THE SEASON-ending injuries to Jagga Smith and Andy Moniz-Wakefield over the weekend has put the spotlight on the pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP).

Adelaide's announcement of Lachie McAndrew came following his signing last week before last Friday's deadline had passed, with the ruckman the 12th player signed in the 2024-25 SSP window.

The AFL has allowed Carlton and Melbourne to make their SSP replacements with an extended window, but after that, any list additions will have to wait until the mid-season draft.  

But clubs still have other ways they would like to add flexibility to be able to replace players or keep agile with their lists. Here are some of the proposed options. 

OPEN SSP WINDOW UNTIL OPENING ROUND

The obvious option is to extend the window for signing pre-season rookies until Opening Round begins. The AFL in recent years brought forward the deadline for the signing of players to earlier in February with the support of clubs to help state leagues and allow second-tier clubs to finalise their lists without the risk of having a key player called up by an AFL team on the eve of the season. It has also cut off prior to the AAMI Community Series where only listed players can feature, and train-ons can't. Taking the window right through to the first game of the season as the cut-off would enable clubs to cover injuries from practice games, which inevitably happen each year. 

MID-SEASON DRAFT AND FREE AGENCY

Create a mega mid-season day. Forget mid-season trading, because club feedback on that has been lukewarm at best, despite the AFL's interest in introducing a small trade period. But on the day of the mid-season draft, make it also a sign-on free agency day where previously listed AFL players can be signed as delisted free agents. That allows the mid-season draft to be only new faces and the ex-AFL players to essentially be able to choose their home and not have to go through the draft process, which they can at the end of a season as DFAs. There have been two former players who have received AFL lifelines in each of the past three mid-season drafts. 

FREE AGENCY PERIOD UNTIL MID-SEASON DRAFT

Call it the replacement period. Up until the mid-season draft, clubs can sign previously listed AFL players to cover for season-ending injuries. It can also see state league players eligible to come in to fill spots made available. Cutting it off at the mid-season mark of the season would leave the war of attrition crucial to premiership success still remain a big part of the recipe, but also assist with some back-up in key posts, generally in the ruck or tall forward or defensive positions. State league competitions would need to be compensated well if this system was introduced given the possibility of losing their best players on a whim. 

RETURN LISTS TO PRE-COVID LEVELS

This looks the most unlikely, particularly given Tasmania's entrance into the AFL could see some more cuts to create a pool of readymade players. Clubs faced reductions in their list numbers at the end of 2020 as part of the League-wide financial cuts after COVID, having previously needed to have between 38-40 senior-listed players, four-to-six rookies and a maximum of three category B rookies. But with 13 SSP players added this summer and 19 taken in the mid-season rookie draft last year, the difference hasn't ended up being all that different. By adjusting the starting point for how many players can be on a list, some clubs believe it would alleviate the need for extra signing windows.