Kane Cornes is worried about the AFL’s supplemental selection period and the impact it is having on state-level competitions, particularly the SANFL.
Clubs are allowed to fill vacant list spots between now and March 9th with players who missed out on the draft or who were recently delisted.
Naturally, a lot of these players have agreements in place with state and suburban footy teams.
Players from the SANFL, WAFL, VFL and elsewhere have been invited to train with AFL sides in a bid to earn a list spot and South Adelaide ruckman Paul Hunter became the most recent to receive the opportunity.
The former Adelaide player agreed to join St Kilda’s training group this week as the Saints look to fill one of two available list spots.
South Adelaide is a team that has been particularly ravaged by the supplemental selection period and the mid-season draft in recent years and Cornes believes the AFL must bring the signing deadline forward to Christmas so state-level sides aren’t picked apart on the eve of the season.
“Since the implementation of the rules, this is a statement from South Adelaide, allowing AFL clubs greater flexibility in selecting players, the following South Adelaide ruckmen have been selected: 2018, Keegan Brooksby went to West Coast, 2019 Hayden McLean went to Sydney and Michael Knoll also went to Sydney and 2020 Keegan Brooksby again to Hawthorn and now Paul Hunter (to St Kilda),” Cornes told SEN SA Breakfast.
“The AFL has to put a stop to this. There is one, maybe two advantages you can have as an AFL footy club given the even nature of the competition.
“The biggest one you can have is having a good list management strategy and the AFL clubs get four or five opportunities to finalise their list and has to be done before Christmas.
“You cannot have AFL clubs ravaging the lower leagues, who have already been smashed by a pandemic and had their salary cap cut in half.
“The AFL clubs have got the delisted free agency period, they’ve got a draft, they’ve got a pre-season opportunity to top up, they’ve got the rookie list to top up and now they have until March 9th on the eve of the SANFL season to ravage SANFL clubs.
“It is a joke and along with the rookie list rules in the AFL, this is something that must change because it’s going to ruin the pathways.
“If the AFL doesn’t care about the SANFL and the WAFL and whatever, well that’s a disgrace.”
The Saints recently added to their list, signing former North Melbourne forward Mason Wood.
Players currently training at AFL clubs
Adelaide (one list spot): Nick Murray (Williamstown), Ayce Taylor (delisted Crow)
Carlton (one list spot): Oscar McDonald (Melbourne), Callum Moore (delisted Blue), Zavier Maher (Murray Bushrangers)
Collingwood (two list spots): Jack Briskey (Sherwood Magpies, Queensland)
Essendon (two list spots): Angus Baker (Canberra), Charlie Byrne (Murray Bushrangers), Alec Waterman (Claremont)
Hawthorn (two list spots): Will Bravo (Dandenong Stingrays), Jackson Callow (Norwood)
Melbourne (three list spots): Kobe Farmer (Peel Thunder), Deakyn Smith (Dandenong Stingrays)
North Melbourne (one list spot): Flynn Appleby (Collingwood), Sam Skinner (Brisbane)
Richmond (two list spots): Nick Couroupis (West Adelaide), Jordan Gallucci (Williamstown), Josh Green (Marist AFC, ACT), Rhyan Mansell (Woodville-West Torrens), Derek Eggmolesse-Smith (delisted Tiger)
St Kilda (two list spots): Paul Hunter (South Adelaide)
West Coast: Will Collins (Swan Districts), Cedric Cox (West Coast, WAFL), Nic Martin (Subiaco)
Western Bulldogs (two list spots): Ewan Macpherson (Northern Knights), Corey Preston (Eastern Ranges), Anthony Scott (Footscray)