Free Agents are a far bigger issue than academies and F/S, yet people dont complain about it.

[Cleric]

The bed wetting over academies and father sons has reached epic proportions, yet neither are anywhere near as one sided as free agency is.
The clubs give up good draft picks for what is essentially a crap shoot. We have had how many academy picks in the last decade, with how many being top liners? Its not a massive strike rate, and most end up as serviceable players, with the odd one being an A grader.

FA on the other hand brings in a proven player, in his prime, with the club giving absolutely no draft collateral to get him.

This is a far bigger leg up than academies are, yet the bed wetters turn a blind eye to it.
The biggest evener upper would be for the clubs that get a FA losing their picks to a value that is dictated by the players contract. Sure, allow them free passage to the club of their choice, for the wage they want, but the club has to pay a price for them. Its typically good players leaving the weaker clubs to join stronger ones in the premiership window.

This is a far bigger issue for the equalisation the AFL bleats about non-stop. So, why plant the clubs like Essendon and North going after that?

 

[Freomaniac]

I have posted this before and post it again.

Unrestricted free agency should be down to 8 seasons.

Restricted free agency should go down to 6 or even 5 years

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Premiership teams FA era. (End of 2012 season).

2013 - Hawks 0
2014 - Hawks 0
2015 - Hawks 1 (Frawley)
2016 - Dogs 1 (Hamling - DFA)
2017 - Richmond 0
2018 - West Coast 0
2019 - Richmond 1 (Lynch)
2020 - Richmond 1 (Lynch)
2021 - Melbourne 1 (Jordon)
2022 - Geelong 2 (Smith UFA; Stengle DFA)
2023 - Collingwood 1 (Markov DFA)
2024 - Brisbane 2 (Daniher; McKenna DFA)
2025 - Brisbane 0

So really over a decade of premiers as evidence and there's only been a handful of FA signings win flags, and half would be second hand players delisted by others.

Players moving from bottom 4 clubs to top 4 clubs.

2013 - Sylvia (Mel to Fre)
2014 - Frawley (Mel to Haw); Blease (Mel to GFC)
2018 - Lynch (GCS to Rich); Minchington (STK to HAW)
2020 - Smith (HAW to GFC)
2025 - Draper (ESS to BL); Allen (WCE to BL)

Little evidence over 13 years to show that the strongest teams are pillaging the weak to get that little edge that makes them better. Usually they have limited cap space to do so. Reckon the majority of FA moves that aren't for opportunity (ala DFA) would see players moving from lower teams to mid range teams on the rise. Mid range to contenders or top clubs on the slide to weak clubs for a super top up.

 

[daniel_4tw]

FA only makes sense when trading without consent exists before FA kicks in.

This year aside, clubs always get to the club of choice when uncontracted and 90% when contracted, anyway. The only thing FA adds is it’s a freebie for the receiving club and in some cases over inflated compo for the losing club.

Allow trading without consent and you won’t need made up compo as clubs can go spend the cap space on other players from every single player save for the few FAs. It will even up the competition and lessen the burden on these academies that lock in players and allow poor teams to rebuild much faster.

Players want the perks of USA sports of million dollar salaries, free agency etc but don’t want the trade off of professional sports responsibilities. Time for the league to grow up.

 

[MrChow]

Premiership teams FA era. (End of 2012 season).

2013 - Hawks 0
2014 - Hawks 0
2015 - Hawks 1 (Frawley)
2016 - Dogs 1 (Hamling - DFA)
2017 - Richmond 0
2018 - West Coast 0
2019 - Richmond 1 (Lynch)
2020 - Richmond 1 (Lynch)
2021 - Melbourne 1 (Jordon)
2022 - Geelong 2 (Smith UFA; Stengle DFA)
2023 - Collingwood 1 (Markov DFA)
2024 - Brisbane 2 (Daniher; McKenna DFA)
2025 - Brisbane 0

So really over a decade of premiers as evidence and there's only been a handful of FA signings win flags, and half would be second hand players delisted by others.

Players moving from bottom 4 clubs to top 4 clubs.

2013 - Sylvia (Mel to Fre)
2014 - Frawley (Mel to Haw); Blease (Mel to GFC)
2018 - Lynch (GCS to Rich); Minchington (STK to HAW)
2020 - Smith (HAW to GFC)
2025 - Draper (ESS to BL); Allen (WCE to BL)

Little evidence over 13 years to show that the strongest teams are pillaging the weak to get that little edge that makes them better. Usually they have limited cap space to do so. Reckon the majority of FA moves that aren't for opportunity (ala DFA) would see players moving from lower teams to mid range teams on the rise. Mid range to contenders or top clubs on the slide to weak clubs for a super top up.

Definetly makes a difference. The question is how many of these flag winners, won games on their way to the flag by say less than a goal? And if they replaced the free agent with a depth player would they have still won those games, finished where they finished and also won the gf?

We will never exactly know, because the same argument could be said, for priority picks, academy/father son discounts, mergers, home MCG Gfs, etc.

But Cleric is right. It makes no sense, that the rest of the competition should slide a pick, and pay the tab, for another club to recruit a player.