The AFL has revealed that the new formula it will be using to decide free agency compensation in 2015. The formula is based around the size of the contract offered in comparison to the contracts of all players 25 years and over.
In short the compensation will be issued as follows:
1st round pick - contract is within the top 5%
End of 1st round pick - contract is within the next 10%
2nd round pick - contract is within next 15%
End of 2nd round pick - contract within next 20%
However, if the club receiving the compensation is received by a club that also gets another player through free agency than an unexplained points system will be used to determine what, if any, compensation the club will receive.
Once again the AFL have left a particularly grey area in free agency compensation that ensures their ability to manipulate the system to suit their interests as opposed to keeping it fair for all the clubs.
In 2013 Hawthorn lost Lance Franklin through free agency to the biggest contract ever signed in the history of the AFL ($10 million over 9 years). For this Hawthorn received the maximum compensation a club could receive which was a 1st round pick after their first round pick. As Hawthorn won the Grand final in 2013 they only received pick 19 despite losing one of the best players in the AFL at the time. While this wasn't really a big issue for the premiers it did highlight that free agency compensation was not full compensation for the loss of player, or so we thought.
The following year (2014) Hawthorn signed free agent James Frawley from Melbourne on a contract reportedly worth up to $2.2 million over 4 years. While this contract was reasonable in size it was by no means in the top tier of contracts in the AFL. In fact, based on the recently released schedule for the 2015 free agency compensation Frawley's contract would struggle to fit into even the end of 1st round compensation bracket. However, the AFL ensured Melbourne (the ever constantly struggling club) received the highest possible compensation which for them turned out to be pick 3. Essentially Melbourne lost a previous pick 12 in the AFL draft that was a good but not elite player who received a mid-high contract and provided them with a pick that represent the 3rd best available player in the draft. In this case the compensation was higher than the value of the player and shows just how the AFL can manipulate any system they introduce to suit their agenda.
On top of this is the fact that Hawthorn were not penalised in any way because they received their compensation via free agency in 2013 and then obtained a player via free agency in 2014. Had these occurred in the same year Hawthorn would have not received any compensation but once again the free agency compensation system shows how unfair it is for some clubs.
In my own opinion I don't believe there is any place for free agency compensation but all players should be restricted free agents to ensure that if a club wishes to keep a player the other club should be made to trade with them or risk trying to obtain them in the national draft. I am unaware of any other sports that reward compensation for free agent loses, instead it is just recognised as a teams responsibility to keep players where they can and use free agency to replace players they lose.
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