AFL trades day two as it happened: Tigers’ Graham compensation revealed; Worsfold back at Eagles

That’s day two of the official AFL trade period done and dusted.

While only two trades kicked off the exchange period on Monday, Tuesday was even quieter on the official front as clubs would have spent most of the day digesting some of the discussions they’d had with each on other on the first day. Now there are arguably many more scenarios to consider over the next eight days of trade action.

The move of two-time Richmond premiership player Jack Graham to West Coast (via free agency) was confirmed, but that was really only a matter of finalising the paperwork. Most interestingly, however, West Coast announced that premiership coach John Worsfold was returning as the club’s new head of football, overseeing the men’s and women’s programs out west.

We’ll be back with you on Wednesday as the wheeling and dealing continues. To while away the hours until then, you can listen to our Real Footy podcast from 6.15pm AEDT, via all good podcast apps, and stay tuned to our website for news and analysis from the best in the business.

Enjoy your evening and keep thinking about how your club’s list can get better.

Good night.

It’s called a trade window, but it’s not really a window. It’s an opening with a blind pulled down over it, beneath which everyone inside keeps peeping out, and everyone outside keeps watching out for shadows. And so we end up with the Clayton Oliver debacle.

Unarguably, Melbourne’s leaders have handled the whole episode poorly, and it is not over yet. Nor has Oliver covered himself in glory. All of which left list manager Tim Lamb in an impossible position when he faced media on Monday. But the underlying problem is the system, itself.

Read more from GREG BAUM

In the eye: Clayton Oliver.Credit: Paul Rovere/Artwork by Aresna Villanueva

READER QUESTION:

• From Evan: Surely the compo system is broken when players are worth more via compensation picks than if they were part of a trade. In a world where picks are the currency, how is the Hawks getting a player for free [Josh Battle] and 16 other clubs being punished in the draft order a fair outcome?

MARC MCGOWAN: First of all I hate free agency compensation, I really hate it. I think the point is made really well by Evan.

Other clubs should not be punished… to compensate a club that is losing a player. It goes both ways – if you look at American sports, the NBA has no compensation, the NFL has a different type of compensation. But it’s certainly not as rich and beneficial as it is in the AFL.

Battle has got a six-year deal, which is worth somewhere above 850 thousand, not quite 900 –that’s my understanding. Now that’s big money, no doubt. But I wasn’t expecting this to be band one [compensation] because I think we all thought to get band one part of the deal, the money would have to be north of 950, and it certainly isn’t that.

PETER RYAN: I think St Kilda are entitled to think ‘well every club has had their bonus, and this is our chance’. But that doesn’t explain the system.

Also, I’m not sure it answers Evan’s question, but I think four of his first five words are most pertinent. He said “surely the compo system is broken”. I think we can remove “surely” and just say “the compo system is broken”. It does need to have someone address it.

HEAR MORE EXPERT ANALYSIS IN THE LATEST PODCAST:

West Coast premiership coach John Worsfold is heading back to the club.

The club has just announced that Worsfold will take up the position of head of football, working across the men’s and women’s programs.

“The West Coast Eagles are pleased to announce that premiership player and coach John Worsfold will return to the club ahead of season 2025,” the club said in a statement.

“John will assume the full-time role as ‘head of Football – West Coast Eagles’ and work across the entirety of the club’s football programs and teams.”

Andrew McQualter was appointed West Coast’s new senior coach two days after the grand final.

Jake Stringer has a call to make on his future.Credit: Getty Images

You asked, we deliver. Here is a rundown of the AFL’s free agency compensation system.

Compensation

When clubs lose a free agent to a decent contract offer from another club they are compensated by the AFL with a draft pick. This doesn’t always happen – for instance if a club brings in a free agent of similar value in the same year it loses a free agent, the net effect balances out – so no compensation is awarded. If, like St Kilda or GWS, a club loses a free agent (e.g. Josh Battle or Harry Perryman) and do not bring one in, it will be compensated with a draft pick. In the cases of Battle and Perryman, both the Saints and Giants received a pick after their first-round draft picks.

How can the compensation pick be so high for some players?

The short answer is the size of the contract they are getting is higher than the club has been letting on. It makes for a disconnect when players that would not be considered in the top handful at the club they are leaving draw a top 10 draft pick as compensation. The key reason for this is the draft system – compensation is tied to a club’s draft position. If Battle had moved to Brisbane, the Saints’ compensation would only have been pick 19. But St Kilda finished low on the ladder and the compensation was tied to that. This isn’t St Kilda’s fault. Though as Geelong football manager Andrew Mackie hinted, the criticisms by St Kilda president Andrew Bassat of the AFL’s father-son and academy bidding system and the overall AFL draft system were serendipitously timed.

Who decides what the compensation is?

The AFL’s football department uses a formula that generates a point rating for players. The league deliberately keeps that relatively secret to try to avoid abuse or manipulation of the rules by clubs.

What do we know about the formula?

The league considers the size of a player’s contract at his new club – which is the average annual earnings for the player over the life of the contract, not just the size of the contract in any one year – and the age of the player. The AFL changed the rules this year – the formula no longer considers the life of contracts beyond five years, nor short-term ones of less than two years. So effectively, giving a player a longer-term contract beyond five years will not affect compensation. Nor will trying to offer a very high one- or two-year deal to draw a favourable compensation pick. Restricted free agents – where the original club has the right to match a player’s contract offer and therefore force their rivals to trade for the player instead of getting them as a free agent – are most vulnerable to exploitation by clubs. That is, a club can try to ensure the contract they offer a restricted free agent is big enough that it draws a good draft pick as compensation – and dissuades the original club from matching the contract.

The AFL then has five bands in which it allocates draft picks as compensation:

• First round
• End of first round
• Second round
• End of second round
• Third round

With the rise in the salary cap under the latest collective bargaining agreement, the amount needed to pay a player to generate a first-round compensation pick also rose. It is now clear that Battle and Perryman were given contracts that averaged close to or above $900,000 a year, because they drew band one compensation and a pick in the first round.

“Traditionally, the two determinants for free agency compensation have been guaranteed average earnings and age. They’ll continue. What we’re introducing is the term of the contract moving forward,” AFL head of football performance Ned Guy told the AFL website in August after the AFL Commission passed changes to the contract term in free agency compensation.

Is it fair that other clubs fall back in the draft because another club loses a player?

No. But that is the system. If you abandon compensation altogether for losing a free agent then you might as well abandon restricted free agents altogether as every club would match a free agency bid and force a trade. Besides, clubs wouldn’t agree to losing players for no compensation, even if they hate it when their draft pick gets pushed back because someone else is compensated.

Now that we know what Richmond will be getting as compensation for Jack Graham’s free agency move to West Coast, we have updated our interactive draft order. Have a look below – don’t forget you can also see the club-by-club selections.