page. How many early picks have been wasted? they cleared a shitload out a few years back
How long will Brisbane take?

Of course we won't be getting any extra picks, who said we were? David King had a brainfart on On The Couch and you're going into a hissy fit over it? It's not gonna happen (extra picks for clubs 3 years out of finals) so why get worked up about it.

David King FFS

 

[Demonic Ascent]

This is the first time you've mentioned King at all. How was I to know that's what you referring to? I thought we were talking FA equalising the comp.

Additional picks for clubs should be the "break in case of emergency" a position for Brisbane we are rapidly approaching imo.

Brisbane have the academies so not sure they really need or should qualify for a PP. I'm not against it in principle for teams in Brisbane's situation but with the academies and picks from last year still to develop they'd benefit far more from AFL funding for facilities and restructuring them off-field than they would an extra draft pick. Though it probably should be awarded just so Essendon don't get pick 1 which is a disgrace in itself.

 

[WCE_phil]

Can't believe it hasn't already been mentioned.

The only way to make free agency really work is to give clubs the ability to trade players against their will. Its weighted too heavily in favour of the players at the moment

It's this simple. full free agency from year 6 onwards, prior to that the club owns your arse or you can request a trade meaning that if you really don't want to be there or a club comes with a much better offer then the team that does the drafting and developing isn't screwed.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

FA is pointless when the AFL sets the limit at 8 years, provides compo tied to ladder position and allows front/back ended contracts.

These probably should go too - a players contract should be averaged over its life not paid 80% this year and 10% for the enxt two years. It distorts the market and will get clubs into a hell of a lot of strife sooner or later, especially with the cap floor.

 

[hutchy31]

The issue here, as with most things in the AFL, is that one aspect of the bigger picture is examined.

Equalisation isn't working, let's fix it with reshaping the draft. Or free agency. Or academies. Can someone tell the AFL that equalisation is a complex issue that requires you to look at all of these, along with football department spending, fixturing (particularly access to FTA and "blockbuster" games), club administration and a number of other things. These are all levers, and when you pull on one thinking you're going to fix things you throw something else out of whack and then need to fix that.

Also, the AFL can't be an equalised sporting competition, an entertainment product and run like a professional business at the same time. Figure out what the biggest priority is (spoiler alert, it's the last one), recognise it publicly and let's stop pissing around pretending that everyone at AFL House is wringing their hands about equalisation and what the fans think.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

The floor is a player's union issue, won't change. All sports with salary caps have similar rules. The contracts themselves don't need to add up to 95% of the cap though, just the total amount paid out. No reason that the club can't either front load contracts or make up the 'gap' at the end of the year by spreading the shortfall amongst the playing group evenly to retain space for future years (76ers have quite famously done this over the past few years in the NBA).

Is the floor in those other sports so high? 95% seems ridiculous.

 

[Maddo11]

I have an idea that's a bit radical, but I think it would work.
Every single year, the bottom 6 teams should get the first 12 picks and then miss the next 24.

So ....

18th
17th
16th
15th
14th
13th
18th
17th
16th
15th
14th
13th

And then the other 12 get two picks each. And then normal draft order resumes.

1 pick in the top ten isn't helping anyone at the bottom.

In this scenario the premier gets pick 24 instead of 18 currently.
And their 2nd pick is 36, the same as it is currently.

It just injects talent to the bottom of the ladder.
No more priority picks. Just set it in stone.

This could work.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

This could work.

Although David King talks a LOT of drivel he does make a good point that with the draft the difference between picks for wooden spoon and premier is essentially 1 draft pick (ie pick 1). For the rest of the draft they are effectively drafting from the same position. In a 38 player/22 a side game, one 18yo kid is never going to be enough to make a difference, not in the short term anyway, no matter how great they might be.

 

[captain cotch 9]

LOL at the people having a winge that the good players are going to the good teams.....
OF COURSE THEY ARE!!!
If you where looking to change jobs would you go to the best company in the field or to some shit one?

The only way to fix FA in my opinion is to ban the top 4 from signing a FA unless they lose a player to FA.

I also think that the media has overlooked how good free agency has been for delisted players. Its giving them another lifeline.

 

[Pessimistic]

LOL at the people having a winge that the good players are going to the good teams.....
OF COURSE THEY ARE!!!
If you where looking to change jobs would you go to the best company in the field or to some shit one?

The only way to fix FA in my opinion is to ban the top 4 from signing a FA unless they lose a player to FA.

I also think that the media has overlooked how good free agency has been for delisted players. Its giving them another lifeline.

While we are on the analogies, its like the crappiest universities hogging the best students

 

[Boxhead_31]

And free agency? Ok dangerfield went home, but other moves I remember were - Dixon from Suns to power, treloar was traded from Giants to magpies (famously deciding magpies had better list than tigers) suckling from Hawks to Bulldogs, Bennell from Suns to dockers, Carlisle from bombers to saints (rejected the Hawks). Jetta went from swans to Eagles with callum Sinclair heading in other direction. And the Hawks snared jack Fitzpatrick (who was released by the demons). And Yarran went from blues to tigers. From what I can see, none of these moves either ruined the team that lost the player or made the new team unbeatable. So I disagree that free agency has benefitted a few, and disadvantaged many.

Leave the bloody game alone. And if you really, really want to change something, ignore the media and do some decent analysis. And then wait at least another year.

Dangerfield left in a trade.
Dixon left in a trade.
Bennell left in a trade.
Treloar left in a trade.
Carlisle left in a trade.
Jetta left in a trade.
Sinclair left in a trade.
Fitzpatrick left in a trade.
Yarran left in a trade.

So how is Free Agency working again?

 

[captain cotch 9]

Dangerfield left in a trade.
Dixon left in a trade.
Bennell left in a trade.
Treloar left in a trade.
Carlisle left in a trade.
Jetta left in a trade.
Sinclair left in a trade.
Fitzpatrick left in a trade.
Yarran left in a trade.

So how is Free Agency working again?

Isnt that a good thing though?

 

[Dr Tigris]

Is FA working??

Yes. If you want to support movement of players to clubs they'd rather be at. For any reason.

Not much. If you want to even up the comp. Because some clubs get players for less because of either potential to win a premiership or because of personal factors (Danger).

SO what do you want FA to do??