Matt Rendell and Stephen Silvagni have outlined how they would change the current AFL free agency system.
Under the model currently in place, players earning salaries in the top 25 per cent at their clubs become eligible for restricted free agency once they come out of contract, as long as they’ve been at their current club for at least eight years.
Meanwhile, all other players are eligible for unrestricted free agency as long as they’ve served eight years at one club.
Calling for a major overhaul of the current system – which allows restricted free agents to have an offer matched to force a trade – Rendell wants to see all the “rubbish” eliminated from the current system.
“I like free agency so let’s get rid of all the rubbish out of it,” he said on AFL Trade Radio’s Late Trade.
“Let’s make free agency nine years (on a list), eight years is too short for clubs because some players are 26 and sometimes younger – they are right in their prime.
“Nine years, there’s no compo and they can go wherever they want … under the present rules if you get delisted by a club and another club picks you up, you don’t become a free agent until you’ve done eight years at that particular club.
“I don’t care how many clubs you’ve been to, you should qualify after nine years in the system and there should be no compensation either.”
When asked what he would change about the current system, Silvagni said successful clubs should be restricted by the number of free agents they can sign over a two or three year period.
He also floated the radical suggestion of handing clubs more power, allowing them to trade any free agent they happen to pick up.
“You should be able to limit the amount of free agents to the top clubs,” he said.
“For someone like West Coast, Geelong and Richmond – they’ve been in the top eight for four years; Richmond has Tom Lynch so they could only be able to take one free agent in three years.
“The bottom 10 clubs, they could be entitled to a free agent every year.
“The other one is, if you reduce the time of free agency to six or seven years, if you pick up a free agent then at any time that free agent could be traded to another team in the competition.
“If you sign a long-term contract, then that club could trade you at any time – the only thing that does is means free agency (opens up) but it gives clubs some power.”