Free Agency coming end of 2012 [merged]

[JVT]

This is all supposing Lids would want to leave the club. Even if he gets an offer for big $ he is not forced to take it.

Absolutely agree and I don't think he is going to leave. I wouldn't be at all surprsied if his management has said to him hold off and lets see what the market offers but I doubt very much he wants to leave

But all the "nervous nellies" out there have all but convinced themselves that because right now he hasn't signed a contract extension that he will be gone at the end 2012

What the Age has again highlighted and I've said many times is that under free agency the Club holds the aces and it's just another reason he is unlikely to be going anywhere

Thats exactly what I think is happening. Last thing on his mind is leaving, his management company do what's best for him and will wait until his contract is up. Other clubs will put forwards offers and he can take them to RFC so they can better it. Nothing wrong with that IMHO. If Lids isn't already our highest paid player (he should be) then he will be this time next year 

[WilliamPowell]

What will happen to the pre-season draft when FA comes in?

It will remain for all those players who aren't covered under free agency (less than 8 years) and either get de-listed or walk out on their clubs 

[one-eyed]

Clubs grapple with free agency
Jon Pierik
January 25, 2012

CLUB administrators are still trying to digest the details of free agency just weeks before a list of eligible players is released.

AFL salary cap investigator Ken Wood continues to do the rounds of clubs explaining in detail a league document about how the new system will work, while player agents are still seeking more information and clarification through their governing body, the AFL Players Association.

There has been talk that clubs and agents will look to bend the rules to their benefit, but that appears difficult as the contract details of all players are logged at AFL headquarters. ''We are still looking at all the details. There's obviously still some uncertainty,'' one football manager said yesterday. Said another: ''That's the history of our game - trying to find a way to stretch the rules.''

The name of every free agent, whether restricted or unrestricted, will be released publicly on March 20. However, their wages will not be disclosed.

Under free agency, a player who is out of contract for the first time since serving eight years at the one club and is among the top nine or 10 paid in his final season can be offered a contract by rival clubs. But this offer can be matched by his current club. Richmond's Brett Deledio falls into this category.

Players who have served at least eight years but are outside of the top nine or 10 paid become unrestricted free agents and can leave for the club of their choice.

Those players who are out of contract and have served 10 years or more can also move to the club of their choice. St Kilda's Brendon Goddard and Melbourne's Mark Jamar fall into this category, although there is some argument they are restricted free agents.

Delisted players can deal directly with other clubs.

Those players who do not re-sign with their current club through the season will be bid for during an extended trade period in October, likely to last about three weeks. Clubs that lose players will be compensated with draft picks.

AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson said the league would keep a close eye on free agency.

''We look forward to observing how it works. Prior to this, they [players] made the fair point they were the only professional athletes in the world with a salary cap and draft and no free agency,'' he said yesterday. ''I think we have come up with a model in conjunction with the AFLPA which we are keen to have a close look at over the next couple of years.''

Anderson, club officials and several player agents believe free agency will particularly help disgruntled mid-tier players, rather than the league's superstars.

''It definitely advantages the lower rung players because once a lower rung player becomes discarded by his club, he can go to a club of his choice,'' Anderson said.

''That's a good thing. That opens it up for players no longer wanted by their clubs.

''It advantages the guys who are not as well paid because they become unrestricted free agents the first time they come out of contract after eight years.''

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/clubs-grapple-with-free-agency-20120124-1qfqo.html#ixzz1kOiNvbg5

[one-eyed]

The Free Agency compo will only be half as good as the compo given to clubs that lost players to GWS & GC.

One for the road
Jake Niall
March 14, 2012


CLUBS that lose a superstar to free agency would get roughly half the compensation that Geelong and Melbourne received for losing Gary Ablett and Tom Scully, under the incoming system for free agency.

Any club that loses an elite player will receive a maximum of one first-round draft pick, not the two early picks Geelong and Melbourne received for losing Ablett and Scully to expansion teams.

Collingwood would receive just one first-round pick if it lost its gun forward Travis Cloke to free agency - Cloke is eligible this year - while St Kilda would only receive one for Brendon Goddard if he walked to another club.

The same would also be true for Hawthorn, which would get only one first-round choice for Lance Franklin - regarded by many as the premier player in the game - in the highly unlikely event that he exercised his option as a restricted free agent during 2013 and was snared by a rival club.

Clubs have been told that the compensation they will receive for losing free agents will be less generous than the draft picks they received for losing players to the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. Melbourne received two first-round picks - which it can utilise in the coming years - when Scully joined GWS last October, while Geelong received exactly the same deal when superstar Ablett went to the Gold Coast and became the game's highest-paid player. The Cats successfully lobbied for a better deal during 2010 when it was evident that they faced a battle to retain Ablett.

Critically, the AFL will award a club ''net'' compensation for losing or gaining a free agent player. Thus, if St Kilda lost Goddard, but gained another player, the compensation would be based on the difference between the players. If the player gained is judged to be at the same level to the one lost, the relevant club would receive nothing.

The free agency system has five ''bands'' of compensation. The highest-ranked players - who will usually have completed eight years and be ''restricted'' free agents - will bring a return of a first-round pick, the next level is an end of first round pick, the third category is a second-round choice, the fourth is an end of second round, and the last bracket is a third-round pick.

At this stage, clubs are unclear where in the first round the compensation pick would be awarded, but it is likely either to be based on a club's ladder position in the year they use it [immediately after their ''normal'' first pick], or to be in the middle of the first round.

The AFL has suggested to clubs that they would have perhaps three years in which to utilise a compensation pick (they have five years under the GWS/Gold Coast compensation), but this is yet to be confirmed.

Clubs believe that the AFL does not want too many first-round compensation picks interfering with the function of the national draft.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/one-for-the-road-20120313-1uyiy.html#ixzz1p0vay2UD