Two years have passed since the AFL handed out first-round compensation for a departing free agent.
The league’s secret herbs and spices formula in determining a footballer’s value includes their age and the length and size of their contract.
Whether you agree with free agency compensation or not, it illustrates how few stars are actually using the mechanism to change clubs.
Karl Amon crossed from Port Adelaide to Hawthorn as a free agent this year.Credit:AFL Photos
The biggest free agency transaction this year was probably Karl Amon’s move to Hawthorn (second-round compensation), while last year’s was George Hewett becoming a Blue (end of second round).
Both are good players, with good – not great – being the operative word. Neither of them has ever been an All-Australian nor won a best-and-fairest award.
Joe Daniher (Essendon to Brisbane) and Zac Williams (GWS Giants to Carlton) earned their old club’s first-round compensation when they left in 2020.
There are already slim pickings among the 2023 free agency crop, with Darcy Parish, Ben McKay, Jade Gresham, Jack Crisp and Harry Himmelberg among the biggest but still-modest prizes.
Major League Baseball’s player movement period is in full swing, with several stars already switching sides, from Xander Bogaerts to Trea Turner and arguably the two best pitchers in the world, Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom.
So, why hasn’t there been the same impact in the AFL since free agency was introduced at the end of the 2012 season? There has, sort of.
Lance Franklin exercised his free agency rights to join Sydney in 2013.Credit:AFL Photos
League headquarters wanted another avenue for, and to encourage, player movement. Basically, it didn’t matter whether that happened through free agency, and that is what has happened.
It is not as if there haven’t been high-profile free agency moves across the journey, such as Lance Franklin (Hawthorn to Sydney) and Tom Lynch (Gold Coast to Richmond).
But the threat of free agency has also created blockbuster trades for Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron to join Geelong five years apart from Adelaide and the Giants, respectively.
GWS became the first club to match a restricted free agent’s offer with Cameron, eventually completing a trade instead, in a package that included three top-20 picks. Dangerfield’s departure didn’t garner anywhere near that return, but the Crows still managed to get back more than they would have under the compensation system.
Even so, Cameron’s exit – after Lynch’s two years earlier – sparked hysterical reactions that free agency was destroying the AFL’s equalisation measures, which outgoing chief executive Gillon McLachlan refuted.
“It’s hard to find an elite player, other than the very top in their prime, who the club weren’t happy to let go,” McLachlan said in 2020, calling Cameron an exception.
“When players move; the clubs that they leave generally do well out of it as well. I understand the argument and things do get looked at from time to time, but I don’t think free agency is distorting the competition.”
There have been two other significant developments: the dawn of ‘pre-agents’ and the monster contract.
Clubs are fully aware of when footballers become free agents and the potential ramifications of that, with agents often brokering deals that ensure their clients come out of contract when they are first eligible.
Carlton also handed twin towers Charlie Curnow (2029) and Harry McKay (2030) epic deals with free agency on the horizon for the star 2015 draftees.
Others on ultra-long contracts are Josh Kelly (2029), Darcy Moore (2028), Richmond recruits Hopper and Tim Taranto (both 2029), Sydney’s Callum Mills (2029), Tom Papley and Isaac Heeney (both 2028), and Demons Clayton Oliver (2030), Christian Petracca (2029) and Angus Brayshaw (2028).
In that sense, free agency is every bit as impactful as hoped, even if it doesn’t seem that way. Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
