Opinion Should Clubs Be Able To Trade Contracted Players If They Wish To & The Player Has No Say In It

[Philth]

Who says a player cannot be traded without consent to another club in the same city ??

Read the post I quoted.
And how are things in 1951 this morning?

 

[Ricketz]

We are not talking moving across the city.
We are talking packing up and moving states, being forced to.
Thank god for unions.

That also can happen. I can offer my employee a new role in Perth if it is best for my company. They can choose to relocate or take a payout.

 

[LordLucifer]

That also can happen. I can offer my employee a new role in Perth if it is best for my company. They can choose to relocate or take a payout.

There's a key phrase there - "if it is best for my company".

 

[LordLucifer]

Read the post I quoted.
And how are things in 1951 this morning?

Things are terrific actually.

Menzies is doing a great job, Australia just defeated England 4–1 in The Ashes, the Bank of Australasia has just merged with the Union Bank of Australia to form the ANZ Bank, Conscription has begun with the first call-up notice being issued under the National Service Act (1951) to make it is compulsory for all Australian 18-year-old males to undergo military training.

 

[Philth]

That also can happen. I can offer my employee a new role in Perth if it is best for my company. They can choose to relocate or take a payout.

And your company will become known for treating it's employees poorly.
Then you will struggle to attract good people to the company.

 

[Roylion]

There's a key phrase there - "if it is best for my company".

Companies still cannot transfer workers to another company without their consent.

 

[Shoei]

That also can happen. I can offer my employee a new role in Perth if it is best for my company. They can choose to relocate or take a payout.

So you'd be totally fine with with those options for AFL players?

You can accept being traded or take a payout and be an unrestricted free agent?

 

[Number37]

The recently concluded Trade Period has come and gone but this year, there was some unusual anomalies that have got in the way for further player movement.

I'm not going to sit here in judgement of why and how the Hawks went about there business but everyone knows they were strongly trying to trade out O'Meara, Breust, Mitchell, Gunston & Wingard in order to revamp their draft hand. A couple of deals were on the table with Breust & Wingard but the players themselves vetoed the move and the club was left helpless as a result.

Putting aside the vagaries of what may happen across season 2022 in the Hawks locker-room & the selection committee meetings amongst all of the personnel involved, this situation has clearly highlighted why there needs to be a change to the rules that would have allowed the Hawks to make the trades they needed to without the players being able to intervene.

The players (& AFLPA) wanted the introduction of a Free Agency system which gave them the freedom to move to another club when THEY wanted to yet the clubs have no say at all going the other way.

This is far too one-sided and deterimental to the clubs in their quest to rebuild lists or make strategic moves etc.

I for one would like to see some a dramatic change to the system but with some inbuilt 'protectors' for the players who are on the lower end of the pay scale. Having a young guy with a young family earning around $150K per annum being told to move interstate due to a trade deal would be a little unfair.

However, a fully professional player on a contract of $700K per annum shouldn't be able to dictate terms with the club when they wish to trade him out for whatever reasons they deem important.

I'm interested to read other peoples thoughts and some possible 'tweaks' on how the proposed system should operate.

Allowing players some freedom of movement only goes a small way in addressing the massive restraint of trade that the AFL/clubs impose on players.

Despite what it looks like, clubs hold 3 of the 4 aces in the deck.

It sucks to be on the end of a request to be traded home, but doesn't suck nearly as much as having to subject yourself to a draft system where you could end up anywhere, just because.

So I say to Jordan Dawson,
Good bye and good luck.



By good bye I mean go f*ck yourself.
By good luck I mean go f*ck yourself.

 

[nick1408]

Companies still cannot transfer workers to another company without their consent.

That's a key point - you can transfer the position but not the employee. The employee gets the option but cannot be forced to move.

With all of this I wonder if the AFL in conjunction with the AFLPA are allowed to negotiate these particular employee rights away.

 

[GordonBlue]

Who do you think footy players are, some robots who are out there purely for our entertainment?

When a player earns a contract, it also earns them the right to feel safe in that contract. To plan their life around that contract.

For a team to hold utter power is ridiculous.

Also why are you comparing a player's situation when uncontracted vs a team's situation when contracted?

Compare contracted to contracted:
A contracted player wanting to move is in full control of the team. They have the choice not to allow it and they more than often do.

No different for a player. If a team wants to trade them whilst under contract, they have every right to reject.

 

[Number37]

Who do you think footy players are, some robots who are out there purely for our entertainment?

When a player earns a contract, it also earns them the right to feel safe in that contract. To plan their life around that contract.

For a team to hold utter power is ridiculous.

Also why are you comparing a player's situation when uncontracted vs a team's situation when contracted?

Compare contracted to contracted:
A contracted player wanting to move is in full control of the team. They have the choice not to allow it and they more than often do.

No different for a player. If a team wants to trade them whilst under contract, they have every right to reject.

It matters not whether there is a contract.
We've seen how it plays out in NRL with Sonny Billy, Solly Haumono, Ant Mundine.
The contract is a restraint of trade that becomes unenforceable and not worth the paper it is written on.
It comes down to a question of whether the player wants to go all-in or not.
I suspect that should a player decide to go all-in the AFL will intervene to grant the player their wishes....to avoid the shitstorm that would otherwise follow.

 

[juss]

Not necessarily, but I think something needs to be done to give the clubs a bit more power, as right now contracts mean very little from the player side of things, they sign a contract yet that doesn't seem to hold them to a club, they almost always get where they want regardless.

Perhaps some sort of break cost penalty, e.g. your contract is 4 years at 500k but if you leave in year 2, the club gets back 20% of your contract, leave in year 3 they get back 10% etc. Or some sort of formula where for every year early you leave, the club gets back a certain % from your next contract.

This would allow free player movement, but would give players more incentive to honour their contract and give clubs some sort of extra compo if they want to leave early.

 

[Monkey King]

However, a fully professional player on a contract of $700K per annum shouldn't be able to dictate terms with the club ...

The player doesn't dictate terms. The contract does. Literally. It's the Hawks fault they mismanaged their contracts, not the players'.

No issues if a club wants to renege on an agreement and cancel a contract, but like with any industry, if you do that, you release the person and pay out their contract, not obtain some delusional right to send them anywhere the country you see fit for your own benefit. What a ludicrous notion.

 

[Monkey King]

... as right now contracts mean very little from the player side of things, they sign a contract yet that doesn't seem to hold them to a club, they almost always get where they want regardless.

Not sure I agree with this. A few have missed out in recent years due to existing contracts. Dunkley, Papley et al. and contracted players like Treloar moved on despite not wanting to. I don't think it's as clear cut as you're making it.

 

[Bird Man]

yes just as much as baseball players can be traded