Gotta start playing smart in the new world of free agency. The footy world was blindsided by the Buddy deal, but it won't be the last of its kind. Starting negotiations with players a year out from signing them will become the norm within a few years.

So these are the players up for grabs next year:

Brisbane Lions

Ash McGrath

Carlton

Bryce Gibbs, Kade Simpson, Jarrad Waite, Andrew Walker

Collingwood

Harry O'Brien, Ben Reid, Dane Swan

Essendon

Heath Hocking, Leroy Jetta

Fremantle

Garrick Ibbotson, David Mundy, Luke McPharlin, Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands

Geelong

Steve Johnson, James Kelly, Trent West

Hawthorn

Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell

Melbourne

James Frawley

North Melbourne

Todd Goldstein, Lachie Hansen, Lindsay Thomas

Port Adelaide

Travis Boak

St Kilda

Sam Fisher, James Gwilt, Leigh Montagna, Nick Riewoldt

Sydney Swans

Adam Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe, Nick Malceski, Ted Richards

West Coast

Shannon Hurn, Daniel Kerr, Matt Priddis

Western Bulldogs

Matthew Boyd, Shaun Higgins, Will Minson, Robert Murphy, Tom Williams

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Given Roos connection to Sydney, I'd say we could be eyeing more than 1 of those Swans FA's. Landing Waite would be a brilliant pick up. Thoughts?

Sydney Swans

Adam Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe, Nick Malceski, Ted Richards

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Given Roos connection to Sydney, I'd say we could be eyeing more than 1 of those Swans FA's. Landing Waite would be a brilliant pick up. Thoughts?

You're kidding with Waite right? Adding a 31 year old injury and suspension prone forward, no thanks. Similarly at Sydney Goodes will be shot if he's not already and O'Keefe will be 33. Malceski 30 and with plenty of knee injuries and Richards 31. All not worth it.

We will have 1 priority with FA. Get pen on paper for Frawley. Anything else is a waste of time.

A targeted quality free agent pick up is years away.

The list is already out of date at least one player already retired and one at another club on first glance.

I reckon it will be almost impossible to prise most of those players away. Ben Reid would be a good pick-up if the wheels fall off at Collingwood, Heath Hocking maybe. The rest will either be retiring, retired, or too wedded to their previous club to move to Melbourne.

Sign Frawley up, because he is by far and away the best target for any team on that list that has a spare 600-800k in the bag.

how did we go in 14...?

Clearly our best move is to re sign Chip.

Not sure we need free agents where we are now. We need development of what we have and subsequent improvement. Culture change embraced.

Who is RFA and who is FA?

They are worlds apart in terms of how easily you can get them/lose them.

Ben reidand Matt Priddis would interest me. both have plenty left in the tank and both very very good footballers. someone like ben Reid who can stand a tall and deliver precision kicking would make our backline very very good. Not getting paid a lot at the pies either but seems loyal.

Would love to take something from West Coast as i hate them and Priddis is crucial in their engine room, very good hands in close and a workhorse.

Shannon Hurn worth a look but a lot an that list are getting quite old.

Either we sign up Chip and target for other free agents or we cop his loss and take the compensation. It could be worth as much as pick 2.

Either we sign up Chip and target for other free agents or we cop his loss and take the compensation. It could be worth as much as pick 2.

Might not be worth anything if the AFL change the rules which is on the cards.

Might not be worth anything if the AFL change the rules which is on the cards.

Is it?

And when looking for the article remember that Frawley is RFA.

Garrick Ibbotson....tough as cat's head

I had no idea Tom Williams was still on the Bulldogs list. 78 games since 2004. In the era of small lists, it's very rare for a player to be given so much time to deliver.

Ibbottson would be a great pick up, although the priority has to be Frawley so throw the bickies at him him first. Hopefully our improvement next year is enough to convince him to stay.

Need one more Tall backmen, Ben Reid is gettable, still young and if we offer him the big bucks he will come.

Wouldn't mind seeing Hocking and Gibbs in our midfield either.

Maybe Mundy?

Ben reidand Matt Priddis would interest me. both have plenty left in the tank and both very very good footballers. someone like ben Reid who can stand a tall and deliver precision kicking would make our backline very very good. Not getting paid a lot at the pies either but seems loyal.

Would love to take something from West Coast as i hate them and Priddis is crucial in their engine room, very good hands in close and a workhorse.

Shannon Hurn worth a look but a lot an that list are getting quite old.

Yeah but Dale Thomas seemed loyal too didn't he?

I had no idea Tom Williams was still on the Bulldogs list. 78 games since 2004. In the era of small lists, it's very rare for a player to be given so much time to deliver.

Quite amazing. 5 games in two years too. He's 27.

Harry Obrien

Harry Obrien

Haha good one.

Just keep Chip! (He is on record as having 'red and blue' blood in his viens so it shouldn't be as hard as some would like to make out!). Just win a few matches.

Agree with most that our target should be James Frawley and that we should, if at all possible, complete a deal with him early rather than later. We have enough problems trying to lift the club without having to deal with another Scully fiasco.

Agree with most that our target should be James Frawley and that we should, if at all possible, complete a deal with him early rather than later. We have enough problems trying to lift the club without having to deal with another Scully fiasco.

Agree...

Priorities would be re-sign Chip then chase one of Boak or Mundy I would think.

Agree with most that our target should be James Frawley and that we should, if at all possible, complete a deal with him early rather than later. We have enough problems trying to lift the club without having to deal with another Scully fiasco.

From Chip's point of view, I wouldn't expect him to re-sign until he sees signs of definite improvement. So a lot depends on how quickly we show definite improvement.

So I'll be worried if: (a) we're well past halfway and yet to improve from last year, or (b) we do improve and he doesn't sign.

I think Chip stands out in that list as the one who could add a lot to most teams, and who may be gettable under certain circumstances, so it will be vital for us to be able to sign him up a.s.a.p..

The ones most likely to add something to us are Ibbotson and Mundy, but I'd expect them to be hard to prise away from Freo.

I wonder too about Dane Swan, especially if PIes have a bad year and us a good one, just in terms of him being one of the few players able to take our (hopefully) vastly improved midfield up another notch.

I too am worried about Frawley, you'd expect him to get good offers should we have another terrible season and flee off like Rivers and Sylvia. Hell, even if he just gets injured this year we don't have a good enough replacement.

We may as well go for Shaun Higgins, he's pretty talented and would be a goal kicker/midfielder we need. He's had so many injuries that the Dogs are probably sick of keeping him. And even if he gets injured for us in round 1 we can still brag about him in the preseason