Opinion Which free agent players are worth a early first round pick?

Sep 19, 2007
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I'm curious to how the system works. I've only seen 2015 rules. Does anyone have a 2021 list of the top paid players over 25?

Surely a club couldn't just offer up a 29 year old and get first dibs at a top talented pick.


I'd imagine Merrett from Essendon would possibly be worth a first round pick.
Bont would definitely be worth a first round pick (Clearly won't be leaving)
Billings? He's the 46th highest paid player
Cripps, worth first round pick. On form Carlton do it, for his potential Carlton can't afford to lose.

I'm just trying to work out which clubs that finish near the bottom could potentially work the draft to secure two picks.

Personally Essendon would lose trading Merrett anyway.
 
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So technically Dangerfield at 33 could be a free agent and Geelong could get a first round pick for a player with only a couple years max on his career.

Let's take it a step further, if David Mundy at 36 was offered a 5 year $850,000 per year contract then I'd expect Fremantle would receive a band one compensation pick.

The AFL reserves the right to run it by a panel to tweak their table of outcomes if required and generally speaking they don't give out compensation for players in their advanced years - but I suspect a reason behind that is the contract value they are moving to isn't in elite territory. $340,000 for three years is barely $1,000,000 deal and the elite contracts could clear that in a year and three months.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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So technically Dangerfield at 33 could be a free agent and Geelong could get a first round pick for a player with only a couple years max on his career.
Taylor To follow up on this. North could potentially have so much free salary cap that they would be willing to take Dangerfield free from trade, but offer him a million dollars each year over two years including coaching if necessary. (assuming he was on the table)

Therefore Geelong get a first round pick
 
Jan 19, 2008
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Taylor To follow up on this. North could potentially have so much free salary cap that they would be willing to take Dangerfield free from trade, but offer him a million dollars each year over two years including coaching if necessary. (assuming he was on the table)

Therefore Geelong get a first round pick

This works for me, where do I sign?
 
Dec 10, 2003
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So technically Dangerfield at 33 could be a free agent and Geelong could get a first round pick for a player with only a couple years max on his career.

To get Band1 .. a player must be in the top 5% of the FA age group players. If we said (only an estimate)..there are 250-300 players in the afl that are 25plus.. a player must get a contract in the top 15 or so players. Age and contract length alter it a bit but probably the most obvious variable is that the calculation is done behind closed doors. If The AFL deem that a club receive an R1 probably helps. .. where a contract fits on the list of other contracts is not publically released

But if ..a club were looney tunes and offered 2M for two years ... (for eg.) ..yes ..it would be hard to deny a band 1 comp.


Whether anyone should receive any comp is a whole different discussion.

I'm just trying to work out which clubs that finish near the bottom could potentially work the draft to secure two picks.

Personally Essendon would lose trading Merrett anyway.

Its not so much that a club pushes it.... if a club comes for Merrit ..its whether Ess decided to match. After last year with Cameron..the jack is out of the box. It will only depend on where Ess finish..and how early their comp pick is.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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adelaide
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To get Band1 .. a player must be in the top 5% of the FA age group players. If we said (only an estimate)..there are 250-300 players in the afl that are 25plus.. a player must get a contract in the top 15 or so players. Age and contract length alter it a bit but probably the most obvious variable is that the calculation is done behind closed doors. If The AFL deem that a club receive an R1 probably helps. .. where a contract fits on the list of other contracts is not publically released

But if ..a club were looney tunes and offered 2M for two years ... (for eg.) ..yes ..it would be hard to deny a band 1 comp.


Whether anyone should receive any comp is a whole different discussion.



Its not so much that a club pushes it.... if a club comes for Merrit ..its whether Ess decided to match. After last year with Cameron..the jack is out of the box. It will only depend on where Ess finish..and how early their comp pick is.
Yeah well I'd imagine if Essendon have #2, getting #3 and they probably just do it.
 

Ants

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Sep 27, 2005
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I actually think they should abolish compensation picks. But to do this, they need to allow clubs to trade player easier.

seems like the players union has so much power.
Absolutely, because all that is left to kill equalisation is to allow bottom clubs to lose top players with no way to replace them, and abolish the draft. Sounds like a really good idea.....
 

Ants

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Compensation picks are rubbish and should be abolished. Clubs game it, as they are going to of course.

You lose a FA or RFA, you get cap space to sign other players. That's it. Up to the club to keep players happy.
Which ignores that one component of happiness is success, which becomes a circular argument as clubs that aren't successful can't keep the players so can't get successful so stay rubbish. What a shame.

Salary cap is a blunt instrument that has limited impact. Has any club ever been able to move sustainably up the ladder via cap space?
 
Jan 19, 2008
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Which ignores that one component of happiness is success, which becomes a circular argument as clubs that aren't successful can't keep the players so can't get successful so stay rubbish. What a shame.

Salary cap is a blunt instrument that has limited impact. Has any club ever been able to move sustainably up the ladder via cap space?

We don't know because we have never had a free agent system without compensation picks.

The idea of scrapping them won't get any traction though because it would also require a lowering of the salary cap floor which the AFLPA would not agree to.
 
Dec 10, 2003
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Absolutely, because all that is left to kill equalisation is to allow bottom clubs to lose top players with no way to replace them, and abolish the draft. Sounds like a really good idea.....

Its a fair point.. I doubt any clubs wants a bottom club stripped for parts like a stolen car.

However I do not see a club drafting a kid to replace a critical player helps them that much short term and perhaps long term. The advanatge is it allows them to compel a player to go to that club , whther they want to or not. Its debatable whether those picks help replace the player or its just another from of a handout from aflhouse. I think there are other mechanisms that could be introduced or studied rather than making all the other clubs pay by being moved back so that certain clubs gain. No matter what system there is, eventually players will have a choice and kids growing up in Melb , watching big games like anzac day probably will dream of that type of experience rather than playing for a poorly followed non vic team.

Whether Id abolish the draft is another discussion. I think it has seen its best days, and the comp picks each year that push clubs back.. do little to keep it important.
 

Ants

Premiership Player
Sep 27, 2005
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Its a fair point.. I doubt any clubs wants a bottom club stripped for parts like a stolen car.

However I do not see a club drafting a kid to replace a critical player helps them that much short term and perhaps long term. The advanatge is it allows them to compel a player to go to that club , whther they want to or not. Its debatable whether those picks help replace the player or its just another from of a handout from aflhouse. I think there are other mechanisms that could be introduced or studied rather than making all the other clubs pay by being moved back so that certain clubs gain. No matter what system there is, eventually players will have a choice and kids growing up in Melb , watching big games like anzac day probably will dream of that type of experience rather than playing for a poorly followed non vic team.

Whether Id abolish the draft is another discussion. I think it has seen its best days, and the comp picks each year that push clubs back.. do little to keep it important.
I think you're conflating two separate issues. One is whether or not the club losing the asset (player) should get compensation. On that, I totally agree the picks are nearly never a perfect return, and always are a longer term benefit than shorter term (unless traded out). But its better than nothing.

You also seem to have a concern, which is totally separate, that the AFL creates the compensation out of fairy dust points. And effectively every other club pays for that. I totally agree that is a concern, but see it as a separate issue. There is no reason the cost (maybe with a discount) can't come out of the receiving club's draft hand.

The club who loses the player should receive compensation. If they don't, as you say they can just repetitively stripped of assets and kept at the bottom. I agree that every other club bearing the cost is wrong. But in my mind rather than get rid of compensation, it should be funded out of the draft hand of the club receiving the player.
 
Dec 10, 2003
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I think you're conflating two separate issues. One is whether or not the club losing the asset (player) should get compensation. On that, I totally agree the picks are nearly never a perfect return, and always are a longer term benefit than shorter term (unless traded out). But its better than nothing.

You also seem to have a concern, which is totally separate, that the AFL creates the compensation out of fairy dust points. And effectively every other club pays for that. I totally agree that is a concern, but see it as a separate issue. There is no reason the cost (maybe with a discount) can't come out of the receiving club's draft hand.

The club who loses the player should receive compensation. If they don't, as you say they can just repetitively stripped of assets and kept at the bottom. I agree that every other club bearing the cost is wrong. But in my mind rather than get rid of compensation, it should be funded out of the draft hand of the club receiving the player.

Love the word conflating

OK ... so it sound like we are now closer. I could live with a system of rating a player and then a cost paid by the receiving club ... not my ideal system but better.

If we said the Rich gained Lynch ... at a min...they should have given their R1 imo... but perhaps we have to have a panel or someon value the player.. or maybe its based on wage. not sure but something like that is better than AFL awarded comp that affects all the other clubs position

I could say their variations on comp rather than just giving a pick... as I suspect picks do not really help sides that need help.
 

Ants

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Sep 27, 2005
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Love the word conflating

OK ... so it sound like we are now closer. I could live with a system of rating a player and then a cost paid by the receiving club ... not my ideal system but better.

If we said the Rich gained Lynch ... at a min...they should have given their R1 imo... but perhaps we have to have a panel or someon value the player.. or maybe its based on wage. not sure but something like that is better than AFL awarded comp that affects all the other clubs position

I could say their variations on comp rather than just giving a pick... as I suspect picks do not really help sides that need help.
You could just use the current system, but convert the compensation. So with Daniher last year, we got pick #7. Turn that into fairy points, maybe give a discount, and tell Brisbane they have to wipe it off their draft hand. Probably have some rules about where they apply the deficit so its not applied to 4th round picks. At the time they had two late firsts, so one of those probably gets wiped.

Picks aren't great, but they definitely help. There was a reason clubs rebounded faster and more effectively when priority picks were rewarded at the start of the first round. But they're still hit & miss a bit.

I'd also like clubs near the bottom given the chance to take extra players on in their list. More bites of the cherry, with late picks who weren't being picked up anywhere else anyway.
 

blitzer

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 27, 2006
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I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion about compensation for free agents coming out of the receiving clubs draft hand over the years. It seems logical. Why should you as the receiving club get something for nothing? Its never been quite right... We also obviously want to give players the ability to get to clubs they want to go to when they reach their period of entitlement.

Free agency was supposed to be a mechanism for players to get to the clubs they want to go to, not a way for clubs to get free players.
 
Feb 11, 2011
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I actually think they should abolish compensation picks. But to do this, they need to allow clubs to trade player easier.

seems like the players union has so much power.
Opposite is true.

Say Merrett from the Bombers wants to move to Team X. Essendon can get a top 5 pick for him, which is better than the other team offer. Bombers just let him go for nothing.

No compensation, Essendon fight tooth and nail in trade talks.
 
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