Call to keep cut draftees in the system
Emma Quayle
The Age
October 27, 2006
THE AFL Players Association is pushing for clubs to commit a rookie list position to draftees they cut after only one season.
The association believes clubs should honour the spirit of the mandatory two-year contracts offered to teenage prospects by ensuring they are kept in the system for at least that long.
Essendon this week delisted first-year defender Austin Lucy, chosen at No. 66 in last year's national draft, after Adelaide earlier cut Alan Obst, the 48th selection last November.
Association operations manager Matt Finnis said the delistings were "not ideal", since the teenagers had been selected on the understanding they had two years to prove their worth.
He said the players' union had proposed that, should such players go through a second national draft and not be chosen by another club, their original club be forced to take them on as a rookie. Both Lucy and Obst will be paid as second-year draftees in 2007 regardless of whether they are chosen by another team at next month's national draft, rookied by their own or another club, or overlooked altogether.
"That's the position we've put to the AFL," Finnis said. "The AFL are mindful of preserving the freedom of clubs to deal with their list as they deem fit, but we certainly will continue to make representations in that manner.
"The clubs still have an obligation to honour the second year of the players' entitlements, but we all know that at that age the players are thinking about establishing a career, not about any real financial rewards.
"We believe that when you're offered a two-year contract to come into the system, that means you get two years to adjust and show some value to your club. If a club decides after one year that they've effectively made an error of judgment and things aren't going to work out, it doesn't really provide the player with that two-year window they expected when they were drafted.
"If the player isn't drafted onto the primary list of another club, we'd prefer that they are at least given the opportunity to fulfil that two-year commitment on the rookie list and to demonstrate their value from there."
While Obst and Lucy will be paid as second-year players next year, they will have access to less money from the union's retirement fund than they would have if they are not redrafted or rookie-listed.
The retirement fund covers only listed players, regardless of whether their contract has been cut early.
Clubs must offer each untried player it chooses in the national draft a two-year deal, but can sign players with previous AFL experience to a one-year contract.
For the first time this year, untried over-23 players taken in the pre-season draft can also be signed for a single season. "That's something we hope will provide clubs with the incentive to perhaps take on a player who's excelled at a regional or state level," Finnis said.
Fremantle and the Brisbane Lions have also cut players — Toby Stribling and Luke Forsyth — who spent 2006 on those clubs' rookie lists after only one season on the senior list.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/10/26/1161749254461.html
