This is why I hate the system, regardless.
If Geelong want him, they should have to trade for him.
Getting a gun player for free, and having the rest of the competition contributing to the compensation handed out, it's just stupid.
The problem is, if we decide not to trade with Geelong, then he doesn't get to go there. And the system is designed with players in mind, not clubs. If a player wants to go there, and the club is happy to have them, the system is set up so the player is able to go there.
If anything that prevents that from happening, it means the system is not achieving what it was designed to achieve.
The thing is, I never understood why the AFL wouldn't just give out fair compensation. If the AFLPA really wants players to be able to move, and the AFL doesn't want club/fan backlash from bending over backwards, then make it appealing for the clubs to let players leave. Everyone wins. Fans don't get all pissy when their star player leaves because they get star-level compensation. The player doesn't get vilified, the new club isn't seen as some kind of back-alley poaching body, and the new club gets to bring in a valuable new commodity.
Hell, there's even a good argument that the AFL should give out MORE than fair compensation. A reward as such for letting players leave when they want.
But no. For whatever reason they decided it was necessary to give some compensation, but to make it absolutely clear that the compensation they get is deliberately chosen so to be less valuable than the player they lost. So the AFL still has to go through the process of determining how valuable a player is (so they can select a compensation pick that is appropriately less valuable), they still have all the social media screaming about player x getting compensation y compared to player a getting compensation b, they still disrupt the rest of the draft, and yet the club that loses a player still feels hard done by and is in a situation where they consider not letting it happen. Brilliant system, guys.