ADELAIDE should be grateful for any compensation if star midfielder Patrick Dangerfield leaves the Crows, say the architects of the AFL free-agency system.
And in response to Adelaide board member Mark Ricciuto’s call for a review of free-agency compensation to the clubs, the advice from the AFL working party is: Trade “Danger” while you can.
Former Port Adelaide football chief Peter Rohde — a member of the 2007 working party that included then Crows chief executive Steven Trigg — Thursday fired back at Ricciuto’s criticism of the AFL free-agency system.
“The principle of free agency was never to have equal compensation for losing a free agent,” Rohde said. “In most sports, you get no compensation for losing a free agent. In the AFL, the compensation pick was added to soften the blow.
“That gets lost in the argument.”