Free Agency Compensation Regime is Destroying the AFL as we have known it

[yebiga]

Welcome thru the back door to the EPL where the strongest clubs stay stronger and the weakest can go draft themselves.

But worse than the threat of a few clubs dominating season after season is the adjustment of seeing your heroes playing for other clubs. How do you explain to your 12 year old why Goddard is playing Essendon? Lake at Hawthorn? Del Santo at North?

The competition becomes effectively a game of supercoach list management. The club with the best list management wins.

This brave new world may work in the USA or in European Soccer but here, the AFL will inevitably find itself like the NRL - predominantly a TV sport - with game attendances dropping season after season. We will of course still watch athletes on TV. But exactly why would you go to watch your struggling team and support the up and coming youngsters and then find when they are any good they're playing for the opposition?

You can all get stuffed.

 

[Shoei]

What crap are you dribbling?

The AFL system is nothing like the European football system. They could barely be more opposite.

The VFL was closer to the European football system in the 70's and 80's

Muppet.

 

[flamethrower]

What exactly does the rant by the OP have to do with Free Agency Compensation?

The real issue with the current system is that it is inherently unfair to either the team losing the free agent or to all other teams or both.

There seem to be 2 systems used by O/S competitions. One system has no compensation for teams losing a free agent. This is most likely to produce a 2 tiered competition.

The other system determines compensation by assessing the worth of the player lost through free agency, similar to what the AFL has adopted. However it goes one step further by also penalising the team signing the free agent. If a player is deemed to be worth a 2nd round pick, the team gaining the free agent lose their 2nd round pick on top of the team losing the free agent then gaining the 2nd round draft pick.

That way no other team is unfairly penalised when a team gains an extra draft pick in the 1st round. In this system the highest compensation available is a draft pick after the 1st round, so that a team doesn't end up with picks 2 and 3 like Melbourne have this year with the Frawley compensation. In this system Melbourne would have been awarded selection 19 and Hawthorn would have lost their 2nd round draft pick.

In summary.....

Old system:

Hawthorn gain Frawley, lose nothing.
Melbourne gain selection 3.
All other teams after Melbourne's selection drop 1 place in draft order in crucial 1st round.

New system:

Hawthorn gain Frawley, lose 2nd round pick.
Melbourne gain selection after 1st round (pick 19).
All other teams unaffected in draft order in 1st round of draft.

This may seem unfair to the team losing the free agent, but they have 8 years to prevent the player leaving, and then have as much right to sign the free agent as the other 17 teams.

 

[Port01]

Goddard, Dal Santo and Lake aren't great examples. Their clubs didnt really want to keep them.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Welcome thru the back door to the EPL where the strongest clubs stay stronger and the weakest can go draft themselves.

But worse than the threat of a few clubs dominating season after season is the adjustment of seeing your heroes playing for other clubs. How do you explain to your 12 year old why Goddard is playing Essendon? Lake at Hawthorn? Del Santo at North?

The competition becomes effectively a game of supercoach list management. The club with the best list management wins.

This brave new world may work in the USA or in European Soccer but here, the AFL will inevitably find itself like the NRL - predominantly a TV sport - with game attendances dropping season after season. We will of course still watch athletes on TV. But exactly why would you go to watch your struggling team and support the up and coming youngsters and then find when they are any good they're playing for the opposition?

You can all get stuffed.

Lake-Traded, Bulldogs were the ones who were quietly shopping Lake around
Dal Santo-Released from his contract by St Kilda.
Goddard-Was offered more money and an extra year to jump over to the Bombers

Come up with some better examples plz

 

[yebiga]

And ask yourself why?
12 months later and lake walks wherever he wants