According to sources familiar with the meeting of the ‘‘player movement working party’’, the club officials who attended the meeting, while not unanimous in support, were more receptive to the concept of a mid-season draft or mid-season trading.
The meeting was attended by Hocking, senior AFL official Andrew Dillon, Carlton’s Stephen Silvagni, Geelong’s Stephen Wells, Fremantle’s Brad Lloyd, Hawthorn’s football boss Graham Wright and other AFL officials. Some list managers who did not attend the meeting also believe there should be mid-season recruiting, but there are a number of different proposals for it.
These scenarios include a simple draft in which you can pick any players who is overlooked in the national draft or delisted.
But one objection to that open-style mid-season draft – which would involve a large pool of potential players – is that it would allow a lower club with virtually an extra first or second-round pick if there is an overlooked player such as Hawthorn’s Isaac Smith, who was a mature draftee and would be in the mid-season draft under this scenario.
Another possibility is that clubs can only sign players who are delisted – effectively as free agents. But the AFL will also consider a trading system which would have the advantage of allowing clubs to swap player for player.
Two major complications have already been identified by list managers at club level. One is the management of the salary cap, which would be complicated by a mid-year draft or trades, although a club could simply run one player short and allow a space in the cap, to ensure it could recruit during mid-season.
The other major obstacle is the impact on state leagues, which would lose their best players mid-season and might need financial compensation from the relevant club or the AFL.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has been an advocate for mid-season player movement for some time.
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SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
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