Is it time for the trade period and player movement to evolve?
Unlike major sports in the United States, the AFL does not allow clubs to trade players without their consent and Gerard Whateley believes the time is approaching for that cultural shift here.
The trade period recently finished up and it was the quietest it has been for a number of years, thanks to a variety of factors.
While NFL and NBA teams have the ability to move players without consent in the best interests of the franchise, AFL sides don’t have the same allowance, something that seemingly impacted Hawthorn in this trade period.
They wished to add to their draft hand and were willing to move a key player, with Luke Breust and Chad Wingard floated in moves to GWS. Both players however refused to uproot.
Whateley’s takeaway from the trade period was a clear need for the league to evolve and mature.
“There are two central contemplations that now need to be brought forward. They’re in the background and sometimes I think the AFL doesn’t quite know whether it should or shouldn’t and then how,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“The two are: There must be a mid-season trade period and the second is we have to get to the point where players can be traded without consent.
“You are guaranteed tenure and you are guaranteed finance, so your participation in the AFL is guaranteed, but you are not guaranteed the geography and the club.
“So if Hawthorn wanted to move (players), for the good of their aspirations and planning, they are able to move (them).”
SEN Chief Reporter Sam Edmund can’t see the AFL Players Association giving ground on the issue, however.
“The AFLPA with this speak with a tone that suggests that this isn’t coming in any time soon,” he said.
Whateley however believes this is worth investing in, even if a trade-off needs to be found, which would likely be a large increase to the salary cap.
“Are we going to hold back player mobility to the point which we just experienced? Which was intolerable for every stakeholder, most of all the fans,” he said.
“It takes a cultural shift and it takes a financial shift as well. I think you have to wash more money through the salary cap to have that be agreeable.
“Are we going to hold that back forever because we either don’t have the stomach or the imagination for it?
“Or are we going to go ‘this is what modern professional sport looks like, it’s time to get moving’.
“If Luke Breust had gone to Hawthorn and said ‘I’m out, I want to be traded’, then he goes. So why not the other way around?
“The case study we just lived through was a regression to older times, is that really where we want to reside? It feels to me like everybody was dissatisfied with it – from the players down.
“The more it’s hyper-charged, the better it is for the game.”