Patrick Dangerfield opened a serious can of worms when he asked a rather simple question to his social media followers.
On Friday morning in the hours after the wild NBA Trade Deadline had passed, the Geelong superstar wanted to know if the AFL should follow suit.
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The AFL Players’ Association president has been an advocate for a mid-season trade period in the past, saying last year he’d love to see it come into play.
“I’d love to see, at some stage, mid-season trading come in,” Dangerfield said on SEN radio.
“We see it in other codes globally, it certainly adds another layer of intrigue.
“It’s not something that we’ve engaged in a huge amount of discussion around as a PA, simply because there’s been so much on.
“I think broadly we’d be open to it.”
On Friday the Brownlow Medal winner doubled down, asking his followers if they’d be on board with his poll gathering close to 7000 votes at the time of writing.
As it currently stands the vote is overwhelmingly in favour of Dangerfield’s proposal with 63 per cent voting yes.
The tweet however did spark fierce debate among his followers and the broader AFL community, with many critical of the last line in Dangerfield’s tweet where he stated the players should have the final say over any trade.
In the NBA teams are able to trade players at a seconds notice, unless a player has a specific clause in their contract.
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley weighed in and held a similar belief to a vast amount of replies to the tweet when he said the players currently “hold too much power”.
“I voted yes. Players hold too much power. Need to give clubs more capacity to improve their lists and their prospects above and beyond year by year,” Buckley wrote.
Former NBA player Andrew Bogut, who was on the receiving end of a blockbuster trade, was asked for his thoughts on the proposal and shut it down over the players having veto power.
“Doesn’t work if players have to consent,” Bogut wrote.
Of course not everyone was opposed to the idea with Graham Cornes backing it in to replace the current mid-season draft, where teams can pick up players from state leagues.
“A much better option than the mid-year draft that rips players out of the SANFL or WAFL,” Cornes wrote.
Current Collingwood big man Mason Cox also got behind the idea, provided the players received a bigger chunk of the AFL pie.
“If it means we get paid 50% revenue share like the NBA besides our 28% share atm I’m in,” Cox wrote.
While a trade period similar to the NBA being brought into the AFL would be incredible to witness, the likelihood of it coming into play is a long, long way away.
The sentiment echoed by Buckley and Bogut is blindingly evident with players currently holding all the power.
Players being given the final say on trades would severely hinder any process put in place and as we’ve seen over and over again in recent years, players are forcing their way out and wanting to return home. And in some cases, only wanting to return home to play for certain teams.
Dangerfield being an advocate for a trade period is a good start, but for it to work like the NBA – the players have to be willing to relinquish some power otherwise it’s all just a pipe dream.
