Mid Season Loan System

[mike14]

Regardless of your opinion of inseason trading.

Not many players are going to agree to be traded from a top team to a lower team.

There will be pushback against moving interstate, especially players with families.

Do we really think a West coast player would agree to go to Freo mid season or vice versa? (Port to Crows etc)

how would it affect salary caps that are 95%+ paid out already.

They'd likely have to grandfather it in with current players. But for players entering the comp, it just becomes part of their terms of employment. They know that there's a chance they can be traded at any time, to any team; and if that isn't something they are interested in, they are free to seek alternative employment.

If players really don't want to move, once they hit a certain age let them negotiate for 'no movement clauses' in their contracts. Which basically mean that in agreement for a smaller contract, they can't be moved, or can only be moved to certain teams/cities.

As for the salary cap; your cap hit is the average wage across the seasons of your contract, so if your contract is:
Year 1: $700k
Year 2: $700K
Year 3: $500k
Year4: $450k
then your cap hit is: $2.35m/4 or $587500 per season.
If you trade for this player at the new in-season deadline of season 3, you'll have to pay him the balance of his year 3 contract and the $450k of the next season, but you'll have to have $587500 worth of room for him in season 4 and the pro-rata space for season 3. His originally club has paid for most of his salary.
Club's will have to manage their cap and work out who they can and can't afford.