i thought same when i was reading the article.
it's really making ESS look extremely unethical in a public domain. the thing is, .
When I first heard of the way essendon got Mal Michael from Brisbane (despite any spin that was put on this) I felt the AFL should have acted to stop draft manipulation.
Because in essence you are right. If there are obvious loopholes, unscrupulous people will jump through them. I hope the current situation with Tarrant makes the AFL look at this matter again because the draft at the moment is just being used as a big stick by some.