Free Agency has been announced today and will be in force from 2012.

There are specific terms and conditions (hopefully someone can post a link here)

Players must have served 8 years on the main list.

What are peoples thoughts??

I can see players wanting to leave the poorer / least popular clubs and wanting to go to the power house clubs.

Herald Sun Link http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/free-agency-a-reality/story-e6frf9jf-1225833482809

I'm still not sure if this is to the benefit of the lesser clubs, but I do like this bit:

Players who are in the top 25 per cent of salaries at their club will be eligible for restricted free agency for their first new contract after they have served eight years on the primary list of the club.

Restricted free agents have the right to move to a club of their choice subject to the current club’s right of first refusal over their services. That is, if the current club can match the offer from a rival club, the player must stay or enter the draft

I'm still not sure if this is to the benefit of the lesser clubs, but I do like this bit:

Players who are in the top 25 per cent of salaries at their club will be eligible for restricted free agency for their first new contract after they have served eight years on the primary list of the club.

Restricted free agents have the right to move to a club of their choice subject to the current club’s right of first refusal over their services. That is, if the current club can match the offer from a rival club, the player must stay or enter the draft

Agree, that's the key part, it's impossible to control non-TPP payments like Judd/Vi$y but if we can match the TPP payment and retain the player then that's a good safeguard. Not perfect because clubs with a lot of "outside" payments can afford to pay less inside the TPP and therefore have more room but it's a good restriction.

Also the compensatory "new" pick according to a formula, presumably the same or similar to the GC/GWS formula, is good.

If we have to have it, which according to the AFL we do, then I think it's a great outcome.

Free Agency has been announced today and will be in force from 2012.

There are specific terms and conditions (hopefully someone can post a link here)

Players must have served 8 years on the main list.

What are peoples thoughts??

I can see players wanting to leave the poorer / least popular clubs and wanting to go to the power house clubs.

Time to stop making excuses and become a powerhouse again. No reason why we should be (New facilities, MCC deal, Casey Deal & Debt getting reduced)making excuses that is. Just need to get the onfield part right.

Did anyone read the Nth Melb article on the weekend in the H/Sun? They believe they are on the right track to becoming a power of the AFL and there debt and membership number are worse then ours. Hawthorn is a great blueprint to go off. they didnt complain about anything after they were nearly dead and buried and look at them now.

Agree, that's the key part, it's impossible to control non-TPP payments like Judd/Vi$y but if we can match the TPP payment and retain the player then that's a good safeguard. Not perfect because clubs with a lot of "outside" payments can afford to pay less inside the TPP and therefore have more room but it's a good restriction.

Seems like the AFL is targeting this with the following:

• The AFL will closely monitor access to uncapped third party independent arrangements.

• All player investments with associates must be lodged with the AFL.

If we have to have it, which according to the AFL we do, then I think it's a great outcome.

That's exactly how I feel.

I'm still not sure if this is to the benefit of the lesser clubs, but I do like this bit:

Players who are in the top 25 per cent of salaries at their club will be eligible for restricted free agency for their first new contract after they have served eight years on the primary list of the club.

Restricted free agents have the right to move to a club of their choice subject to the current club’s right of first refusal over their services. That is, if the current club can match the offer from a rival club, the player must stay or enter the draft

The AFLPA are tweeting live about this now (for those of you who are interested in getting live updates from twitter)... they are open to questions - @AFLPAToday and @SteveAlessio. AFLPA also have some good live pictures from the inside via their tweet stream. For those that are not interested in the twitter updates you can check out what they have to say on their blog : http://www.aflpablog.com.au/

I know Ian Prendergast is discussing it on there live tomorrow, it's worth reading what they have to say and commenting with your thoughts also.

Time to stop making excuses and become a powerhouse again. No reason why we should be (New facilities, MCC deal, Casey Deal & Debt getting reduced)making excuses that is. Just need to get the onfield part right.

Did anyone read the Nth Melb article on the weekend in the H/Sun? They believe they are on the right track to becoming a power of the AFL and there debt and membership number are worse then ours. Hawthorn is a great blueprint to go off. they didnt complain about anything after they were nearly dead and buried and look at them now.

Two very good points We MUST become a powerhouse again off field we are on the right track we NEED the onfield to happin sooner rather than later

The most important factor in all of this is the salary cap. I don't know how exactly the AFL calculates it every year (whether it is simple indexation or a more complex formula) however if the AFL has licence to pretty much pluck out any figure then watch this space.

Official AFL info here:

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/89810/default.aspx

FA applies to players with 8 years service

Restricted FA only applies to top 10 players with 8 years service

Unrestricted FA for all players with 10 years service independent of whether they're top 10

So will there be the option for players to field offers during the season, and for those who are unrestricted free agents, to sign with a rival club during the season (a la the NRL)?

Edit: This article helps explain things: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/89809/default.aspx

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by titan_uranus

Unrestricted FA for all players with 10 years service independent of whether they're top 10

Presumably 10 year players can still be a "vet" so only half their salary counts in the TPP, this will help the retaining club.

I am quite Happy that Free Agency is Here in terms of the MFC. It now means we must get ourselves in order in 2-3 years.

No more of this 5-6 year rubbish. Use the Free Agency model as a Positive-Rather than Moan & Groan about players leaving.

Let us plan in Terms of Players wanting to play for the Melbourne Football Club rather than Collingwood, Carlton or Essendon.

It can & will be done, there is no alternative.....apart from non exisistance.

Starts Today...(Just imagine if 5 players of Judd/Hird/Brereton Stature all wanted to play for Melbourne FC at the one Time)...This is the Line in the Sand Stuff.

Play Like DEMONS. Wake up Melbourne Be ready to Fight.

So, all things being equal, Watts will be targeted as a 26 year old in his prime?

Super. Hope we've a visy by then. Perhaps a premiership too.

3 time premiership captains rarely leave their club

which demons will fit the 8 year rule in 2012, im thinking davey, bruce, miller,green,sylvia, Moloney,Rivers,

So, all things being equal, Watts will be targeted as a 26 year old in his prime?

Super. Hope we've a visy by then. Perhaps a premiership too.

You Gotta stop looking at it from the Negative point of view.

It's not who is going to Leave, it's all about who is going to WANT to play for the MFC.

If we are playing september Footy Jack Watts won't be going anywhere.

I am quite Happy that Free Agency is Here in terms of the MFC. It now means we must get ourselves in order in 2-3 years.

Free agency is being introduced in 2012. That means that players must have been at their current club since the 2003 draft. By this stage the only important players still on our list might be - Sylvia, Davey, Rivers.

The rest of the players will be either gone, or on the VET list and too old for other clubs.

We are looking great for free agency by this time because we will defiantly be on the up by this stage.

I actually doubt that players will want to go to the more powerful clubs for the sake of being at a powerful club. I reckon it will be a combo of salary and premiership chances.

It can & will be done, there is no alternative.....apart from non exisistance.

So if we don't entice any players from other teams the club will fold?

Starts Today...(Just imagine if 5 players of Judd/Hird/Brereton Stature all wanted to play for Melbourne FC at the one Time)...This is the Line in the Sand Stuff.

There is still a salary cap. There is no way this situation would happen at any club.

Free agency is being introduced in 2012. That means that players must have been at their current club since the 2003 draft. By this stage the only important players still on our list might be - Sylvia, Davey, Rivers.

The rest of the players will be either gone, or on the VET list and too old for other clubs.

We are looking great for free agency by this time because we will defiantly be on the up by this stage.

I actually doubt that players will want to go to the more powerful clubs for the sake of being at a powerful club. I reckon it will be a combo of salary and premiership chances.

So if we don't entice any players from other teams the club will fold?

There is still a salary cap. There is no way this situation would happen at any club.

If we do not get our act together in the next 5-10 sure i believe will be shipped off to be part of the Gold Coast or GWS. If the club cannot entice players players we will fold.

My second point concerning judd's. Hird's/ Brereton's etc was meant as a who do we choose, who want's to play for us. I never expected to get al of them.

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by why you little

I'm actually impressed with this proposal.

Restricted free agency with compensation picks for teams that lose a player.

Obviously compensation picks won't be as much as a team would want, but there is still hope!

You Gotta stop looking at it from the Negative point of view.

It's not who is going to Leave, it's all about who is going to WANT to play for the MFC.

If we are playing september Footy Jack Watts won't be going anywhere.

I understand that it's happening, and that it will continue to be shaped, but..

For me, it is all about who's going to leave. All about team champions that will leave their clubs.

Compensation? Moot from my vantage. Any year now father-sons will go - they're restraint of something, no doubt.

End rant.

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by Trident

If you're a successful club, players won't want to leave. ATM, we're pretty crap, and all the players who have been at the club for 8 years, if 1 of them bolted for free agency, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. So either you're a great team and players want to hang around and/or sign with you, or you're a crap club that is rebuilding and it won't make a difference.

It is important that players can't leave whenever they wanted. If that was the case, we may as well be renamed to the LA Clippers.

Its all good and well to say 'lets be ready in 2012' but the longer term implications for the less powerful clubs is profound. Presumable we are on the rise right now, but what then happens when we are down again in later years? How will teams like us, Bulldogs, Nth Melb etc rebuild if we continue to lose players, which we will.

Make no mistake, this makes the salary cap irrelevant for the rich clubs. The can now legally grab any player they want, and either give them a job as an 'Environmental Ambasador' or whatever the *&^% they call the under-the-table payments Judd gets, or just simply give them a brown paper bag. Premier League here we come.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/hawthorn-president-jeff-kennett-slams-free-agency/story-e6frf9jf-1225833790534

I am not a big Kennett Fan but he makes a good point about those scummy player agents using the system to help line there pockets

Its all good and well to say 'lets be ready in 2012' but the longer term implications for the less powerful clubs is profound. Presumable we are on the rise right now, but what then happens when we are down again in later years? How will teams like us, Bulldogs, Nth Melb etc rebuild if we continue to lose players, which we will.

Make no mistake, this makes the salary cap irrelevant for the rich clubs. The can now legally grab any player they want, and either give them a job as an 'Environmental Ambasador' or whatever the *&^% they call the under-the-table payments Judd gets, or just simply give them a brown paper bag. Premier League here we come.

I have passionately argued against "free agency" for a long time. It seems to me that a mechanism which encourages players to look at other ( more successful) clubs as they approach their prime can only weaken the club loyalties which lie at the heart of our game. As Arthur points out it is the long term impact of free agency that ought to concern all of us.

I have had some sympathy for players who are dragged accross the country and have had no easy means of returning home.Other than that I have always thought that free agency was a 'no-no'. As a supporter its hard enough to stick with your club when it is down - how much harder will it be when you know that all your emerging players ( or their greedy managers) can plot to walk out on you when they reach their prime? I'd suggest that some Geelong supporters will feel less attached to Gary Ablett this year as he continues to defer contract negotiations in the knowledge that there is a fortune waiting for him on the Gold Coast.In the face of free agency ( to the new club) he is no longer "their player" - and a kid who wants #29 on his back stands to have his heart broken at season's end.

Having said all that the AFL has done well to resist AFLPA pressure for a 7 year walk-out clause - and to add an extra layer of protection to the "Top 10". The pressure on a club to match an offer for the "Top 10" is however inflationary - and the whole system can be compromised by Judd-like Visy deals. How is the AFL ever going to stop rorts like that?

If you accept that the players were never going to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement without some form of free agency, then the new arrangements are OK ... and the AFL has done a good job . But if greedy players ( or managers!) find loopholes in the detail - then it is inevitable that the competition will suffer over time.

Whatever your politics - you've got to say that Jeff Kennett's reservations are valid.