http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-05-11/aflw-roos-cats-start-list-builds-ahead-of-debuts

There may be compensation for 'poached' players after all: 

"No compensation terms have been announced by the AFL to clubs who have lost players to expansion sides, although the draft order will be released at the end of the expansion signing period...Some form of compensation may be worked into the draft order or the number of draft picks given to a club".

Surely the AFL should have announced the compensation before the 'poaching' began!  Too easy to favour some teams, after the event.

Nonetheless, having lost 4 players including: Hickey (Vice captain, Marquee player) and a really good player in Cranston we should get some decent picks in the draft.?

But don't think simply having extra picks in the draft is much good if they are at the back end.  Fairer to give picks relative to the quality of the player lost.  But then when are things fair at the AFL...?

Edited May 11, 20186 yr by Lucifer's Hero

It boggles the mind that they hadn't established the rules for compensation before the poaching began. Amateur hour. Most charitably, it suggests they were taking a 'wait and see' approach to see what kind of poaching happened, before deciding what compensation they deemed to be warranted. Which sounds like a really fair and unbiased way of doing it, not. Finger's crossed for some high draft picks, I guess...

Anyway, the talent landscape is interesting, in the sense that, an 18 (maybe 19) year old can come in and come second in the comp B&F. Maybe that was a one-off, but the development gap between what the players in their mid-20s experienced compared to the new draftees is pronounced. On the other hand, football IQ is kind of a hot commodity to balance out the cross-coders. I wouldn't say no to picking up some of the older players who fell out of favour last season, seemingly due to a lack of athleticism or speed, despite having football IQ.

 

Established clubs treated poorly here   AFLW Draft Order

Mel, Rocky etc worth only a 4th round compensation pick

Cats get priority picks because their poaching wasn't as effective as Norths'.
 

I was gonna say you couldn't make this shite up but someone obviously has

10 hours ago, Go the Biff said:

Established clubs treated poorly here   AFLW Draft Order

Mel, Rocky etc worth only a 4th round compensation pick

Cats get priority picks because their poaching wasn't as effective as Norths'.
 

I was gonna say you couldn't make this shite up but someone obviously has

All based on some flaky concept of "whether the loss of players would damage a club enough to compromise competitive balance". which could mean you loose your best player but if you are perceived to have a 'strong' team or a handful of other good players the loss won't damage the club so no compensation.  4th round is exactly that, no compensation.

Explains why the AFL wanted to wait til the poaching was done to decide on compensation.  Cranston alone was worth a decent comp pic, not to mention our marquis player/vice captain Hickey.

With 4 new sides to come in for 2020, the AFL couldn't really compensate sides for losing players this year. There will be twice as much movement next year, and trying to navigate through that will be almost impossible.

That said, giving Geelong extra picks because they were less successful at finding players than North is laughable. What happens if St Kilda don't lure any players next year because they are a basket case - do they get the first 20 picks in the draft?

As an aside, there was a rumour in the HS this morning that one of the 2020 expansion clubs is reconsidering joining the league - I assume that would be Gold Coast, but others might have different sides.