EXPANSION CLUBS, UNCONTRACTED PLAYERS AND FREE AGENCY. EVENNESS? WHAT EVENNESS? by Nutbean

Andrew Demetriou was recently quoted on the subject of free agency as saying, "The agreed model is fair for all concerned in that it gives players more flexibility but also contains safeguards that will help maintain the evenness of the competition".

Perhaps the latter part of this statement should have read, in true Orwellian fashion, "maintain the evenness of the competition as long as the GWS and GCS franchises are little bit more even than the established clubs".

Can the same litmus test of evenness be applied to the access by the established clubs, to uncontracted players that the GWS and GCS franchises have, compared to the free agency agreement ?

Whilst it is understandable that the AFL want the expansion clubs to be successful, unlimited access to uncontracted players (barring the numbers that can be taken), together with a significantly increased cap available to the expansion clubs, flies in the face of Demetriou’s desire for evenness.

With regards to the extra money available in the cap - "What's important about that is it's not a bucket of spare money and down the track you pay players over and above the odds," Demetriou stated.

"I mean they actually need that money because they’ve got more players on their list."

These comments fail to point out the obvious – that the expansion clubs have a disproportionate number of new draftees on lower, fixed salaries, meaning there is more to spend on uncontracted players.

As to the comment about paying players over and above the odds, no one can deny that this is exactly what happened with GC17 and will happen again with GWS.

That the expansion clubs have advantaged access to 17 year olds and the cream of the crop from the national draft, is not so worrying to supporters generally as GWS and GCS still have to nurture and develop this talent.

Whilst it is understood that extra money given to the expansion clubs is also needed for retention, when this same extra money is used to lure players from other clubs, then the AFL is basically saying that all bets are off regarding a level playing field. The GWS and GCS franchises are rolling up to player auctions with a lot more AFL cash in their pockets to spend than the established clubs.

By placing restricted access on free agency but not doing the same on access to uncontracted players for the expansion clubs, the AFL has created a farcical situation where the likes of Dustin Martin and Tom Scully can be poached. In the name of evenness, perhaps they should be asking why the likes of Martin and Scully are at their respective clubs. These players were high draft picks, picks that Richmond and Melbourne received due to repeated poor performances, in an effort to even up the competition. That there is a possibility of any second year player leaving a club, especially high draft picks that are meant to improve ailing clubs, is ludicrous – evenness apparently doesn’t stretch too far.

So what is the answer?

With the AFL determined to give the expansion clubs a leg up with extra cash to spend, why not at least protect the established clubs by limiting access to uncontracted players by length of service, as the free agency agreement does.

Why not give the expansion clubs a year’s head start on free agency? Whilst players will head north, lured by the promise of very attractive (some might say irresistible) pay packets, at least the players will have given appropriate service to their clubs. This will at least provide a more acceptable solution when it comes to maintaining the evenness in the competition that Andrew Demetriou keeps espousing.

They also miss the point that the influence of GWS and GC having a huge space in their salary cap right now is hugely inflationary.

Players leave because their existing clubs can't carry the salary burden within their cap.

In fact, GWS could increase pressure on other club's salary caps by an even greater amount than GWS own cap. If GWS approaches three players at one club, that pushes each one's salary expectation up, even if NONE of the players eventually leave the club.

If I were a crackpot ex-coach with delusions of grandeur and no respect for the integrity of the game, I'd be taking every chance I could to talk up the idea that GWS is targeting this player, that player and the other one at every club, just to mess with the rest of the league and cause instability... oh... hey... how 'bout that?...