Free agency

[TOT70]

Looks like the debate over this is going to heat up over the next few weeks.

If they introduce it in 2012 as mooted, it will be another wonderful free kick for both GC and GWS.

Think about this: GC have the ability to extract up to 16 uncontracted players for zero cost in 2010. Most likely, they will take somewhere between 6-10. GWS will do the same in 2011. In other words, each of the existing clubs has a fair chance of being burnt at least once during this period. At the same time, they will parcel up the biggest groups of young players ever assembled by one team.

Then, in 2012, Free agency will come in and any player with 8 years at any club will be fair game for any team to poach, including GC and GWS. Oh wait, except GC and GWS won't have any players who have given them 8 years service until 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Two clubs will have immunity from free agency and will also have the ability to dip in, again and again, assisted by an inflated salary cap, during their period of immunity.

No doubt they have commissioned a couple of large trophy cabinets already.

 

[smasha]

I'm hating the game more and more each year.

Well we knew all this was gonna happen when Real Estate agent Andy D. was appointed CEO.

Free Agent will kill Richmond dead.

Most players will never nominate our club. :'(

 

[Col.E.Kurtz]

Tropical of the AFL they haven’t thought this through properly, if you compensate teams for losing good players rebuilding teams will deliberately encourage older players to leave in free agency so they can get draft picks.

 

[the next big thing]

I'm hating the game more and more each year.

Well we knew all this was gonna happen when Real Estate agent Andy D. was appointed CEO.

Free Agent will kill Richmond dead.

Most players will never nominate our club. :'(

i think this be great be richmond now and in years to come

 

[geoffryprettyboy]

If your employer *smile* you or there is no career path you would leave.

It's time the RFC reads the writing on the wall.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Free Agent will kill Richmond dead.

Most players will never nominate our club. :'(

On the flip side, hopefully we are turing things around by 2012 and will attract players.
If we can't then the RFC will be in trouble Free Agency or not.

 

[Chance]

Lids 8 years service 2012

 

[The Lurker]

Dont think too many players on our list (or ones we want to keep) will have the years on the board by the time this kicks off, if we can pillage a few, might just be opening our window further....

 

[premiers2011]

Most players will never nominate our club. :'(

I don't agree with that smasha,
Even though at the moment we're crap we're still known as on of the big four clubs in Melbourne.
If we show any sign of improvement and the crowds keeping coming as they always have, who wouldn't want to be running out infront of 80,000 playing for the Tigers instead of the Melbourne, Bulldogs, North, who can't pull a crowd anywhere and Sydney, Freo, Port, Brisbane, W-Coast, Adelaide who when they play in Victoria have crowds of about 20-35,000.
If we can get a Powerbroker in like Carltank have with Pratt you'll always get blokes like Browny who'll come to us for money and a chance to play on the "G" pretty often
We'll have a new training facility, hopefully a good coach and group of players that will have played 50-100 games together in the 21-25 age bracket.

I'm not saying go out and get B graders just for the sake of it but if we can snare a couple of A graders it would be great.

I'm actually hanging out for free agency then atleast we can pick up proven players 'cos our strike rate at growing our own hasn't been too good.

Bring it on!!

 

[Tiger74]

Most players will never nominate our club. :'(

tend to agree with this - players want to play in flags, and that ain't gunna be us for a fair while

 

[Tigers of Old]

tend to agree with this - players want to play in flags

Is free agency for the players about flags or money? I think it's the latter.

The landscape is changing and I think we'll see less of what we have seen at Brisbane/Geelong for the past few years where players have stuck close together despite being under market value. I expect there to be a lot more player movement from all clubs. Interesting times ahead.

 

[jimbob]

Free agency is being driven by the players & their erstwhile association & is about giving them choice & more opportunity to ply their skills in pursuit of either premierships &/or money. Simple as that. We must be showing serious signs of improvement by then or we are in trouble.

 

[Streak]

If the NFL is any yard stick, the teams that do really well in Free Agency are not those that go out and chase big names. They are the teams who know how to recruit and take productive players that fit their system. The New England Patriots are the prime example.

The key to controlling the impact of free agency will be for the AFL to knuckle down on the salary cap, pure and simple. Any deal like that done for Judd has to be fully counted against the cap. Sure, the odd player might chase a premiership against the money being offered by another club, but it will not happen all that often. Market forces will dictate what players are being offered, so the AFL must ensure that those market forces operate within rigid boundaries. This will ensure Carlton, Collingwood and the like cannot simply go out and buy every or any player they wish to.

The one thing I really don't get with free agency is why the AFLPA wants it. It will lead to market distortion, where a few players will be earning super salaries, and the average wage of the majority will fall. Teams will be reluctant to sign players for longer term or binding deals, and you will see a lot more 'journeyman' type players who end up playing for 5-6 clubs across their careers. Apparently this is good for the players the AFLPA represents?

 

[Jack]

It's a hard one really.

I agree in that my initial reaction is this could be bad for us. Players of ours wanting to go and chase success ( Otto for example ) and therefore being easier for them to do it. Also it would be hard to attact players to our club ( currently )

But if, and it's a big if, we have recruited properly now and our rebuild under DH is successful, then we should be looking a more attractive propersistion in a few years. Maybe not in 2012, but certainly soon after that.

I think everyone here agrees that we see our club as a sleeping giant. If we could get it right and turn our club around, then I think we would be a very attractive club to play at.

You would sell to players that they would play at the G, big crowds, a young team on the rise, a traditional strong club in footballs heartland, our new facilities being probably the best in the league etc.

I think a lot of players want these things, and would rather play for a club like ours under those circumstances than play for GC or GWS that can't offer those things. They might be paid a bit more up north, but most players want more than just money.

So I think initially free agency might be bad for us, but then good for us in 4 or 5 years. But what we are doing now has to be right, and our building plan has to work. If we are still a bottom club in 5 years time, we might never turn it around.

 

[TOT70]

The concern to me is not free agency, that can be managed. My concern is the enormous advantage that GC and GWS will get.

They each have virtually unlimited free agency in their first year when no-one else has it. When it is rolled out to the other clubs in 2012, GC and GWS are not going to lose any players to it for years.

GC could pick up Gary Ablett, a young gun like Cotchin, Jack Grimes or Cale Morton in their first year, along with 6 or 7 other decent, young players. Then, in 2012, they could add one of Franklin, Deledio, Griffin, Roughead, Monfries or Van Berlo. In 2013, it could then be one of Paddy Ryder, Josh Kennedy, Mark Murphy, Xavier Ellis or Mitch Clark. In 2014, they could choose from Joel Selwood, Nathan Brown, Jack Riewoldt, Bryce Gibbs or Travis Boak.

They are not limited to one of these players either, the only limit on their activities will be their salary cap, which will be higher than anyone else's. GWS can do exactly the same.

They could keep doing this each year until 2018, before their first player becomes eligible for free agency. By 2018, they could quite easily have poached 15-20 players from the existing clubs without having to cough up even one draft pick, or have the problem of having predators come after their players.

They will be able to use their early round draft picks to continually add to their young talent pool each year without having to trade for any of these players. It is not like Judd leaving WC and Carlton having to cough up a raft of players in return, or Burgoyne moving to Hawthorn and PA ending up with three picks in the first round. It is "having a cake and eating it too" scenario.

How exactly can anyone compete with this?

 

[btoz_01]

Lids 8 years service 2012

Who said Lids wanted to go?
Lids has has plenty of opportunites to say he wants out and has stuck by the club and signed on again.

 

[Baloo]

I wonder iff we'll start seeing more 5 year contracts handed out as a result of this change.

 

[Chance]

Who said Lids wanted to go?
Lids has has plenty of opportunites to say he wants out and has stuck by the club and signed on again.

This just opens the door for clubs like gold coast and GWS to open the cheque book and throw mega dollars at players like lids, and forcing clubs like us to overpay for players whose performances don't warrant that type of coin (Not saying lids doesnt deserve what he gets) but in the end we end up with a club that is paying a high percentage of the salary cap just to keep players. Remember players like nick daffy and the likes of that era overpaying players just because we have got the room in salary cap not because they deserve it.

 

[tigertrue]

The Free Agency Rule Explained.


and from memory this is what they said:

• A player that has served 7 seasons or less of AFL football at one club, and is now out of contract is not eligible for free agency if the club wishes to retain him. He may only move clubs via a trade or the Draft.
  If he delists himself, he is subject to the Draft, and may be selected by any club.
  
  
  
• A player that has served 7 seasons or less of AFL football at one club, and has been delisted by his club is a Free Agent and is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs.
  The player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club & can move automatically to the new club of his choice. The club which chose to delist him does not receive any compensation.
  
  
  
• A player that has served 8 or more seasons of AFL football at one club & is one of the 10 highest-paid players at his club but is now out of contract for the first time in 8 seasons of service is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs.
  If he wishes to change clubs he must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club. His club has the right to match the presented offer and if the club matches the offer, he can choose to stay, seek a trade or enter the Draft.
  If the club does not or can not match the offer, the player can move to the new club of his choice and his original club will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player, on an AFL-determined formula.
  
  
  
• A player that has served 8 or more seasons of AFL football at one club but is not one of the 10 highest-paid and is now out of contract for the first time is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs.
  If he wishes to change clubs, the player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival. His original club will not have the right to match the that offer and the player can move to his new club of choice.
  The original club will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player, on an AFL-determined formula.
  
  
  
• A player that has served 10 or more seasons of AFL football at one club, has already come out of contract once in the period after serving his first eight or more seasons at his club and is out of contract again can field offers from all rival clubs. To change clubs he must decide the best offer of his choice from one rival club and can move automatically to the new club of his choice.
  His original club doesn't have the right to match the offer but will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player by AFL-determined formula.
  
  

 

[Leysy Days]

The concern to me is not free agency, that can be managed. My concern is the enormous advantage that GC and GWS will get.

They each have virtually unlimited free agency in their first year when no-one else has it. When it is rolled out to the other clubs in 2012, GC and GWS are not going to lose any players to it for years.

GC could pick up Gary Ablett, a young gun like Cotchin, Jack Grimes or Cale Morton in their first year, along with 6 or 7 other decent, young players. Then, in 2012, they could add one of Franklin, Deledio, Griffin, Roughead, Monfries or Van Berlo. In 2013, it could then be one of Paddy Ryder, Josh Kennedy, Mark Murphy, Xavier Ellis or Mitch Clark. In 2014, they could choose from Joel Selwood, Nathan Brown, Jack Riewoldt, Bryce Gibbs or Travis Boak.

They are not limited to one of these players either, the only limit on their activities will be their salary cap, which will be higher than anyone else's. GWS can do exactly the same.

They could keep doing this each year until 2018, before their first player becomes eligible for free agency. By 2018, they could quite easily have poached 15-20 players from the existing clubs without having to cough up even one draft pick, or have the problem of having predators come after their players.

They will be able to use their early round draft picks to continually add to their young talent pool each year without having to trade for any of these players. It is not like Judd leaving WC and Carlton having to cough up a raft of players in return, or Burgoyne moving to Hawthorn and PA ending up with three picks in the first round. It is "having a cake and eating it too" scenario.

How exactly can anyone compete with this?

Understand your thoughts TOT but reckon your jumping at shadows a touch.

Leysy will be suprised if they get more than 4 AFL standard uncontracted players each upon startup. Very suprised.
Leysy wouldnt underestimate the importance of players wanting to be in a competitive team, because make no istake these two sides are going to be whipping boys in the first few years. Leysy's talking regular 100+ uncompetitive floggings. No-one wants to go through that.

The one's they do get they will be paying enourmously over the odds which will eat plenty into the cap.

Couple of other points, whilst they wont be losing any players up until 2018. When this comes around this will be made up as they will have a plethora of players coming "due" that were taken early in the draft or were picked up pre-draft upon there inception. At this time there salary cap will be the same as everyone else's as well.

Also, if Richmond get there *smile* in order, we can hopefully keep our young stock with us whilst other teams lose there's thus whilst the overall standard may drop it can push us closer to the top. Thats only if we are a well run club that players want to be at though. Which is in our own hands.