Dillon: Draft and free agency measures 'on the table' to fix equalisation

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon has confirmed that the league is looking at ways of making the competition more equal amongst the 18 sides.

With last year's draft seeing four bids made for either a father-son or academy selection within the first six picks, alongside issues with free agency and the fixture has resulted in there being a clear gulf between sides.

That unevenness was further evident between the top nine and the bottom nine last year, with the ninth-placed Western Bulldogs being five wins ahead of the 11th-placed Carlton.

With growing calls from the football public for changes to be made, Dillon noted that they're already looking at ways of speeding up the rebuild process.

“Equalisation is an important plank of the competition,” the AFL CEO said on SEN’s Whateley.

“We want fans at the games, we want them watching or streaming, so it's certainly a look for us.

“One of the things that we are looking at, led by Greg Swann and his team, is the amount of time it takes if you want to do the rebuild.

“We've got a couple of teams like Richmond, for example, who’ve sort of stripped right back, and at the moment, I don't think, even though they're sort of (got) green shoots and the like, I don't think they are where they would like to be.

“They've probably still got, on what I can see, without anything else being different, a couple of hard years ahead of them, and that will test the patience of their fans, notwithstanding they had such a golden era from sort of ‘17 to ‘20."

One of the options that the AFL is currently considering is making tweaks to its free agency framework.

“Free agency (is) one of them,” he continued.

“We've got a collective agreement coming up with the players, which we'll be negotiating this year and next year.

“That will be one of the things that's certainly on the table.”

Dillon also explained they would be looking to announce changes to make bids for father-sons and academy picks even harder to allow for talent to be spread more evenly.

“I think that is one part of it,” he acknowledged.

“But the draft is an important part of equalisation, but as I said, it's only one part.

“You've got trade, you've got free agency, and then you've got the fixture, you've got how the players are developed once they get to their clubs.

“I think all of those things are in the mix. But if we go back to the draft with father-son, NGAs, Northern Academies, I think what's become really clear over the last couple of years is that (with) the draft value index, the clubs have worked out a way to not manipulate it but use it to their advantage.

“So, we're in the process, and we're not far off making some changes there which will still allow clubs access to those talented players if they're either a father-son or an academy player.

"But they will pay a much closer to the fair price under the draft value index."