What does AFL trade jargon mean?

With the AFL season over another has dawned – not one in which games are won and lost but one in which the seeds are sown for premiership glory.

Trade season, in October and November, is when clubs build their lists. It consists of three main elements: the draft, which started in 1986, is primarily about new players entering the league while free agency (introduced at the end of the 2012 season) and trading are for players seeking to move clubs. The overall idea is to create an even competition across clubs.

This year there are some interesting players to watch. Brodie Grundy, for example, was traded from Collingwood to Melbourne during last year’s trade period with five years remaining on an existing contract. He looks like being traded again, to Sydney, after his year at the Demons did not work out as hoped.

North Melbourne defender Ben McKay will head to Essendon as a restricted free agent with the Kangaroos waiting to see what compensation they will receive. If they receive a first-round selection (it would be pick three) they would let him join the Bombers. If, however, the compensation (dependent on the size of the contract offer and his age) is below that level, the Kangaroos may match the Bombers’ offer and force a trade.

Melbourne’s James Jordon is also a free agent but because he is a unrestricted free agent, the Demons can’t match any offer he gets from Sydney, his preferred destination.

Of course, there are also players who are in and out of contract who also want to be traded, with Fremantle’s Liam Henry, Carlton’s Zac Fisher, and Geelong’s Esava Ratugolea among about 25 players in that situation.

Picks will also be traded, with Gold Coast willing to offload pick four to the highest bidder to gain enough points to match any bids for their highly rated academy graduates Jed Walter, Ethan Read and Jake Rogers.

Intensive strategising and high-stakes wheeling and dealing are behind the movement of players from one club to another. A lot of jargon gets bandied about that can be confusing, particularly because the AFL tinkers with rules and player acquisition mechanisms regularly.

How many different kinds of free agent can there possibly be? Well, several. When is a selection period not really over? Answer: when the supplemental selection period begins … And if picks are the basic unit of transaction, what’s a split pick?

Here are some of the technical terms you’ll be hearing over the next couple of months and when the various moves can be made.

What’s a pick swap?

Players don’t have to be involved in trades. Clubs may exchange draft selections. One club could be desperate for an early pick to take a certain player in the draft while others may be content to slide back.

A club can trade a high-ranked pick for two later selections. This tactic is known as “splitting” a pick. Draft picks can be traded even after the completion of the primary trade period, with deals able to occur right through until the end of this year’s national draft on November 21.

In 2023, West Coast hold pick No.1, but they are considering trading that out for two high draft selections to get two quality players on to their list rather than one. Melbourne and North Melbourne might have the picks to tempt the Eagles to hand over the prized selection, with young Victorian gun Harley Reid tipped to be the top pick in the national draft.

How do you trade a future pick?

Since 2015, clubs have been able to trade draft picks not only for the current year but for the following year. These are known as “future picks”. This allows clubs greater flexibility to reach deals as they have more assets to utilise. If a club trades its future selection to another club, the second club’s pick remains tied to the ladder position of the first club. In 2022, Fremantle traded their first pick to Melbourne as part of a deal to land Luke Jackson. The Dockers had made finals in 2022 so thought their first pick might be pick 10 or above; however, their poor season was a bonus for Melbourne, and they landed pick five after Fremantle finished 14th.

In 2020, Collingwood traded their 2021 first-round pick to the GWS Giants in exchange for picks 24 and 30, plus a 2021 fourth-round pick. But because they finished second-last, the Pies ended up giving away pick No.2 in the 2021 draft. That’s because the draft is done in reverse ladder order; by finishing second-last, Collingwood forfeited pick No.2 and if they’d finished sixth-last it would’ve been pick No.6, and so on.

What’s the deal with live trading?
Before 2018, the draft order was set before draft night and could not be changed. If you had pick seven, it would remain pick seven, and so on. Now clubs can conduct live trades of picks during the draft itself. This has opened up a massive new tactical dimension, with clubs working the phones on draft night to manoeuvre favourable positions as the landscape changes. There have been some famous live trades of picks. Liam Stocker ended up at Carlton after the Blues traded their future first selection to Adelaide for pick 19 in the 2018 national draft, so they could select the defender. Stocker was eventually traded to St Kilda after just 23 games with the Blues.

Going, going, gone? How do draft bids work?

Several prospective draftees each year are subject to rules that allow clubs to gain priority access to the player in question. They may be father-son players, whose dads played 100 or more games for an AFL club, such as Nick Daicos, the Collingwood premiership star who is the son of Magpies legend Peter Daicos; or academy players, such as St Kilda’s Mitch Owens, whose mum is from Japan, who joined the Saints after being in the club’s next-generation academy. (The next-generation academies were set up last decade to help the development of players from diverse backgrounds. NSW and Queensland have their own “northern” academies for fostering talent.) Players from those academies are considered part of the open pool if they are chosen in the first 20 selections. This is likely to be the situation with the highly rated draft prospect Ryley Sanders this season.

Another club may select one of these players but the club with bidding rights over the player can play a trump card to acquire the player. They do this by matching a bid. Matching bids comes at a cost, though. Each draft selection has points allocated to it and, by matching a bid, a club loses points equivalent to that selection, meaning they are shuffled back in the draft order in coming rounds.

Clubs won’t always deem it worthwhile to match a bid if they feel the academy or father-son player isn’t worth the number of points they need to pay. In 2018, Hawthorn opted not to match a bid made by Essendon for Irving Mosquito, who had been part of the Hawks’ academy.

Another change this year is that players taken in the first 20 picks won’t be eligible to be matched as next-generation academy bids, following concerns the draft’s fairness was being compromised by next-generation academy players being taken with early picks. This means there will be no repeat of the Western Bulldogs matching Adelaide’s bid for Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at pick No.1 last year. From 2022, this prohibition will extend to the top 40 picks. Bids for father-son and northern academy players can still be matched at any selection. This means Gold Coast, who have Walter, Read and Rogers all capable of attracting bids inside pick 20, can match the bid. They will trade out pick four to accumulate the points to do that.

What are the rules for delisted players?

Players whose contracts have not been renewed by an AFL club this year can join any AFL club that offers up a contract.

And how about for free agency for life?

Any player who has previously been a free agent automatically becomes a free agent at the end of every ensuing contract. Veteran North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein fitted into this category as soon as he came out of contract which is why he can join Essendon as a free agent.

Who’s a restricted free agent?

An out-of-contract player who has played nine or fewer years with their current club and is in the top quarter for salaries at that club is a restricted free agent. That means that their existing club is entitled to match any free agency offer made for the player. McKay is an example this year. He wants to join Essendon.

North Melbourne can match Essendon’s offer. If an offer is matched, the player can choose to remain with their club or request a move via a trade or the draft. North will only do this if they think they will get a greater return by trading the player than they would if they relied on compensation via the AFL formula. A trade happened at the end of 2020 with Jeremy Cameron when he wanted to leave the Giants to join Geelong after Greater Western Sydney matched the Cats’ offer.

And what about an unrestricted free agent?

A player who has played eight or nine years with their club, is out-of-contract and not in the top quarter for salaries at their club – or an out-of-contract player who has played 10 or more years with their club, regardless of salary – is an unrestricted free agent and may walk to another club with no recourse available to their current club. Examples this year include Joel Hamling (Fremantle) and Scott Lycett (Port Adelaide).

Speaking of jargon, what’s the supplemental selection period?

A new window was opened late in 2018 whereby clubs could add undrafted or delisted players to their rookie list – even after the rookie draft – until shortly before the season, provided the club had a list spot open or a long-term injury. Sydney Stack (Richmond) and Shane Mumford (GWS) were both picked up in the SSP during the off-season previously.

What does pre-agency mean?

A relatively new phenomenon whereby players who are one year away from becoming free agents are traded by their clubs in order to maximise their value rather than be at the mercy of the AFL’s free agency compensation scheme. Lachie Neale, Dylan Shiel, Steven May and Chad Wingard have all moved clubs previously as pre-agents.

How do you perform a salary dump?

This is a mechanism whereby a club trades a player to another club largely to clear space under the salary cap. The player’s new club therefore generally gives up very little to get the player. This occurred in 2022 when Geelong absorbed the salary of utility Jack Bowes, who came to the Cats from Gold Coast with pick No.7 to make the idea of taking on Bowes more attractive to Geelong. The Cats gave up a future third-round pick in exchange.

Have you heard of pick purchasing?

This is not yet an option, but clubs are keen for it to be introduced. It would involve trading part of your salary cap for a high pick which would help clubs at the top of the ladder keep their stars and clubs near the bottom to use some of their salary cap to add more young talent, rather than on existing players performing below their contract. For example, North Melbourne might give GWS $500,000 extra cap space to get their first-round pick. The Giants could then use the extra space to retain an emerging gun. The AFL have considered it but are yet to introduce it.

Can contracted players be traded without their consent?

No. The AFL wanted the AFL Players Association to agree to allowing clubs to trade contracted players without their consent during this year’s collective bargaining agreement negotiations, but the players refused to accept that condition. Clubs have lobbied hard for this condition, which happens in some sports overseas, but AFL players don’t think it is reasonable given their income relative to those international sports. Of course, players such as Grundy, as happened at Collingwood, are sometimes forced to accept that their club would prefer them out, but they are entitled to dig their heels in and remain regardless of how uncomfortable they may be made to feel.

Free agency begins October 6 and closes on October 13. The trade period runs from October 9-18.

This article was first published in 2020 and has been updated.