The give-and-take theory: How it actually works between AFL player agents and clubs
As one club insider says, there have always been ‘suspicious theories’ about player agents. So, how does it actually work? Who pulls the strings? Who takes a cut? We take you inside footy’s player movement ecosystem.
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Ask those in list management at an AFL club and they will tell you about suspicions they have about player managers.
It’s the give-and-take theory.
That a manager will look after a club down the line if they help out by doing a deal for a player in their management stable.
Maybe the next big star on the move will take a longer look at that club, or maybe the club will never get a look in with the manager again.
But ask those club list types for specific examples and they are hard to come by.
“There has always been suspicious theories about people being helped,” one veteran of the list management space said.
Scott Gullan tells a great story about last year’s trade period where Connors Sports duo Paul Connors and Robbie D’Orazio got their hands dirty as the deadline approached.
With their client Jake Stringer’s move to GWS hitting a snag, it was highlighted to the Bombers who they also represented - Luke Davies-Uniacke. Any dragging of their feet could cost them any chance of a meeting with the upcoming free agent.
As Scotty says, the words ‘you stuff this up, you’re not getting in front of LDU’ were heard at Trade HQ.
A few minutes later, Stringer was officially a Giant.
EXCLUSIVE LIST: THE AGENT BEHIND EVERY AFL PLAYER REVEALED
Whether threats are real or not, it is real that clubs respect and work in concert with player agents when possible.
And a cursory look at the numbers of players in such management stables explains why.
TGI Sport (formerly TLA) remains the biggest player in the field in terms of sheer numbers, with more than 160 players on AFL lists, while Connors Sports has about 150.
Those numbers alone equate to more than a third of the market.
Those in list management see it as a relationship.
Unlike when you buy something off a random person in your inbox on Facebook Marketplace and can archive the chat history, the clubs and managers may go toe-to-toe on a contract one day and have to chat amicably about the next deal a day later.
But even through all the bluster of negotiations, where some deride managers as like used car salesmen, one club figure suggested “common sense always gets players to their market value”.
When club figures were asked about the most influential figures in the management space, the two heads of those two biggest players, Petroro (TGI) and Connors were named as the clear pair on top.
Petroro has a deep round of experience and an even deeper list of star players, as he works through a Marcus Bontempelli extension, while juggling names like Andrew Brayshaw, Ed Richards, Matt Rowell, Sam Darcy and Zach Merrett.
One Petroro player said he “isn’t slippery, he doesn’t have that used car sales vibe”.
“He plays it well for his client and his inclination is for his players to stay at their clubs,” the client said.
His team at TGI includes the likes of sharp dealmaker Matt Bain, Adam Ramanauskas, Dylan Hodge, Jason Dover, Luke Morabito, Tim Lawrence and Michael Doughty.
One club list figure said Doughty “gets it”.
“He fights for the best for his client but from a communication point of view, he gets it,” the figure said.
Connors manages established stars like Patrick Dangerfield, Toby Greene and Bailey Smith.
His top off-sider Robbie D’Orazio has the Daicos and De Koning brothers in his list.
Julian Petracca, the brother of Melbourne superstar Christian, left Hemisphere last year to join Connors, bringing young guns with him like Aaron Cadman and Massimo D’Ambrosio, while he also already has a handful of likely first-round picks in this year’s draft.
Connors agent Nick Gieschen is well respected by clubs and has Harley Reid on his books, as well as Nick Watson.
“Me and Giesch are pretty close, it’s different for every (player) but I knew him when I was 16 and he manages a lot of my close mates as well,” Watson told Nova 100 last month.
“I’m pretty close with the whole Connors crew.”
It stands to reason if you deal with the big firms in the right way, it at least won’t hurt next time.
One club figure suggested there were eyes focused on Geelong and its potential recruiting of Connors players after Dangerfield headed there in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2022 that the Cats traded in Connors clients, with Jack Bowes and Tanner Bruhn joining the club then.
Bailey Smith followed last year.
Other major stables include Kapital, of which John Meesen holds the largest amount of clients.
Meesen shrewdly steered Jack Ginnivan to Hawthorn in 2023, moving one the game’s most watched players under the noses of the trade period spotlight without anybody noticing.
Anthony and Tom McConville run Mac’s Sports with former Richmond great Brett Deledio.
Ex-Essendon goalkicking star Scott Lucas shares duties of more than 50 players at Phoenix Management with Winston Rouse.
Tim Hazell takes charge of the most names at Vivid Sport, while David Trotter has a deep pool on the almost 70 names at Hemisphere Management.
In West Australia, Andrew McDougall and Tom Seccull have formed a formidable team this year at Corporate Sports Australia.
Colin Young left Corporate Sports to start up Young Guns and remains an industry force.
But bigger isn’t always better.
Ben Williams is the sole agent at Players Ink and has built a roll call of stars in recent weeks, gaining so much traction he was shouted out by St Kilda CEO Carl Dilena on a recent podcast for driving a good bargain around Saints star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.
Williams also has star clients like Isaac Heeney, Errol Gulden, Jason Horne-Francis, Riley Thilthorpe and Connor Rozee.
Anthony Van Der Wielen may only have a handful of players at Empire Sport but one club figure pondered whether he had a claim as the best manager in the business after brokering the blockbuster seven-year extension that will see Kysaiah Pickett earn around $12 million over the next decade at Melbourne.
While agents work all year round to help their clients, October and November are the busiest times with the trade and draft period.
It is not uncommon for an agent to broker trade deals between clubs as the hours tick down on deadline day and they often run through the corridors at Marvel Stadium as a go-between to get deals done.
“They are all good blokes and it is their job (to fight for players) they are not there to do charity work,” a club figure said.
PLAYER MOVEMENT
Agents do a lot of hard work during the trade period but there is a signing period always running in their own world.
When players want to leave one agency and take their talents to another, they inform the current manager then usually draft up a docusign and swap over.
The player might move, but they leave behind their contract.
A contract negotiated with a manager and agency stays there, even if the player has since departed.
Dan Houston signed a whopping six-year deal thanks to Gieschen at Connors Sports last year but then left to join James Jarvis’ start-up Mercury.
Connors will continue to take the 4 per cent earnings off that deal.
It was well publicised Christian Petracca left Connors Sports and now works with Anna Scullie, but his long-term deal stays where it was signed.
Giants jet Finn Callaghan signed bumper four-year deal in February, brokered by Seccull at Hemisphere.
Seccull has since departed Hemisphere for Corporate Sports Australia and still has Callaghan as a client, but his earnings from that contract will stay at Hemisphere.
Players leave agents when they feel they haven’t been looked after or they are missing out, and in the modern era of marketability, several players lean on extra PR help to earn more off the field.
“It depends how much you give them as well, it is a two-way street,” Watson said.
BIG BUSINESS
One win about the standard practice of a player manager collecting 4 per cent of a club contract is that as the AFL salary cap booms, that 4 per cent booms with it.
As one club list veteran opined when asked about the business, if the average player salary nears $500,000, that is $20,000 a year to the manager.
In 2025, the salary cap limit at each club was $17.7 million, of which 4 per cent is $708,000.
When some stables have more than 150 names, that can be big business.
Agents take a cut of usually 20 per cent on deals down outside of playing contracts, such as promotions.
Some agents can make strong coin when a partner in an agency, many others are on set salaries, and commission from their specific clients go into the company pool.
Originally published as The give-and-take theory: How it actually works between AFL player agents and clubs
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