THE POWER of the pre-agent has never been stronger.
It is why Callum Mills this week inked a six-year contract extension with Sydney a year before he hit free agency, and why Charlie Curnow did the same with Carlton last month.
Both Mills and Curnow are managed by the same company, Connors Sports Management, but the moves are consistent in gun pre-agents signing long-term deals before they reach their out-of-contract year, in the case of Curnow and Mills even before they had respectively finished their 2022 campaigns.
Top pre-agents (a player a year out from reaching free agency) have leverage over clubs.
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They can test the market a year before reaching free agency and see if their owner club wants to trade them and get a better windfall of picks than they would under a singular free agency compensation pick a year later. Dylan Shiel at the Giants did this in 2018 and netted them two first-round picks from Essendon, and again Greater Western Sydney looks set to lose a pre-agent, with Jacob Hopper under contract for next year but in the sights of Richmond and Geelong.
The Giants would likely get more through a trade deal this year for Hopper than via the AFL compensation system next year should he stay and then leave anyway.
Lachie Neale (from Fremantle to Brisbane), Steven May (from Gold Coast to Melbourne) and Chad Wingard (from Port Adelaide to Hawthorn) also left their clubs as pre-agents in 2018.
The star pre-agent can also lock in a big, big deal and their long-term future by getting in early, starting talks ahead of their free agency season and avoiding the scrutiny that comes with being a free agent. This often works from a club perspective, giving them knowledge of what their cap looks like and how to shuffle things around and alongside their big deal.
Melbourne has done this two years in a row: first last year when the Dees signed Christian Petracca to a seven-year extension at the start of his pre-agency year and again this season when they signed his midfield partner Clayton Oliver for seven years during his pre-agency campaign before he reached free agency next year.
The Blues, having re-signed Curnow through to 2029, will clearly also be hoping to sort a deal for his Coleman Medal counterpart Harry McKay in the same fashion. And as for the length of the deals – if clubs don't offer them to stay, another club will always offer a similar or better price to go.
The other option for the pre-agent is to wait, which will be a case for North Melbourne's Ben McKay this year. The key defender had been the subject of rival interest in recent months and looked at his options but is set to stay at Arden Street in 2023, which will be his free agency season.
This is also where clubs need to know the market. If McKay departed North Melbourne under free agency next year, he could net them pick No.2 in the draft via compensation if they finish last in 2023 like the past two seasons. It would be more than a trade this off-season would get them.
Darcy Parish, as well, will be an interesting free agency watch next year while the Bombers have Mason Redman, who could claim the club's best and fairest this year, also hitting free agency.
Fremantle's Darcy Tucker is being targeted as a pre-agent this trade period, with North Melbourne strongly in the mix, and he has a family pull back to Victoria.
Sydney star Tom Papley will be the next major priority re-signing for the Swans as he reaches free agency next year, having previously attempted to return to Victoria, while St Kilda's Jade Gresham, Giant Harry Himmelberg, Adelaide's Tom Doedee and Brisbane's Eric Hipwood are among the other key free agents next year.
