Mr MysteryGuest
Norm Smith Medallist
- Apr 4, 2015
- 8,160
- 8,430
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
A very intentional dogs breakfast.There is finally an article explaining something about how expansion signings will work, but in that classic AFL fashion it raises many more questions than it actually answers.
How many players can each club lose? Expansion rules explained
The only real concrete thing from this is that, as expected, the Crows can lose up to eight players as expansion signings. There are various categories based on where you finished on the ladder and what state you're from, as far as I can tell we're the only club that can lose up to eight players. Probably fair enough I guess.
The bigger story here though is that the AFL will take away each club's first round draft pick unless they lose "enough" players as expansion signings. But, in typical AFL fashion, they have given no real information as to what "enough" means. Apparently each player lost will be worth a certain number of points based on age, payment tier, games played, and awards won (not clear if premierships count as awards, but I'm guessing not). Then, if a club doesn't lose 28 points worth of players as expansion signings, their first round pick is taken away.
The problem is, there is no indication as to how many points a player would be worth. Is an average player worth 4 points? 6 points? 8 points? There's no real indication given. The only slight indication is a throwaway line that says "a club can reach that 28-point threshold by only losing a couple of highly rated players". So presumably the best players would be worth at least 14 points.
Would Phillips be worth 14 points? She's obviously as highly rated as they come, and has won more awards than anybody, but she's also 37 years old. What about Angela Foley? She's won several awards and played a bunch of games, where does that wash out? Are they going to use the tier the player was on at their old club, or the tier they are signed to for the expansion club? It's all as clear as mud. What about Mules - she's played 49 games (only 4 games behind Marinoff who is equal first in the league for games played) and is still only 27 years old, but doesn't have any individual awards and was likely in the bottom tier. What is that worth?
I'm going to guess that Phillips, Foley and Mules gets us close to 28 points but perhaps not quite there. That would give us an incentive to have another player or two leave.
The system also seems to be quite unfair towards the bottom teams. They also have to lose 28 points to keep their first round pick, but they are permitted to lose fewer players, and their players are likely to be worth less points than players in the top sides anyway. And their first round pick is more valuable (because it comes earlier) than that of a higher ranked team. Is there going to be some multiplier for the bottom sides, or will they suddenly be exempt? The whole thing is a bit of a dog's breakfast.
Melbourne would lose their pick if they are serious about such a stupid rule.