GWS spearhead Jeremy Cameron is seeking a move to Geelong via his rights as a restricted free agent. Photo: AFL MEDIA
Free agency … two words that created fear across Australian football in 2010 as the AFL was compelled to take up another labour right from American professional sport.
AFL fans came to understand what American comedian Jerry Seinfeld meant when he said that at the end of every season the only certainly in the big leagues was with the shirts coming back from the laundry. Whether the players who had worn those jerseys returned for another year was subject to trades, free agency and personal whims of team owners.
Master Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy forecast AFL clubs would trade players in the season before they qualified for free agency – to get better value. His point seems more and more relevant as everyone struggles with the “secret herbs and spices” formula the AFL uses to assign compensation draft picks for losing a free agent.
In 2012, at the start of free agency for out-of-contract players with at least eight years’ service at an AFL club, Port Adelaide defender Troy Chaplin became the first player to hold an offer he could not refuse.
Named on the back page of “The Advertiser” newspaper in Adelaide as a certain free-agent defector from a battered AFL club fighting to hold its players, Chaplin denied all. Australian football, unlike other sports, was not mature enough to deal with in-season conversion to a new team.
For all his denials, Chaplin did go to Richmond. He was one of 10 free agents to seek new clubs. And the impression (and fear) was the AFL had conceded too much to the players’ union and unleashed a soul-destroying trigger on the game.
As Seinfeld warns, there is no guarantee who returns to pick up their shirts season after season when free agency is in play.
The other fear was the big clubs – top-of-the-table teams – would pick off stars from the lower-ranked clubs with the promise of premiership success.
Critically, it should be noted players – with the exception of father-son picks – do not get to choose their preferred club when they sign an AFL draft nomination form. Free agency after eight years allows the players to do as most other professionals in the workforce can do – decide where they want to work.
Almost a decade later, in a review of free agency, two key notes emerge. Hawthorn, a power club with three flags during free agency, has lost the most free agents. And more delisted players (43) than free agents (42) have changed clubs since 2012. Year-by-year since 2012, the number of free agents to change clubs has fallen – from 10 at the start to a single-figure count each season since, and just four last year (while six players changed clubs as “delisted free agents”).
So how is free agency seen today by list managers, recruiting chiefs, the players’ union and the coaches?
At the AFL Players’ Association, Brett Murphy – the union’s general manager of player and stakeholder relations – says perception from the first agreement on free agency has not been matched by reality.
“The clubs were quite fearful initially,” Murphy says. “We put it forward to ease the restrictions on player movement. Ten years on, free agency is a real positive not just for the players but also the game.”
Murphy notes the greatest change is that much-questioned “culture” theme that tests AFL clubs. “If you get the culture and environment right at your club you not only attract free agents – you retain players; that has to be a great positive for the game,” he says.
The point is not lost on novice Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks, who last week had to deal with free-agent Rory Atkins leaving the Crows in preparation for a long-term deal (as much as five years) with Gold Coast. He also has club champion Brad Crouch measuring his free-agency options.
Critical to Adelaide’s rebuild with prime draft picks is stopping the revolving door that spins so many players to rival clubs. Then the under-performing Crows will be again able to lure a free agent – as they did with Eddie Betts in the grand steal from Carlton in 2013 – rather than have Betts prefer to finish his AFL career at the Blues.
“From a player’s point of view, (free agency) gives you freedom,” says Nicks, a one-club player with Sydney from 1996-2005 with 175 AFL matches.
“I’d like to think it is quite a positive for the football club, too. You work with young men and build strong relationships so that (when free agency applies) they stay at your club for a little less security and money.
“Ultimately, I think the players have the right to make sure they are looked after. Your career can be 10 years and you need to make the most of it. So the challenge for all football clubs and all coaches is to develop relationships that are so strong that you keep those players.”
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List management has certainly changed since free agency challenged clubs – and forced them to think in creative ways, as Sheedy recommended with his “trade before you lose them for nothing” philosophy.
Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps has secured four significant free agents – West Coast premiership ruckman Scott Lycett, former Brisbane captain Tom Rockliff, Richmond speed machine Matt White and enigmatic Geelong forward-midfielder Steven Motlop.
Cripps has noted significant changes to list-management strategy with wins and challenges for players, player managers and clubs.
In the year before and of free agency – as noted with Brad Crouch’s manager almost securing a $900,000-a-season deal from Gold Coast last season – there is the chance for players to win.
“There is increased power to agents and players, particularly free agents you want to sign and players you want to retain,” Cripps says. “There is an aggressive market that has changed the length of a long-term contract from three years to now anything between four and seven.”
Clubs now “trade up” for talent, draft picks and salary cap space – as Port Adelaide proved in moving on Chad Wingard to Hawthorn and Jared Polec to North Melbourne, in a Sheedy-esque play to avoid being stung by free agency.
“(The new landscape) has created flexibility for clubs to release players approaching that free-agency age of 26 and older, where you believe you have replacement players in the same role on lower salaries … and you get compensation in draft picks in return,” says Cripps, who is lauded for adding young guns Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma to the Port Adelaide list via this strategy.
“(As Sheedy noted), there is the opportunity for clubs to trade players the year before their free agency so that you maximise your return rather than wait for a compensation pick a year later, all determined by your place on the premiership ladder.”
In some rare cases, players will ignore free agency to work a traditional trade to avert the bizarre AFL compensation system.
Patrick Dangerfield did this on leaving Adelaide at the end of 2015, when he allowed Crows football boss David Noble to work a parcel deal with Geelong recruiting manager Steven Wells rather than wait on just one draft pick from AFL House.
Clubs do get players for free – no draft pick is conceded to secure a free agent.
“Those low numbers you see on free-agency movement,” adds Cripps, “need to be balanced against how trades are being done before free agency,” examples being Chad Wingard (Port Adelaide to Hawthorn), Lachie Neale (Fremantle to Brisbane), Dylan Shiel (GWS to Essendon). And in the players who scored long-term contracts at their current clubs to pass up free agency (like Brodie Grundy’s seven-year deal with Collingwood).
Hawthorn has lost six free agents – Grant Birchall (Brisbane), Xavier Ellis (West Coast), Lance Franklin (Sydney), Tom Murphy (Gold Coast), Matt Suckling (Western Bulldogs) and Clinton Young (Collingwood).
The Franklin move to Sydney – rather than Greater Western Sydney at the end of 2013 – created the greatest backlash and unease in the AFL, as noted with the AFL Commission’s trade penalties against the Swans and Clarkson’s frustration in getting a straight answer from Franklin while his contract expired.
Today, Clarkson is less agitated by free agency – and more concerned with other factors that compromise the annual AFL draft process.
“(Free agency) is a mechanism for player movement that is important for the game,” Clarkson says. “If they have given tremendous service to the football club, there needs to be that mechanism to move … and it is a mechanism for all clubs to utilise. Philosophically, I am not opposed to it.
“In a lot of instances (at Hawthorn) it has been (free agents) at the back end of their careers, players who have given fantastic service to our football club. They deserve the right to secure stability in their lives, longer tenure in the game and the opportunity to explore where they can find greater stability or even further success at other clubs.”
Murphy notes the AFL clubs are “getting better but still have a long way to go” on dealing with free agents who make in-season decisions to change clubs, as Atkins has done at Adelaide this year and Cam McCarthy likewise at Fremantle.
And there is still more to be debated on how free agency plays out in AFL ranks.
“That eligibility criteria (eight years) was a first step,” Murphy says. “But it is a long period to wait for free agency. We’ve openly declared we are wanting to discuss reducing the years of service to qualify for free agency. In time, it will come down and be in line with many other sports.”
FREE AGENCY
What defines free agency in the AFL? If a long-serving player (at least eight years) is falling out of contract, he is classed a free agent by two categories –
RESTRICTED: Players in top 25 per cent of salary bill at the club. He can only move if his current club declines to match free agency offers.
UNRESTRICTED: Players in bottom 75 per cent of the salary bill at the club. He can move as he wishes, regardless of offers from his current club.
Since 2019, “a player who at any time becomes or previously was a free agent will be a free agent at the end of each subsequent contract”.
DELISTED: Players cut by their clubs – are “free agents” regardless of tenure in the game.
FREE AGENCY SCORE
(Your club’s balance sheet)
ADELAIDE
GAINED: Eddie Betts (Carlton)
LOST: Cam Ellis-Yolmen (Brisbane), Chris Knights (Richmond)
BRISBANE
GAINED: Grant Birchall (Hawthorn), Cam Ellis-Yolmen (Adelaide), Brent Moloney (Melbourne)
LOST: Matthew Leunenberger (Essendon), Tom Rockliff (Port Adelaide)
CARLTON
GAINED: Alex Fasolo (Collingwood), Dale Thomas (Collingwood)
LOST: Eddie Betts (Adelaide), Jarrad Waite (North Melbourne)
COLLINGWOOD
GAINED: Chris Mayne (Fremantle), Quinten Lynch (West Coast), Daniel Wells (North Melbourne), Clinton Young (Hawthorn)
LOST: Nathan Brown (St Kilda), Alex Fasolo (Carlton), Dale Thomas (Carlton)
ESSENDON
GAINED: Brendon Goddard (St Kilda), James Gwilt (St Kilda), Matthew Leuenberger (Brisbane)
LOST: No player
FREMANTLE
GAINED: Reece Conca (Richmond), Danyle Pearce (Port Adelaide), Colin Sylvia (Melbourne)
LOST: Chris Mayne (Collingwood)
GEELONG
GAINED: Luke Dahlhaus (Western Bulldogs), Jared Rivers (Melbourne), Scott Selwood (West Coast)
LOST: Shannon Byrnes (Melbourne), Steven Motlop (Port Adelaide), Dawson Simpson (GWS)
GOLD COAST
GAINED: Brandon Ellis (Richmond), Nick Malceski (Sydney), Tom Murphy (Hawthorn)
LOST: Tom Lynch (Gold Coast)
GWS
GAINED: Dawson Simpson (Geelong)
LOST: Adam Tomlinson (Melbourne)
HAWTHORN
GAINED: James Frawley (Melbourne), Ty Vickery (Richmond)
LOST: Grant Birchall (Brisbane), Xavier Ellis (West Coast), Lance Franklin (Sydney), Tom Murphy (Gold Coast), Matt Suckling (W Bulldogs), Clinton Young (Collingwood)
MELBOURNE
GAINED: Shannon Byrnes (Geelong), Adam Tomlinson (GWS)
LOST: James Frawley (Hawthorn), Brent Moloney (Brisbane), Jared Rivers (Geelong), Colin Sylvia (Fremantle)
NORTH MELBOURNE
GAINED: Nick Dal Santo (St Kilda), Shaun Higgins (W Bulldogs), Jarrad Waite (Carlton)
LOST: Daniel Wells (Collingwood)
PORT ADELAIDE
GAINED: Scott Lycett (West Coast), Steven Motlop (Geelong), Tom Rockliff (Brisbane), Matt White (Richmond)
LOST: Troy Chaplin (Richmond), Danyle Pearce (Fremantle), Jackson Trengove (Western Bulldogs)
RICHMOND
GAINED: Troy Chaplin (Port Adelaide), Tom Lynch (Gold Coast), Chris Knights (Adelaide)
LOST: Reece Conca (Fremantle), Brandon Ellis (Gold Coast), Ty Vickery (Hawthorn), Matt White (Port Adelaide)
ST KILDA
GAINED: Nathan Brown (Collingwood)
LOST: Nick Dal Santo (North Melbourne), Brendon Goddard (Essendon), James Gwilt (Essendon)
SYDNEY
GAINED: Lance Franklin (Hawthorn)
LOST: Nick Malceski (Gold Coast)
WEST COAST
GAINED: Xavier Ellis (Hawthorn)
LOST: Scott Lycett (Port Adelaide), Quinten Lynch (Collingwood), Scott Selwood (Geelong)
WESTERN BULLDOGS
GAINED: Matt Suckling (Hawthorn), Jackson Trengove (Port Adelaide)
LOST: Luke Dahlhaus (Geelong), Shaun Higgins (North Melbourne)
YEAR BY YEAR
2012: 10 free agents (plus four delisted free agents)
2013: 7 (8)
2014: 5 (7)
2015: 4 (4)
2016: 4 (3)
2017: 3 (5)
2018: 5 (5)
2019: 4 (6)
TOTAL: 42 free agents (43 delisted free agents)
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