Hamish Hartlett expects AFL clubs will be free to trade contracted players in the future
PORT Adelaide’s Hamish Hartlett blocked his club’s attempts to trade him to a rival club at the end of last year but he expects clubs will be able to freely trade contracted players in the future.
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PORT Adelaide star Hamish Hartlett expects free trading of contracted players in AFL, but well after he has retired.
Hartlett, 26, denied the Power the chance to unload his long-term contract to AFL rivals — in particular Richmond and Essendon — by blocking all trade options in last year’s AFL player market.
But as the AFL takes on more and more professional sports concepts — such as free agency for seasoned players wanting to change clubs — Hartlett senses free trading of contracted players between the 18 league clubs is inevitable.
Current AFL rules forbid contracts being onpassed to rival clubs without the player’s permission, a theme AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan wants to protect.
“We are still a long, long way from that (free trading) but from what I can see the AFL is following those type of American trends,” Hartlett said in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail reflecting on his tumultuous weeks in the AFL trade period last October.
“I’ll be well and truly out of the game by the time that comes around.”
Hartlett is uncertain how he would have reacted had Port Adelaide had the right to sell his five-year contract — that expires in 2021 — to the Tigers or Bombers without his approval.
“You just don’t know how you are going to respond in different environments,” Hartlett said. “It is a very tough question to answer — and one I won’t have to worry about.”
Hartlett on Friday started his ninth season at Alberton with a new role on the field as a halfback at the Power’s internal trial, a new attitude that is to emphasise more positivity and the hope he does not regret staying at Port Adelaide.
Only time — and comparing results at Richmond and Essendon in the next five years — will answer the question of whether Hartlett was right to insist on staying at Alberton while the Port Adelaide team management suggested he look to a new club.
“It probably depends on how the other teams go,” Hartlett said. “But my decision to stay at Port Adelaide is based on giving myself every chance to be at the club where I want to be successful with the group of players I want as my teammates.
“I can’t doubt myself now.”
Hartlett is carrying no scar from being put on the AFL trade market.
“I still love (football) to death,” Hartlett said. “It is my No.1 passion in life. I love getting to the club every day. I love training. I love getting around the playing group as much as possible.
“As a kid, the perception of being an AFL footballer is very different to actually living it out. You don’t understand the amount of work that goes into the training and behind the scenes. But I still love doing it — so I am still living the dream.”
Originally published as Hamish Hartlett expects AFL clubs will be free to trade contracted players in the future
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