Perhaps the latter part of this statement should have read, in true Orwellian fashion, “Maintain the evenness of the competition … as long as the GWS and GCS franchises are a little bit more even than the established clubs”.
Although it is understandable that the AFL would wish the expansion clubs to be successful, a system which allows the new teams access to 16 uncontracted players and significant salary cap concessions flies in the face of the AFL’s expressed desire for evenness.
Demetriou noted that the extra money available to GWS and GCS was not an invitation to spend freely.
“What's important about that is it’s not a bucket of spare money and down the track you pay players over and above the odds,” he said.
“They actually need that money because they’ve got more players on their list.”
These comments fail to point out the obvious - that the expansion clubs have a disproportionate number of new draftees on lower, fixed salaries, allowing them to spend more on uncontracted players.
Demetriou’s comment about over-paying players does not appear to have been heeded so far: it a reasonable assumption that this is exactly what happened with the Gold Coast and it will happen again with GWS.
That the expansion clubs have priority access to 17-year-olds and the cream of the crop from the national draft is not as worrying to football supporters because GWS and GCS still have to nurture and develop these rookies.
It is understood that the extended salary cap given to the expansion clubs is needed to retain the draftees whose contracts will all expire at similar times.
The worry lies in the extra money being used to lure players from other clubs, a point at which the AFL is saying all bets are off when it comes to maintaining a level playing field.
By placing restricted access on free agency (only players with ten years’ service will have total free agency) but not doing the same on access to uncontracted players for the expansion clubs, the AFL has created a farcical situation where the likes of Dustin Martin and Tom Scully can be poached.
In the name of evenness, perhaps they should be asking why the likes of Martin and Scully came to their respective clubs.
These players were high draft picks, picks that Richmond and Melbourne received after repeated poor performances, as part of the equalisation policy that is the foundation of the AFL Draft.
That there is a possibility of any second year player leaving a club, especially high draft picks, is ludicrous.
So what is the answer?
If the AFL is determined to give the expansion clubs a leg up with extra cash to spend, why not at least protect the established clubs by limiting access to uncontracted players by length of service, as the free agency agreement does?
Why not give the expansion clubs a year’s head start on free agency? Although players will head north, lured by the promise of very attractive (some might say irresistible) pay packets, at least the players will have given appropriate service to their clubs.
This will at least go some way to a more acceptable solution when it comes to maintaining the evenness of the competition that Andrew Demetriou keeps espousing.
Jeff Robinson is a lifetime Melbourne supporter who still has nightmares about Jim Stynes running across the mark in the 1987 preliminary final (Jim has since redeemed himself).
The opinions expressed are his own, and are not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
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