A different trade and draft system

[Mr Q]

I brought this up early in the year, but it seems more appropriate now as we head toward draft week. Basically its an idea I had to make the draft period fairer and stop clubs that finish last holding other clubs over a barrell during the trade period.

My idea is that the pre-season draft is abolished altogether, and all drafting is done in the main national draft. The trade/draft period then has three parts:

1) Trade week as per normal except with someone from the AFL would be present on the last day to take paperwork, so the fax machine never causes trades not to happen.

2) Pre-draft bidding for uncontracted players. This is where I would change things. If a player is out of contract, and the club they are at cannot come to an agreement on a new contract, but are prepared to keep the player, the player may nominate for this section of the drafting period. When a player nominates for this, they nominate a salary, and any club that wishes to match this salary makes a bid for this player by nominating a draft pick they will give up. The club that nominates the lowest pick automatically exchanges that draft pick for the player, thus providing the original club some compensation.

3) The national draft, immediately followed by the rookie draft.

For instance, when Nick Stevens decided he was going to leave Port, and Port could not arrange a suitable trade, Stevens could have nominated for the bidding process. Now say Collingwood, Melbourne and Essendon were interested and had picks 17, 5 and 13 respectively, Melbourne would win the bid, and take on Stevens, while Port would get Melbourne's pick 5 in the national draft as compensation.

If a player is delisted by his club (such as Phil Read), he may also nominate for this period, but if a club makes a successful bid for him the original club does not receive the compensatory pick, rather is is considered to be used for that player in much the same way a F/S pick is used before the draft. The club selecting the player cannot use that pick in the draft.

Any player that nominates for the bidding process but is not selected automatically reverts to the national draft, and the original club will recieve nothing.

The main advantage is that the club that finishes last doesn't get an extra bite at the cherry - if they want that player enough to hold the original club over a barrel they will either have to give the original club pick #1 - or in the event that the player does end up in the draft they will have to pick them at #1 anyway

Advantages:
- The team that comes last can't hold other clubs to ransom during trading.
- Players can't walk out on their clubs without the club getting compensation.
- There's only one draft.
- It evens up the imbalance of the bottom team getting #1 picks in two separate drafts, thereby lessening the reward for being mediocre.
- It also means if a club gets a priority pick, they don't have a top pick in two drafts and another high pick in one of them.

Thoughts?

 

[Deegle]

i quite like it, its gotta be better than what theyre running at the moment. The AFL off-season has turn into a complete shambles lately.

 

[Portia]

Pre-draft bidding from lowest to highest ensures that you will always give the least possible compensation.

 

[Mr Q]

Pre-draft bidding from lowest to highest ensures that you will always give the least possible compensation.

Its all post-trade week, and I'm sure that teams will at least attempt to trade before deciding to go all gung-ho trying to rip their opponents off.

Say Player X walks, and you want them. You might bid pick 30, but some other club also wants them and bids pick 22. You lose out because you didn't rate them highly enough to bid your higher pick at 14.

Basically I think that most players would get around their value, and at least the club that's invested in them doesn't lose out too badly.

 

[Ausgard]

Not a bad System to be honest

Really turns it into a meat market though

Would be interesting to see if a club prefered to wait for the bidding period rather than doing an actual trade

 

[Portia]

Pretty much always, I'd think, especially if there's no limit on nominated salary.

 

[coasting]

They based it off the American system but they only got it half right. Scrap the preseason draft and priority picks and give compensation picks based on quality of players lost to draft/free agency (and not based on how crap the club is). Allow teams to trade up and down on draft day and while on the clock. Also allow the straight trade of draft picks for draft picks. Allow a limited form of free agency - players who are delisted during the season should be allowed to sign with whoever they can etc

 

[Mong]

I like it, and have previously suggested having one draft only.

I'm not sure about the pre-draft bidding, though. Why can't the player just go into the draft and let the natural process dictate where they are taken? If someone wanted to take Nick Stevens last year they would have had to choose between him or a highly rated youngster.

The player could still nominate a price.


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[Portia]

It would be better if the `recycled' player had a maximum price they could have, depending on which round they were redrafted.

This would limit the possible shenanigans to manipulate the draft and would encourage highly-paid players to see that clubs arrange a fair deal in the first place...otherwise it'll be their hip pocket that is hurt.

 

[Mr Q]

I'm not sure about the pre-draft bidding, though. Why can't the player just go into the draft and let the natural process dictate where they are taken? If someone wanted to take Nick Stevens last year they would have had to choose between him or a highly rated youngster.

The idea is to stop a player colluding with a potential club in the trade period to move by threatening to walk, leaving their current club with nothing as Stevens did. The original club still receives something in exchange for the development work they've put into the player. Under this scheme, they get to choose between Stevens and giving an opposition club a highly rated youngster or having the youngster themselves.

The player could still nominate a price.

I think you can in the current draft system.

I do like Porthos's idea that a player's maximum salary could be limited depending on what round they go in the draft (or what bid is put up for them) so the players have an incentive to go through the trade process. I wouldn't like to set the limits though.