AFLPA push to axe rookie list Michael Warner
Herald Sun
March 09, 2011ROOKIES will be torpedoed and club lists expanded to 46 under a plan being pushed by the AFL players' union.
Despite providing career starts to the likes of Aaron Sandilands, Nick Maxwell, Matthew Boyd, Darren Jolly, Aaron Davey, Dale Morris and Dean Cox, the AFL Players' Association wants the rookie system scrapped as early as next season.
The proposal is expected to surface in collective bargaining talks between league chiefs and the AFLPA in coming weeks.
It would see the annual rookie draft axed, with a greater number of selections made available at the November national draft and pre-season draft in December. Club lists now comprise 38 senior players and up to eight rookies.
Rookies who do not play a senior game this year will earn a miserly $35,400. There are now 118 rookies on clubs' lists across the competition - all of whom are unable to play AFL unless upgraded due to a long-term injury to a senior player.
"Feedback from players indicates that rookies now work just as hard as the rest of the playing group, yet they are restricted from playing senior football and paid only $35,400 under the current arrangements - only around $100 a week more than the minimum wage," AFLPA player-relations general manager Ian Prendergast said yesterday.
"In line with this, the players' association is pushing for rookie-listed players to be absorbed into the senior list, to reflect their current standing and workload at clubs."
The cost of upgrading rookie players would be about $1.8 million a year, funded from the next TV rights contract tipped to fetch more than $1 billion.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/aflpa-push-to-axe-rookie-list/story-e6frf9jf-1226018000524
