The worst free agency system in all professional sports

[Masto]

I put it to you that the AFL has the worst free agency system in all professional sports. No where else has...

1) One team with more salary cap that gets the best free agent every year
2) Penalises other teams for free agency signings by moving them down the draft order
3) Allows teams to know what compensation pick they will get before they choose to match an offer

All these things make for an inequitable system open to rorting and manipulation. Given what the AFL commission have served up in recent years, the only question remains: are we really surprised?

 

[GeelongFTW]

i thought his sig was ''tripleanalglory''

 

[KAYNE]

Yeah it's not perfect. Only early stages though. Also Sydney have only signed one free agent in Franklin so number isn't correct.

But 2 and 3 are absolutely spot on. If you can match the offer of a RFA you shouldn't receive compensation. And all picks should be end of the round.

 

[mcgarnacle]

The OP is correct.

but the fools who continue to roll up the grounds each weekend or consume the product on tele continue to validate the way the league is administered.

 

[Dan Cooper]

Good call by the OP.

It is early days though, and the way the current system is failing it won't take long before it's changed.

Besides which, the AFL love changing things, look at the dog's vomit the rules have evolved into!!

 

[Chilli Con Incarnate]

I think compensation just has to go, that way teams are more likely to try and hold onto players or at least aggressively pursue others.

That being said, it should stay for this year as we have already started... we'll wait till next season to scrap it.

 

[clogged]

Don't see the big deal in being moved down the draft order. For the top 20 picks, sure it might matter. Beyond that it's not really going to change a draft strategy.

 

[IanW]

Regarding Sydney, I'd like people to go back to this fine thread.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/ladder-predictions-2011.793293/

The Collingwood supporters on this thread had it nailed - the 2011 Swans side was full of honest plodders. Since then they've added two players to it, one on a heavily backloaded, almost Kovalchukian contract that any team with the guts to sacrifice 10% of their cap room in 2017-20 could have done.

Those of you who only follow Australian Rules probably dont know we've seen all of this before
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-t...ere-any-long-term-nhl-contracts-a-good-idea-2

The price of Franklin was losing also four depth players and their #2 ruckman, with no replacement in sight.

Have Sydney been aggressive ? Heck yes. Should this contract have been approved ? Maybe. Have the AFL made it clear that Franklin's contract goes on Sydney's cap even if he retires ? Yes. Will this cripple Sydney in the last years of this decade, and the early years of next ? Maybe.

On the flip side, we've seen this before, with Brisbane's ten year contract to Alastair Lynch, and he ended up being underpaid.

 

[Benno355]

Free agency should be the players "advantage" trading the club's "advanage"
Teams can trade players to what ever team the club wants (regardless of the player's choice) and free agency should be up to the player to exercise an option to float their contract to any team that is willing to pay. No compensation for the team.
At the moment the players decide who they get traded to and who they move onto under free agency. The club cannot win.

I see the AFL years behind other professional sports in both this area and the drugs policy. The NBA is a good example of trading/free agency. Teams in the 90's went through tough times when they paid average hacks way over their deserved salary's which then caused better players on less cash to leave as soon as they could (Sydney in the near future?)
Getting paid mega bucks to play footy? Then you put up with possibly moving to Sydney/Melb/Adel/Perth/Bris. We are not talking moving to Sudan/Iraq/Utah.....

 

[Subprime]

I put it to you that the AFL has the worst free agency system in all professional sports. No where else has...

1) One team with more salary cap that gets the best free agent every year
2) Penalises other teams for free agency signings by moving them down the draft order
3) Allows teams to know what compensation pick they will get before they choose to match an offer

All these things make for an inequitable system open to rorting and manipulation. Given what the AFL commission have served up in recent years, the only question remains: are we really surprised?

Really?

On the Daisy MB thread some Carlton supporters claim the compo will be end of 1st round i.e. ~19 whereas the most Pies fans hope it will be after our pick, say 11.

Can't go to the bank with that.

 

[Rainfall]

The draft's just as bad, GCS look like a good team going into next year but now they get 2 top 18 picks.. one being 5th

 

[Albert Ross]

1) One team with more salary cap that gets the best free agent every year

But the other team with more salary cap gets none (and Essendon got the best FA last year anyway)

2) Penalises other teams for free agency signings by moving them down the draft order

Not true. The American comp picks get added. Remember basically everything we do is just lifted from Vlad's end of season trips to America.

The NFL rule is

"Under the rules for compensatory draft selections, a team losing more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in the previous year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks."​

And in the most recent draft

A total of 32 compensatory choices in the 2013 NFL Draft have been awarded to 16 teams.​

​

3) Allows teams to know what compensation pick they will get before they choose to match an offer

Not true. The NHL has a nifty little formula.

Amount Compensation Due
$1,110,249 or below None
Over $1,110,249 to $1,682,194 3rd round pick
Over $1,682,194 to $3,364,391 2nd round pick
Over $3,364,391 to $5,046,585 1st and 3rd round pick
Over $5,046,585 to $6,728,781 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick
Over $6,728,781 To $8,410,976 Two 1st’s, one 2nd, one 3rd round pick
Over $8,410,976 Four 1st round picks

http://www.puckmeplease.com/restricted-free-agent-offer-sheets/

 

[juss]

Agree with the OP, but it's early, and I have faith that they will soon get rid of the COLA and the compo picks too, which are pretty easy fixes to make it a good system.

 

[West123]

1) One team with more salary cap that gets the best free agent every year

Teams in America have different state taxes. For example, Lebron can take less money to go to Miami but because there are no state taxes in Florida he gets more cash in hand.

 

[mcgarnacle]

The draft's just as bad, GCS look like a good team going into next year but now they get 2 top 18 picks.. one being 5th

For finishing 15th. you now want to take away selections based on the ladder?

 

[mcgarnacle]

Don't see the big deal in being moved down the draft order. For the top 20 picks, sure it might matter. Beyond that it's not really going to change a draft strategy.

perception.

the afl system is manipulation.

compo shouldn't enter the fray until the end of the 2nd round IMO, and be administered at the end of each round after that.

the incumbent club has had at least 8 years of service from the FA. that's a far greater amount of service than any american sports club gets before players qualify for FA over there..........and then the compensation for loss is much less with the first awarded at the end of rd 3.

 

[Lensen]

BNot true. The NHL has a nifty little formula.

Amount Compensation Due
$1,110,249 or below None
Over $1,110,249 to $1,682,194 3rd round pick
Over $1,682,194 to $3,364,391 2nd round pick
Over $3,364,391 to $5,046,585 1st and 3rd round pick
Over $5,046,585 to $6,728,781 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick
Over $6,728,781 To $8,410,976 Two 1st’s, one 2nd, one 3rd round pick
Over $8,410,976 Four 1st round picks

http://www.puckmeplease.com/restricted-free-agent-offer-sheets/

By my reading of that though, the compensatory picks aren't manufactured out of thin air, they are required to be given up by the acquiring side - with multiple picks over multiple years

Without knowing much about the NHL it seems a strange system - surely no one would pick up the equivalent of Buddy Franklin on $10m+ having to give up their first round pick for the next four years?

 

[Rainfall]

For finishing 15th. you now want to take away selections based on the ladder?

I get the 5th but why do they deserve a compo 18th

 

[Albert Ross]

Teams in America have different state taxes. For example, Lebron can take less money to go to Miami but because there are no state taxes in Florida he gets more cash in hand.

And different national taxes and currency exchange rates with the NBA, MLB and NHL all having Canadian teams. The Canadian teams used to lose all their players because Canadian dollars were worthless and taxes higher ... until the US dollar tanked and now it has tilted back to the Canadians' favour a bit.

 

[Albert Ross]

I get the 5th but why do they deserve a compo 18th

It is a 'banked' pick from a previous year that they chose to activate. It is not a 'compo' pick for finishing down the ladder.

 

[Rainfall]

It is a 'banked' pick from a previous year that they chose to activate. It is not a 'compo' pick for finishing down the ladder.

I know compo isn't for finishing down the ladder, but I was thinking who did they lose but thanks for filling me in.

 

[Albert Ross]

By my reading of that though, the compensatory picks aren't manufactured out of thin air, they are required to be given up by the acquiring side - with multiple picks over multiple years

Well the MLB manufacturers two whole 'rounds' out of thin air. Picks 28-33 were magiced out of thin air as compensation for losing players, and picks 34-39 were magiced up for Competitive Balance. And pick 9 was a pick put into the draft for not signing a previous round 1 pick.

The NBA is the only one that doesn't have compensation - but that works for them because they can trade players without their consent. So Collingwood could simply trade Shaw to the Giants without him having to agree as long as the Giants took up whatever was remaining on his contract.

 

[Albert Ross]

I know compo isn't for finishing down the ladder, but I was thinking who did they lose but thanks for filling me in.

Because they

1. Couldn't use any more early picks that they already had
2. Coudldn't attract good veterans
3. Couldn't accomodate any more kids via trade

They cleverly traded for the Compo picks generated by the likes of Ablett, Scully etc signing under the expansion rules. These picks are the only bankable ones.

Gold Coast acquired 3 extra first round picks this way and are using 1 this year.

Cheekily this one was actually generated by them signing Bock. Adelaide sent it to Richmond and then GC got it off Richmond.

 

[Books]

I get the 5th but why do they deserve a compo 18th

Gold Coast traded for a compo pick which could be saved and activated later.
GWS also has one this year - pick #9, mid-first-round, which was given to Geelong, traded to GCS for Smedts, then traded to GWS as part of the O'Meara deal.

Next year Gold Coast will have another one, straight after Geelong's first pick, which was also compo for Ablett but was then traded for Josh Caddy.

It is confusing, which is why all FA compo picks now have to be used the same year they are awarded.

 

[QuietB]

Compensation should come from the team receiving the free agent.

It is actually ridiculous that the Swans have pinched an elite player off the Hawks, and the Hawks receive one, maybe two elite draft picks in exchange. So two top of the table teams have turned one elite player potentially into 2, maybe 3 elite players. How is that not counter productive to equalisation?