When is the 2020 AFL trade period and when will the draft be?
Experts are promising the craziest off-season player exchange in history as 2020 continues to go off script. Now, finally, we have some intel on when the trade madness will begin.
Sport
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The AFL will forge ahead with a conventional trade and free agency period starting on October 23 as it prepares for the craziest off-season player exchange in history.
The league plans a conventional 10-day trade period as well as a free agency period that will start on the Friday after this year’s delayed Grand Final.
If the Grand Final is not delayed from the scheduled October 17 date, free agency would start on October 23, followed by the trade period on Monday October 26.
That trade period will again run through to the following Wednesday November 4, with a night finish to the trade period again expected.
Last year the free agency period ran 13 days, taking in a final three-day period for clubs to match bids.
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It means the league’s trade period will intersect with the Melbourne Spring Carnival, with Flemington’s Melbourne Cup scheduled for November 3.
If the Grand Final is delayed the league will simply push those dates back as many weeks as it needs.
The AFL national draft is not set in stone but is likely to take place in early December, with Year 12 exams meaning it cannot be brought forward given the league needs students to finish schooling before they are selected.
There are still roughly 350 players out of contract, with clubs not yet given an updated total player payments figure for the 2021 season.
But with AFL clubs increasingly bullish about their finances, the AFLPA remains steadfast that it has been given no good reason to reduce the salary cap of $13.273 million plus $1.194 million in additional services agreements (marketing).
Some of the AFL’s elder statesmen have only six or seven weeks to prove their worth as clubs consider whether they have to make list cuts if the league reduces numbers on lists.
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