Mandatory contracts ‘restraint of trade’
PIONEERING player manager Craig Kelly says mandatory three-year contracts for first-year draftees would be a restraint of trade that would not solve the problem of early player departures.
The AFL’s two expansion clubs have urged the league to act to help solve the doom loop that sees them battling to retain star players determined to return to heartland clubs.
They are also keen to have three-year deals locked in with responsible pay rises to stop the rapid escalation of salaries that can see third-year players demanding $450,000 to resign.
But Kelly said clubs had to ensure they created stable and successful cultures that meant players wanted to remain at their clubs long after their initial two-year contract.
The 1990 premiership defender built Elite Sports Properties into one of footy’s most dominant player management firms, with the company now labelled TLA and boasting many of the game’s biggest stars.
“The reality is the player movement space is balanced quite well,” Kelly said.
“I think there are enough restraints around the industry in a broad sense that everyone should want some level of free movement of trade. We should want it to be as early and fluid as possible without being what it is in American sports.
“The reality is the minute a player goes early in the draft the club is asking whether you want to extend their contract. If they love where they are, the player will mostly do it. (Jason Horne-Francis) didn’t and probably rightly so.
“Most clubs have players staying for between two to four years and at that point depending on the salary cap discussions (around another extension) happen. But taking the North Melbourne situation (with Horne-Francis) in isolation would be the wrong thing to do.
“The reality is there were a lot of other factors in that situation. There are enough other restraints around, so sometimes if a kid wants to go home, you let him go home.’’
Kelly said the most significant trend of recent seasons was the rise of pre-agency which saw players either traded or handed significant longterm deals after seven seasons 12 months before they hit free agency.