THE AFL has informed clubs that it will review the mechanisms involved in free agency compensation, but the League says "wholesale change" would be required for the formula to be made public.
A total of seven players moved clubs via restricted or unrestricted free agency earlier this month, a decade-long high, with three clubs receiving first-round compensation picks thanks to player departures.
North Melbourne received pick No.3 as a result of Ben McKay's defection to Essendon, while Adelaide and St Kilda landed end-of-first-round selections when Tom Doedee and Jade Gresham went to Brisbane and the Bombers respectively.
Speaking on AFL.com.au's trade and draft show Gettable this week, the AFL's new executive general manager of football Laura Kane said the processes around free agency compensation were part of a wider review into the Trade Period.
"There's clearly a lot of interest in free agency compensation," Kane told Gettable.
"The formula, with everything relating to trade and player movement generally, it's all connected. Of course, I'm sure the fans would love visibility of something like the calculation for compensation. But we don't currently reveal player salaries. It's all connected.
"Wholesale change would be required to reveal or look at some aspects of free agency (compensation). We did flag with clubs ahead of the period that we would review it.
"We have the benefit of a four-year CBA term remaining, the fifth year just gone. We have certainty around things like the broadcast deal, so to that end we're able to look at different rules and different mechanisms and what needs to be captured in things like compensation for free agents to make sure that it's reflective of the market."
As revealed in AFL.com.au's Inside Trading earlier this month, Kane has also written to clubs for feedback on the League's father-son and Academy bidding systems as part of the ongoing review.
However, despite the threshold for matching bids on Next Generation Academy players being pushed back to pick No.40 last year, there is not yet any indication that will be reduced as part of the changes.
"We want the game to reflect the community," Kane said.
"That's not just on the field. It's coaches, it's high-performance staff, it's football operations staff, it's men and women, it's cultural diversity, it's First Nation Australians. Talent programs that we have in place to encourage the development of those players, boys and girls, is incredibly important.
"How we incentivise, it's probably a good problem to have. We have some really talented diverse players and we have some really talented First Nation Australians that play our game. We have to make sure that their involvement, or their allocation to a club by way of priority selection or a bidding system, doesn't interrupt the cyclical nature of a draft.
"However, clubs need to be incentivised to develop talent. They did that. We've seen Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, as an example, as an incredibly talented player in our game. We will review what that looks like to ensure those players remain on lists and have long careers."
