FREE agency will be reviewed at the end of this year's exchange period as the AFL Players' Association continues to support changes to the eligibility criteria.
Although the mid-term review of the Collective Bargaining Agreement was completed this month, decisions on free agency were held over for further examination.
A working party with player, club and AFL representatives has been proposed to undertake the review but all parties accept there is little chance of significant change to the system being introduced until the end of 2016.
They believe the industry would need at least two seasons to adjust to any significant changes, meaning a time lag even if the working party recommended changes.
The AFL Commission would also need to sign off on any decision.
So far, despite the headline grabbing nature of free agency, player movement has been minimal with only nine restricted free agents crossing clubs in the first two seasons.
The AFL Players' Association wants the eligibility criteria to be cut so that instead of applying only to uncontracted players who have played the existing minimum period of eight and 10 years' consecutive service it will apply to those who have played six and eight years respectively.
The Players' Association also remains keen to widen the eligibility to include players who have swapped clubs in their first eight years to still be eligible to become free agents as long as they had played four years at their current club.
Such a change would mean Carlton's Andrejs Everitt might be eligible for free agency in three years time if he remained at the Blues and Hawthorn's Josh Gibson could become a free agent the next time he comes out of contract.
However the AFL wants to assess the impact of free agency on the competition and is particularly conscious of concerns that free agency might result in a migration of talent from less wealthy clubs to powerful clubs.
The AFLPA managed to win a pay increase during the mid-term review marginally above the three percent mandated in the CBA as well as a raft of relatively minor changes. The 'banking' of the TPP system under the new competitive balance policy will also benefit players.
