WELL, it’s a little past the midway point in the season and I’d like to take this opportunity to raise something I have thought about for a while.

Firstly, contemplate this. At the time of you reading this, there are players at every AFL club who know that they will not be at that club in 2009. Some may even have been formally told. Most others have already put two and two together.

With this in mind, I believe there should be a mid-season draft or trade period in the AFL. Not like the NRL rules that allow players to sign with other clubs for the next season while they play for another – more like the old mid-season draft where players can start playing with another club almost immediately.

Almost every other sport in the world allows players to move mid-year and for me, bringing it into the AFL is a no-brainer. Why should players and clubs waste the next 10-12 weeks going through the motions when they could be taking up other opportunities?

A club may find itself with long term injuries to its ruckmen, for example. What an opportunity to pick up one from another club – or even from outside the AFL – who is playing reserves every week!

Should this idea ever be taken up, though, there would have to be strict criteria. There wouldn’t be any of the games’ elite players moving mid-year for the opportunity to play finals!

In my mind I see that criteria being this:
  • Both the club and the player must agree to a trade – as of course would the club they are trading with. Both the club and the player agree that the player has something to offer another club, but that their time is wasted at their current club. The other team may find a player in a similar situation who they think could play a role in the second half of the season).
  • A player getting traded must be out of contract at the end of the season in which he is traded. (If he has another year to run on his contract he can be traded as usual in the trade period that currently exists).
  • A player cannot have played more than three AFL senior games in the year in which he is traded. (This way, the players who want to seek opportunity elsewhere have clearly not been in their team's best 22 that year).

The reason I feel strongly about all this is because of the players I see not getting opportunity. Some due to form or ability, others because they just can’t break in to the senior team.

I would like to use my old teammate Ben Davies as an example. Last year, Ben kept gathering huge stats in the VFL and was regularly in the team’s best, yet he could not break into the senior team.

At the end of the season, he was granted a trade to the Kangaroos where it was seen he may get more opportunity. But had we had a mid-season trade or draft, Ben may have established himself earlier at the Kangaroos, and might be playing more regularly in 2008.

On a similar note, I've noticed that Carlton’s Cain Ackland has been regularly playing reserves. I don’t know Cain, nor his current circumstances, other than the fact that he has played just one senior game in 2008.

I also noticed he kicked eight goals in the VFL a couple of weekends back. Should he not be part of Carlton’s long term plans, (and I’m not saying he is or he isn’t as I don’t have a clue), I’m sure one of the other 15 clubs could find a spot for a goalkicking ruckman.

The bottom line is this. Players and clubs waste weeks and months in the second half of the season, fully aware they will part company before the start of the next. If we can change this in some way, why not do so?

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the clubs or the AFL.