Gold Coast, Brisbane united in calls to address free agency imbalance

BITTER rivals Brisbane and Gold Coast have united to slam free agency, saying it disadvantages expansion clubs and is creating a class divide in the AFL.

BITTER rivals Brisbane and Gold Coast have united to slam free agency, saying it disadvantages expansion clubs and is creating a class divide in the AFL.

With the Suns set to lose captain Tom Lynch to free agency, the two Queensland clubs have urged the AFL to review the rules they say are destroying the competition’s competitive balance.

The Lions have lost Pearce Hanley, Michael Rischitelli and Jared Brennan to the Suns since their inception but that hasn’t made them unsympathetic to their neighbours’ plight.

At the final training session before Saturday’s clash with the Kangaroos at the Gabba, Lions coach Chris Fagan questioned the success of free agency saying it was having the opposite effect to what it was designed for.

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With Lynch leaving the 17th-placed side and likely to join Richmond, Collingwood or Hawthorn, Fagan’s point has merit.

“It’ll be interesting to see where he ends up,” Fagan said.

“If he ends up at one of the top sides in Melbourne, it begs the question whether free agency is actually working.

“What’s tended to happen over the last few years is the better free agents have gone to the clubs in premiership windows, and that was never the way it was intended.

“From a competition perspective, it’s something the AFL need to look at really closely.

“They’re very keen to even up the competition and have every team win 11 games and lose 11 games.

“At the moment it’s not a level playing field.”

Tom Lynch is leaving Gold Coast and Steven May’s future is uncertain. Picture: Mike Batterham

In the past three seasons, Dion Prestia (Richmond), Jaeger O’Meara (Hawthorn) and Gary Ablett (Geelong) have all forced trades out of the Suns.

Fagan said it was a battle Gold Coast and Brisbane constantly faced.

“What you’ve got to try and do, and what we’ve been trying to do, is make your club a good enough place that blokes just don’t want to go,” he said.

“That’s the only bit of control we have over it, so we’ll continue to focus on that.”

Suns CEO Mark Evans said the AFL’s core principle that every club had an equal chance for premiership success, which was supported by the draft and salary cap, was being undermined by free agency.

He said the if the competition wanted to persist with the desire to allow players to move from club to club, which free agency made easier, there had to be greater compensation for the clubs losing players or the gap between the strong and weak clubs would widen.

“If that enshrines the industry to have two or three tiers of clubs, that is not going back to the first principle of competitive balance,’’ he said.

“So if that system is not right over time it will need to be addressed.’’

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