Resource FAQs: Rules, Regulations and Resources for Player Movements in the AFL

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Those who were signed for 2021 before COVID-19 hit in March/April of this year. Next year, they will lose 8.5 per cent from their wages. But, since they are contracted for 2022 and beyond, their real cut is only 3.5 per cent, because the amount they lose this year will be given back to them in either 2022 or 2023 (or spread over both).

Those who signed before the AFL froze contracts due to COVID-19 and the shutdown, but who do not have a contract beyond 2021. They come out contract at the end of next year. They will lose only 3.5 per cent of their wage next year, because they cannot claw it back in the following years.

Those who signed contracts after the contract freeze was lifted. Their status is simply determined by the clauses in their individual contracts. If the clause says it's an 8 per cent cut, then that's what he will lose. He cannot claw it back in 2022 – unless his contract specifies. But if it's a 2 per cent cut in the event of reduced total player payments (which it is), then that's all he loses.

Those who are still out of contract. This is the simplest situation of all. If a player has not signed a deal for 2021 – and few are in this camp – then the contract he signs does not change at all. His contract amount and conditions don't change a millimetre.

Explaining how the pay cuts work for different AFL players

The best way to understand how the AFL's pay cuts will impact upon individual players and their clubs is to break it down into three different categories of players.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Lore]

• Each club will be permitted to move two players straight from the senior list to the rookie list, avoiding the rookie draft.
• Players delisted by today (Wed 25/11) will be able to join another club as a delisted free agent during the first window which opens tomorrow (26/11) and runs through to Sunday (29/11).
• Players who are not picked up as DFAs in the first window can be confirmed as rookies during the second DFA window (1/12-2/12).
• Category B rookies are now eligible to play without being upgraded in lieu of an injured senior player.
• Players who are contracted for 2021 but were delisted with an intention to re-rookie will still be paid their 2021 salary, either as a senior player at another club, or as a rookie.
• As usual, $80,000 of each standard rookie's contract falls outside the salary cap (but under the footy dept soft cap).

New rule tweak provides relief for clubs on list flexibility

AFL clubs will now be allowed to move two players straight from the senior list to the rookie list, without going through a drafting process

www.afl.com.au

 

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On the money: Salary dumps to drive key deals

The AFL is expected to allow more significant salary cap trading so that clubs can clear their own tight caps

www.afl.com.au

The AFL ticks off every trade to ensure fairness is provided for clubs and has previously denied deals that they have viewed as too one-sided.

However clubs are anticipating the League will be more open to approving deals that allow clubs to complete lopsided trades in which the team that receives a player (and takes on his contract) also gains a strong draft selection or selections.

The AFL is expected to be willing to allow more significant salary dumps so that clubs can clear their own tight caps whilst seeing other clubs use their spare cash and get rewarded for taking on a player's money and adding draft selections.

 

[Lore]

Trading future picks and the requirement to use four 1st round picks in a rolling four-year cycle

RULE PROVISION COULD UNLOCK TRADE DEALS​

CLUBS are looking to see if there are provisions within rules that could allow them to trade out their future first and second-round picks to unlock deals.

Under the AFL's rules, clubs can trade out a future first-round draft selection but if they do that, must retain the rest of their future selections for that draft. If they trade out a second, third or fourth-round future pick, they must hold their first-rounder for that year.

The League put in the proviso as a risk management move so that clubs can't trade away their full hand of selections.

However it is understood clubs are checking with the League to see if there are any means to permit extra picks being traded if it is for players who are fresh to the AFL system and close to draft age.

Exemptions are allowed in the AFL's rule for clubs using at least two first-round picks in a rolling four-year period if a recruiting target is of a certain age and experience as determined by the AFL.

For instance, West Coast is currently blocked from trading its No.2 pick under AFL rules because it has used only one first-round pick in the past four years, but the League would tick it off if the Eagles were trading it for Melbourne young star Luke Jackson.

If any provisions were permitted for more future selections being traded, it could help deliver trade outcomes for a number of clubs searching for extra draft chips to use in deals.

It could allow the Cats to use a future first-round selection to make a play for Collingwood's Ollie Henry if their traded-in pick No.25 from Brisbane isn't accepted. Under current rules Geelong wouldn't be able to use that pick as it sent a future second-round pick to Brisbane in Friday's pick swap and is also likely to send a future pick to Gold Coast in the Jack Bowes deal.

Port Adelaide has offered pick No.8 in this year's draft as well as a future first-round selection as the centrepiece to a three-way floated trade with West Coast and North Melbourne for Jason Horne-Francis and Junior Rioli.

Under the rules it would not currently be able to add any other future selections to the trade pie, with the Power also interested in Cats big man Esava Ratugolea. – Callum Twomey

Rule provision could assist moves, swap sets up deals, gun Hawk waits

Check out all the latest trade news from around the League

www.afl.com.au

 

[Lore]

Ah, here: Suns face awkward dilemma as finals could spoil Academy plan; father-son bolters: Draft Watch

"...AFL rules state a club can’t match more than two bids on academy prospects in the top 20 of a draft if, in that same year, it makes the finals and is eliminated prior to preliminary final weekend.

A club, too, is restricted to matching one first-round academy bid if it’s among the last four teams remaining in the finals."

Hm, first I've seen it.

So in full it says:

It’s all turned glass half-full for the Gold Coast Suns in recent weeks. Not only are their top three academy players starring, but the AFL team has also found form, winning five of their past seven games to sit 11th on the ladder and push themselves into the finals mix.

It’s prompted recruiters to revisit an AFL draft rule that could leave the Suns with a tough conundrum come the end of the year.

As first flagged by The Age on Wednesday, AFL rules state a club can’t match more than two bids on academy prospects in the top 20 of a draft if, in that same year, it makes the finals and is eliminated prior to preliminary final weekend.

A club, too, is restricted to matching one first-round academy bid if it’s among the last four teams remaining in the finals.

The rule was introduced during the mid to late 2010s when the Giants were constant finals features and gained access to an array of top prospects from their own academy, such as Jacob Hopper, Matthew Kennedy, Harry Himmelberg, Will Setterfield, Harry Perryman and Isaac Cumming.

So should the Suns make this year’s finals series, they could be faced with a tough call to ignore one of their academy stars.

Suns face awkward dilemma as finals could spoil Academy plan; father-son bolters: Draft Watch

Stars threatening to spearhead an unthinkable boilover; two father-son gun bolters: Draft Watch

www.foxsports.com.au

I also followed the other link back that they've included as well, which is an article in The Age written by Marc McGowan (not the WA premier, but the journo who used to work for AFL.com.au before covid and stuff and probably still has contacts or knowledge from that time):

Gold Coast’s back-to-back victories have sparked discussion among opposition clubs on a potential Suns dilemma.

AFL rules state that clubs cannot match more than two first-round draft bids on academy prospects if they play finals in the same year.

Gold Coast have three prospects eligible for the draft this year from their academy program: likely top-five pick Jed Walter – a hulking key forward who started this year’s under-18 championships with a bang on Sunday – midfielder Jake Rogers and ruckman Ethan Read.

All three may attract first-round bids, but the Suns could match only two if they make finals, unless the league bends the rules for them, which some recruiters are fearful of.

However, in the scenario they can take only two of them, some talent scouts think they may opt for Read, a 202-centimetre big man who could develop into something special, instead of Rogers, even though the latter may go earlier in the draft.

The million-dollar question AFL clubs might soon have to answer

Is a top-10 draft pick worth $1 million of salary cap space? ‘Pick purchasing’ promises to be the next trade mechanism – and could be introduced as soon as this year.

www.theage.com.au

That seems to be as much as anyone knows at the moment. Thoughts dlanod?

 

[Lore]

New Salary Cap numbers:

This year’s salary cap grew 10 per cent from 2022 and was back-paid once the CBA was finalised last month.

The AFL Players’ Association signed off on a fresh Collective Bargaining Agreement last month that is set to boost the salary cap from $15 million (2023) to $17.8 million (2025).​

Information about uplift clauses:

The uplift in 2024 will be 5.1 per cent, while the rise in 2025 will be a further 12.6 per cent – a significant spike as the new seven-year $4.5 billion broadcast deal kicks in.​

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[Clubs] could look to strike with their banked salary cap space, after refusing to write Total Player Payment uplift clauses into their player contracts.​

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But it does comes at a cost, having to pay their players above market value as a trade-off, because players’ agents try to build the projected pay rises into the base deal.​

Club specific salary cap positions for next year:

Some clubs are close to Essendon and West Coast, who have zero exposure, because they have also played hardball and rarely agreed to uplift clauses in contract negotiations.​

The 2024 and 2025 jumps are when the Bombers and Eagles will be in the sweet spot to poach players whereas rivals could be squeezed by the uplifts.​

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St Kilda is also understood to be one of the least-exposed clubs.

The strategy employed by the Dons and Eagles also helps their planning because they can accurately estimate their salary cap position.​

How contracts are negotiated:

Every player contract is negotiated individually and a range of variances also exist in up-lift clauses.​

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For example, some players will sacrifice the first 5 per cent of an uplift and take home whatever is left after that.​

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Others accept 50 per cent of the uplift while some players have compound uplift clauses written into their contracts.​

Players who change clubs get a new contract, which may not have an uplift clause in it:

Players who are traded under contract generally change clubs based on an extension and renegotiation of their contract.​

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That means that even if a player's contract included a TPP uplift clause it would be discarded and replaced with a fresh contract from the Bombers in the event he is traded to Tullamarine.​

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The renegotiated contract must be agreed to before the trade is lodged and approved by the AFL.​

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/...k=6b1e9ca060ccc4fcf66b5d92f87a9c4a-1697007912