Wreck It Ralph: Why free agency has become an unmitigated disaster as a player movement mechanism
The idea of free agency was worthy when it was introduced at the end of 2012. Now it’s become a dog’s breakfast where players get rich and have all the leverage in the world, writes Jon Ralph.
The advent of free agency has helped football’s stars get richer than their wildest dreams but as a player movement mechanism it has been an unmitigated disaster.
Jordan Ridley, Charlie Curnow and Zach Merrett are attempting to escape their clubs but are instead trapped in long-term deals that have made them wealthy but desperately unhappy.
The idea of free agency was worthy when introduced at the end of 2012 to give players unprecedented flexibility to move clubs — for success, money or a return to their home state.
The execution of it has been a dog’s breakfast.
Consider its legacy and the unintended consequences it has forced upon the AFL and its clubs.
It has led to ridiculously long deals like Aaron Naughton’s eight-year extension forced upon clubs because of impending free agency that we might as well call the pre-agency tariff.
The desperate club fears that their best players might hit free agency unsigned has given stars the ultimate leverage as pre-agents seven seasons into their careers.
It has required clubs to match those insane deals fully aware they are dangerously exposed to a player’s career-ending concussion that the AFL will not allow them to exempt from their salary caps.
It has seen clubs like West Coast forced into unenviable decisions to gently nudge their co-captain Oscar Allen out of the door for the free agency compensation bonanza that awaits.
It has allowed delisted players to find their club of choice much more easily.
But ask clubs like North Melbourne chasing delisted free agent Tyson Stengle in late 2021 what they think of it as a competitive balance measure given he joined powerhouse Geelong and won a premiership as a 2022 All-Australian.
In the past 10 years of free agency the Roos have secured just Aidan Corr as a genuine free agent (as well as delisted free agents Toby Pink, Hugh Greenwood, Josh Walker and Alex Morgan) while this year alone premiers Brisbane will pick up Allen and Sam Draper.
Geelong secured Stengle, Luke Dahlhaus, Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron (although eventually forced into trades for the latter pair) and a veteran called Isaac Smith who took home the Norm Smith Medal.
Its inflationary effect has allowed players like Jack Silvagni (with one top 10 best and fairest finish in his career) and Essendon’s Draper (who doesn’t have a top 12 b-and-f finish) to accept deals of over $4m this season.
And it has led to the kind of six-year deals Charlie Curnow signed to give away his free agency rights, seeking security over any form of flexibility in the back-end of his career.
Carlton will desperately attempt to hold Curnow to his deal (unless they get a better trade offer) arguing that he chose to sign that deal and can accept its long-term consequences.
In Curnow’s defence it would have been negligent for him and his management not to sign a long-term deal given the concerns over his knee.
But he is properly stuck — unless Gold Coast decides centre half forward Ethan Read getting badly beaten in successive finals is the trigger for them to fall in love with Curnow.
The problem for Essendon stars Ridley and Merrett is that free agency gave both of them an incentive to sign away any flexibility even if they had concerns about their futures at the Hangar.
Merrett might have jumped ship back in 2021 but instead Essendon’s only final berth in the past six years coincided with his season of free agency.
By a fluke of timing he falsely thought Essendon might have a bright future.
After some equivocation he re-signed with Essendon in June that year months ahead of that finals berth and given rival free agency offers he locked himself in for six years.
Not a two-year deal to unrestricted free agency (and total control of his destiny) but a whopper with the lot through to 2027.
He re-signed in June 2021, Essendon then squeaked into finals with an 11-11 win-loss record and was bashed up by the Dogs in another elimination finals demolition (49 points).
The club hasn’t played finals since.
Ironically, the Dons trumpeted his signing on their website as “Merrett a Bomber for Life”.
Remarkably, Ridley has actually signed three contract extensions since October 2020.
In 2020 after a Crichton Medal victory the key defender signed a four-year deal to free agency in 2024.
Then only a year later in September 2021 he extended his deal by two seasons to 2026 after another bumper season.
Then in February 2024 he signed on for a further three seasons to 2029, saying he was “proud to have the opportunity to play for such a great club for such a long time”.
So Ridley willingly signed away his restricted free agency rights, then signed away his unrestricted free agency rights, but now wants out because Essendon is ordinary.
He is right — they are ordinary.
But the club would have every right to say that having made the conscious choice three times since October 2020 to extend his contract, they will hold him to it.
Both Merrett and Ridley would make the case that there is no prospect of success in the near future at Essendon.
They might say they have been sold a pup.
Essendon went all in recruiting Jake Stringer, Dylan Shiel and Devon Smith then rebuilt again, then went all in with Ben McKay, Todd Goldstein and Jade Gresham and is now rebuilding again.
All of that is true, but at some stage clubs who have given everything to their players might just decide that they have to suck it up.
Hawthorn has so many attractive players and quality draft picks that there is a world in which the Dons extract a first-choice ruckman in Ned Reeves, a top-10 pick this year and a first or second-rounder next year from the Hawks.
But there is also a scenario where Essendon decides that Zach Merrett is stripped of the captaincy next year and effectively plays as a football consultant.
Christian Petracca’s situation was just as dire this time last year at Melbourne as he desperately tried every trick in the book to get out.
And yet last week he finished second in the Melbourne best-and-fairest, joking that he had bounced back this year because he was paid to do it.
He quickly backed over that remark by stating footy was also his passion, but if Essendon did hold the line Merrett would find a way to contribute next year under new captain Andrew McGrath.
Then Essendon could trade him in a much better draft or both parties could fall back in love if the Dons are much-improved.
Petracca found himself in exactly the same scenario as Curnow, signing his six-year extension to 2029 in mid-2021 when was footy’s most dynamic mid-forward.
The following year his premiership accomplice in Clayton Oliver followed the same pre-agency playbook, with Oliver signing a seven-year deal to 2030.
Now the Demons are due a combined $3m to those two players in coming years — plus $1.4m a year to Kysaiah Pickett.
It looks like a misfire.
But Melbourne’s only other choice was to let those contracts drift to free agency and either let players walk for a single late first-rounder or pay even more to secure them.
Free agency forces clubs to make binding decisions on the form of players 6-8 years into the future, aware the only other alternative is to lose them to rivals who will pay them.
Players deserve every dollar they can get because they put on the show and their careers can be over at any minute.
But these past free seasons have also been full of prosperity.
Players will enjoy a 37 per cent pay rise from 2023-2027 that far exceeds the meagre pay rises — if any — across the community.
They are shielded by policies like the Illicit drugs code which protects their identities if they transgress where many in the community might lose their jobs in similar circumstances.
They sign vast long-term deals that do not require them to pay back money if they underperform.
Essendon has twice increased Merrett’s deal but it has no capacity to dock the pay of anyone else on the Dons list for their below-par performances.
But for all those vast privileges the flip side is that clubs can hold them to those deals.
It is ridiculously early in the trade process to suggest that is the only outcome for Essendon with Merrett and Ridley and Carlton with Curnow.
But both of their coaches know that if players are guaranteed their contracts they can be sacked at a moment’s notice.
It would take only an ounce more bad luck for an Essendon team without Merrett, Ridley, Draper and ACL victim Nic Martin to finish bottom four again and heap untold pressure on Brad Scott.
Michael Voss will be unlikely to survive another year without finals.
So while player power has given the current-day stars so many advantages the only negative — signing your life away to your current club — has come back to bite this trio of potential escapees on the butt.
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Originally published as Wreck It Ralph: Why free agency has become an unmitigated disaster as a player movement mechanism
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