AFL looks at arbiter for trade-week deals
Stephen Rielly
The Age
March 24, 2006
THE AFL is considering the appointment of a trade-week arbiter to eliminate the unpopular tradition of the protracted, eleventh-hour blockbuster deal that is held responsible for the unseemly and often panic-stricken close to the period.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson told a meeting of the league's coaches yesterday that, as part of a review of the trading system, thought is being given to the idea of a mediator being brought in on discussions between two clubs that are unable to consummate an important deal that, if concluded quickly, would allow the numerous lesser deals dependent on it to proceed.
"It's something we're exploring, the idea of a mediator to help when there is an impasse, to help enable two clubs to get to a deal. We're exploring that," Anderson said.
"We're considering the trade period because, like everything, we look at ways of doing things better."
AFL Coaches Association president and Melbourne coach Neale Daniher later said that the idea was not met with complete support but acknowledged that the association would like to tackle the current arrangement, which regularly sees deals fall through either for a lack of negotiating time or because they are lodged after the closing deadline.
A deal, for example, designed to send Heath Black from St Kilda to Fremantle at the end of 2003 was not lodged in time, leaving Black to play another year with the Saints before making his move the following year.
Some of the tardiness was pinned to the fact that the big deal of the week, involving Jade Rawlings, was still being negotiated when the deadline expired. The Rawlings deal was not concluded to Rawlings' satisfaction.
"The issue is how do we broker the big deal that seems to hold everything up," Daniher said. "A mediator was discussed but we have some concerns whether that can work and we don't think we've got the complete answer on that."
Daniher, who announced that he was stepping down as spokesman for the association, said yesterday's meeting — with Anderson, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and all of the competition's coaches other than Kevin Sheedy and Michael Malthouse — produced a commitment from the league to seek the opinion of the coaches in future on matters involving how the game was played.
After weeks of criticism levelled at the league by many coaches over the lack of consultation with them about the rule changes introduced this year, Daniher said he was satisfied that the voice of the coaches would now be heard.
"It has been an antagonistic relationship between the AFL and the coaches in certain circumstances but we believe that after today we can work a lot closer together. One example of that is the laws of the game committee and how we can help and be used as a sounding board to help the game improve," Daniher said.
Anderson said: "We've discussed a process of me sitting down with the coaches at the end of the season, talking about where the laws of the game committee is at, getting the input face-to-face with the coaches rather than relying on a coaches representative on the laws committee."
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