Analysis How do we make free agency work?

[CursingFijian]

I did sort of deal with this by suggesting a possible approach where each club is involved in every free trade agreement and a representative from the club nominates a point value (or draft pick equivalent):

"I think the answer is to have a club representative from each club nominate a fair compensation pick. The two clubs involved are ineligible to nominate and the top and bottom 3 nominations from other clubs are ignored, leaving 10 nominations. The maths is easy - add them up divide by ten.".

This approach gets rid of the the artefact of positional price that is currently used by the AFL to determine compensation which is clearly unfair.

Yes, you did. In my opinion though Tom Lynch is more valuable than a number one draft pick, and therefore nominating any compensation pick to the outgoing club is still NOT enough. The incoming club should also be made to pay in the currency of draft points.

So, if Tom Lynch was assessed (through some algorithm to be determined by people smarter than me) to be worth 3000 first round draft points (equal to Pick 1) and he went to say Collingwood then they should be required to hand their first round pick (currently worth 1212 first round draft points) to the Gold Coast. This leaves a draft cost deficit of 1788 points and the AFL should further compensate the Gold Coast with a compensation pick equal to the deficit or Collingwood should be forced to subsidise the deficit by offering a player or further draft picks in the trade.

So to summarise:

Under my proposal the only clubs that would be eligible to bid for Tom Lynch (those with a four year rolling first round draft point position in excess of 6000) would be Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, St Kilda, Fremantle & Collingwood. If the player then nominated Collingwood as his preferred destination then Collingwood should be required to hand over their first round draft pick. In addition to that the AFL should compensate the GC with Pick 6 or Collingwood should be required to 'trade' a player to eliminate the deficit. So the transaction effectively looks like:

Gold Coast: OUT - Tom Lynch. IN - Pick 6 (Compensation), Pick 13 (Penalty)
Collingwood OUT - Pick 13. IN - Tom Lynch

or

Gold Coast: OUT - Tom Lynch. IN - Pick 13 (Penalty), Tom Phillips (Penalty)
Collingwood OUT - Pick 13, Tom Phillips. IN - Tom Lynch

I prefer the second scenario as it means that the AFL is not subsidising the transaction and eroding the draft position of 12 other clubs, and that Collingwood is made to pay a fair price for an elite player that fills a massive hole in their best 22.

 

[Kildonan]

Yes, you did. In my opinion though Tom Lynch is more valuable than a number one draft pick, and therefore nominating any compensation pick to the outgoing club is still NOT enough. The incoming club should also be made to pay in the currency of draft points.

My system still can cover that. I would have all clubs' representatives providing appropriate trade value assessments, the middle ten would be totalled and averaged and that number would be the price the club receiving the free agent would have to pay to the club losing the free agent. If you are right and they feel he is worth more than pick #1 of the current draft, they they simply value him at say 4400 points (or whatever) and the destination club has to find the draft picks that are equivalent or they can't afford the player. Some clubs may need to promise draft pick points from a future draft. I am not exactly sure how to manage this but it is workable.

So, if Tom Lynch was assessed (through some algorithm to be determined by people smarter than me) to be worth 3000 first round draft points (equal to Pick 1) and he went to say Collingwood then they should be required to hand their first round pick (currently worth 1212 first round draft points) to the Gold Coast. This leaves a draft cost deficit of 1788 points and the AFL should further compensate the Gold Coast with a compensation pick equal to the deficit or Collingwood should be forced to subsidise the deficit by offering a player or further draft picks in the trade.

So to summarise:

Under my proposal the only clubs that would be eligible to bid for Tom Lynch (those with a four year rolling first round draft point position in excess of 6000) would be Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, St Kilda, Fremantle & Collingwood. If the player then nominated Collingwood as his preferred destination then Collingwood should be required to hand over their first round draft pick. In addition to that the AFL should compensate the GC with Pick 6 or Collingwood should be required to 'trade' a player to eliminate the deficit. So the transaction effectively looks like:

Gold Coast: OUT - Tom Lynch. IN - Pick 6 (Compensation), Pick 13 (Penalty)
Collingwood OUT - Pick 13. IN - Tom Lynch

or

Gold Coast: OUT - Tom Lynch. IN - Pick 13 (Penalty), Tom Phillips (Penalty)
Collingwood OUT - Pick 13, Tom Phillips. IN - Tom Lynch

I prefer the second scenario as it means that the AFL is not subsidising the transaction and eroding the draft position of 12 other clubs, and that Collingwood is made to pay a fair price for an elite player that fills a massive hole in their best 22.

I like the second scenario - it makes the club receiving the free agent pay an appropriate price for the talent they are bringing in and prevents the double dipping I despise.

 

[The Punter]

- Shorten free agency eligibility to 6 years
- Increase the salary cap considerably
- Abolish all academies except for northern states
- Grant northern states access to one player only per season (per current bidding process)
- Reinstate automatic priority selections (and everyone else get over it)

 

[gringo2011]

Yes, you did. In my opinion though Tom Lynch is more valuable than a number one draft pick, and therefore nominating any compensation pick to the outgoing club is still NOT enough. The incoming club should also be made to pay in the currency of draft points.

So, if Tom Lynch was assessed (through some algorithm to be determined by people smarter than me) to be worth 3000 first round draft points (equal to Pick 1) and he went to say Collingwood then they should be required to hand their first round pick (currently worth 1212 first round draft points) to the Gold Coast. This leaves a draft cost deficit of 1788 points and the AFL should further compensate the Gold Coast with a compensation pick equal to the deficit or Collingwood should be forced to subsidise the deficit by offering a player or further draft picks in the trade.

So to summarise:

Under my proposal the only clubs that would be eligible to bid for Tom Lynch (those with a four year rolling first round draft point position in excess of 6000) would be Brisbane, Carlton, Essendon, St Kilda, Fremantle & Collingwood. If the player then nominated Collingwood as his preferred destination then Collingwood should be required to hand over their first round draft pick. In addition to that the AFL should compensate the GC with Pick 6 or Collingwood should be required to 'trade' a player to eliminate the deficit. So the transaction effectively looks like:

Gold Coast: OUT - Tom Lynch. IN - Pick 6 (Compensation), Pick 13 (Penalty)
Collingwood OUT - Pick 13. IN - Tom Lynch

or

Gold Coast: OUT - Tom Lynch. IN - Pick 13 (Penalty), Tom Phillips (Penalty)
Collingwood OUT - Pick 13, Tom Phillips. IN - Tom Lynch

I prefer the second scenario as it means that the AFL is not subsidising the transaction and eroding the draft position of 12 other clubs, and that Collingwood is made to pay a fair price for an elite player that fills a massive hole in their best 22.

Yeah, Collingwood will get Quaynor, a top 10 pick as an academy player and Lynch for free. Big leg up.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

the AFL will see no issue in the way things are working so long as the big 4 clubs are up and about the top ... this means there is considerable money flowing so why change something that makes big money ?? in all honesty this season is the perfect year for the AFL .. the top team has a huge membership number .. number two is the richest club in the comp .. third is the AFL's expansion project , fourth is their Big Melbourne club , 5th we have the club that runs the media , 6th they have their second big team in the market they want to own.. in the bottom they have the minows and smashed in the middle are the rest the only way if could get better is if it follows script and ends with a Collingwood vs Richmond G/F