AFL mid-year player trades about to ‘fall over’ amid fears it ‘would clearly favour Victorian clubs’

There are growing fears the AFL’s plan for mid-season player movement is falling over as non-Victorian clubs complain the system would favour Victorian sides.

For many years the AFL has floated the idea of a mid-season trade period, much like the off-season one, allowing players to switch guernseys if they are willing to make the move.

And while it has been expected for some time the system would be introduced for 2025, the Herald Sun’s Jay Clark reported on Wednesday night there is heavy resistance from non-Victorian clubs who believe the mechanics are too complex and in the end, players would be more likely to move to Victorian teams anyway.

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“For the past 12 months we’ve been thinking this is gonna come in and be exciting – players moving clubs in the middle of the season. But it might just fall over at the final hurdle,” Clark explained on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.

“The green light could become a red light over the next few weeks. Speaking to clubs over the last few weeks who’ve been doing these workshops with the AFL as part of the competitive balance review, it’s like alright, time to roll the sleeves up, how do the rules actually work? How can you actually trade players mid-season?

“And the northern clubs and interstate clubs in particular are saying it would clearly favour Victorian clubs. Because if you’re gonna move clubs in the middle of the season, and you’ve got kids, are you gonna go from Carlton to Collingwood, Western Bulldogs to St Kilda, or are you gonna pack up your kids and go to Brisbane? You’re just not gonna.

“There’s also big ramifications around salary caps. Just say St Kilda want LDU (Luke Davies-Uniacke) and they’re gonna pay him $1.3 million a year; where does that room in the salary cap come from? It was a good idea in theory but I think the player-for-player movement is almost dead in the water, or that’s what clubs are saying. It might become a thing where it’s picks only, which is less exciting.”

Mid-season trades for players would still require the clubs and players involved to consent, and the clubs giving up the player would be getting something in return.

But the stonewalling from the non-Victorian clubs, which could lead to a much less interesting picks-only trade period, was described as “the biggest backflip I can remember” by the Herald Sun’s Sam Landsberger.

He questioned whether putting restrictions on the mid-year period, ensuring only fringe players who aren’t getting senior games can move, would help it get across the line.

“There’s a really simple way to do it. So you make it a lifeline for players that aren’t getting a game – for example you have a cut-off, if you’ve played say five state league games and no more than three AFL games, then you can be traded between clubs,” Landsberger said on Fox Footy.

“(Fringe players only) absolutely, the biggest concern for a mid-season trade period is the fact you’d suck the life out of the second half of the season, because you’d have the top clubs picking off stars from the bottom clubs. That’s the argument you get. So you don’t want Liam Baker and Cam Zurhaar and these players being picked off.

“But if it was for fringe players – Caleb Daniel, Nick Haynes, Jarryd Lyons, Angus Sheldrick, Rory Lobb, which are these guys who can’t get a crack in the ones at their club, genuine fringe players that it can provide an opportunity to say ‘hey, I’m not in my best 22, but I’d be in the best 22 at another club’, I think that would work.”

Clark asked: “What if Caleb Daniel wants to move clubs mid-season and it falls over? When he pulls the Bulldogs jumper on again, how do the fans react?”

Landsberger responded: “We’ve seen players request trades all the time and it falls over … any Western Bulldogs fan would have no issue with Caleb Daniel returning because they’d understand why he’s doing it.”

Their colleague Lauren Wood asked why the AFL was “so scared of failure”.

“This isn’t like America where players are traded particularly against their will, we may have players who want to move. Just give it a go – if it doesn’t work, we wind it back,” she said.