AFL legend Malcolm Blight says free agency is working as Suns CEO Mark Evans questions its success
AFL legend Malcolm Blight says Gary Ablett arrived at the Suns on the same principals as free agency and the system shouldn’t be touched now because the club stands to lose Tom Lynch.
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AFL legend Malcolm Blight says Gary Ablett arrived at the Suns on the same principals as free agency and the system shouldn’t be touched now because the club stands to lose Tom Lynch.
Suns CEO Mark Evans has questioned if free agency, introduced in 2012, is failing the game but Blight, a former director of coaching at Gold Coast, said the hysteria around the issue was unwarranted.
Gold Coast lured Ablett to the club at the end of 2010 on the back of special concessions from the AFL that delivered Geelong Round 1 and 2 compensation picks.
“This is what the players wanted,” Blight said.
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“Everyone is entitled to work the way they want to do it. Tom has made the decision and it’s sad for the Gold Coast but life goes on. Hopefully they will get some compensation and get another good player in.
“A hell of a lot of players get spoken about with free agency but not many actually leave. When you look at the numbers it’s not rife that when guys become free agents they walk. It’s only a small number.
“The Players Association worked hard to get it and I don’t think they would give it up and rightly so.
“Most people in the work environment can change jobs at their leisure. It’s a difficult one when you’re on the end of it but they got Gary Ablett on a similar system.”
Evans free agency was designed to deliver competitive balance and to give players an ability to move clubs but questioned whether the second was nullifying any chance of equalisation.
“There has been a big change in attitudes toward player movement,” Evans said.
“If we like all of those things then somehow the system has to find something that is compensatory.
“There is a compensation if you lose a free agent you do get a compensation pick for that.
“The question is if that enshrines the industry to have two tiers of clubs or three tiers of clubs that’s not going back to the first principle of competitive balance.
“If the system is not right over time it will need to be addressed.”
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