The AFL’s latest decision on compensatory draft picks for players heading to the Gold Coast or Greater Western Sydney gives clubs up to two first-round picks for an elite player.

But it will cause plenty of angst for some clubs.

And whether it is fair is going to be debatable.

By taking away the market, so to speak, it means the true value of any player will probably not be represented by a trade to the new clubs.

The market benchmark for an elite player, a Brownlow medallist in Chris Judd was set a few years ago.

Carlton gave up Josh Kennedy (a recent No.4 pick), pick 3 and pick 20. That is two very high first round picks and another just outside the first round.

The compensation being offered to clubs in the top half of the ladder would fall short of that - by a fair margin.

For arguments sake, if St Kilda was to lose a player of the ilk of Nick Riewoldt and they won the flag the previous season, they would end up with an extra first-round pick after their first pick (i.e. No. 17) as well as another mid-range first-round pick (say, No.10).

That could hardly be considered fair for the Saints - picks 10 and 17 for a superstar you can build a club around.

Riewoldt is worth two picks in the top five any year. He is arguably worth more than Judd was to the Blues.

Go through the top clubs, pick out their best player and do the sums. It isn’t going to be a fair deal for many of them.

The troubling aspect is that the AFL has made itself a “market maker” in a sense.

It decides the value of players, it is not left to the normal supply/ demand equations (as much as it can be under the current trading regime).

But in saying that, it has to be acknowledged that there appears to be no other option given the grand expansion plans of the league.

And a number of club representatives were involved in creating the system.

David Reed is an award-winning journalist who worked as a sports writer for major newspapers on both sides of the country and voted on the 2005 Norm Smith Medal. David will write extensively for geelongcats.com.au this season. The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.