{"id":223575,"date":"2025-10-18T20:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/223575\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T20:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:56:10","slug":"the-battle-lines-have-been-drawn-between-the-clubs-and-players-after-the-botched-move-of-zach-merrett-from-the-essendon-bombers-to-hawthorn-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/223575\/","title":{"rendered":"The battle lines have been drawn between the clubs and players after the botched move of Zach Merrett from the Essendon Bombers to Hawthorn Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

What has changed the landscape significantly in the past decade \u2013 and made the pursuit and trading of contracted players more common \u2013 is the explosion of long-term contracts of seven, eight or nine years for unrealised talents or players in their mid-to-late 20s.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Clubs don\u2019t like those deals much but argue that the desperation for A-grade talent has created a market where either money or tenure (and in modern times, both) have increased to entice a player.<\/p>\n

Managers push for them and the players\u2019 association is comfortable with the trend, its newly appointed CEO James Gallagher \u2013 who spent four years at North Melbourne \u2013 telling SEN on Wednesday they were happy with the status quo.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong-term deals work well both ways,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have concerns from Collingwood about Nick Daicos, who is on a long one, or North having Harry Sheezel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are benefits to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOccasionally, they don\u2019t work out, but that\u2019s not enough to bring in restrictions. Clubs need to have the ability to set up their lists in the right way. For some clubs, that\u2019s long-term deals, and others haven\u2019t gone there. Any restrictions we would be loath to dive into.\u201d<\/p>\n

They argue that for every Charlie Curnow and Christian Petracca<\/a>, there is Merrett and Marshall (and let\u2019s not forget Josh Dunkley and Joe Daniher in recent years, or former Swan Ryan O\u2019Keefe way back in 2008), who are denied exits.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/p>\n

Sydney list manager Chris Keane got his man, superstar forward Charlie Curnow.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

The players also recognise the cases of Will Hayward and Ollie Florent, who were encouraged out the door, despite having four seasons left on long-term deals, so the Swans could land Curnow. Melbourne cleared the decks by asking Clayton Oliver to leave with five years left<\/a> on a long-term deal, something the Magpies did in 2022<\/a> when they traded out Brodie Grundy.<\/p>\n

A club CEO, who wished to remain anonymous, said the reality is a club\u2019s approach depends on the player concerned, with each player\u2019s situation still likely to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. It means the easy narrative that players don\u2019t rate contracts underplays a club\u2019s ability to be brutal if they want a contracted player out the door.<\/p>\n

But the AFL is concerned about the growth of long-term deals.<\/p>\n

\"Down<\/p>\n

Down to the wire: (clockwise from top left) Carlton\u2019s Charlie Curnow, the Western Bulldogs\u2019 Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Melbourne\u2019s Christian Petracca and Essendon captain Zach Merrett all featured in a frantic trade period.Credit: Photos: Getty Images, AFL Photos. Artwork: Nathan Perri, Stephen Kiprillis<\/p>\n

The league is considering pushing hard for a change, with CEO Andrew Dillon on the record as saying a push for maximum-term contracts is something being assessed.<\/p>\n

The reason behind the AFL\u2019s concern is that there are now 14 players on long-term contracts that stretch out past 2031, when the broadcast deal behind the river of money flowing through the system ends. With DAZN the new owners of Foxtel<\/a>, and an increasingly fragmented broadcast market making it difficult to predict whether the money will continue to pour into the AFL, the league is concerned clubs, particularly those less financially secure, are making promises to players they may find hard to keep if the broadcast revenue went south.<\/p>\n

Knowing the number of players on long-term deals will blow out well beyond 14, there is work being done at AFL House, in consultation with clubs, about what should or could be introduced to safeguard the competition and clubs.<\/p>\n

Some hope the trade period will be another step towards making players think twice before signing a long-term deal to retain flexibility.<\/p>\n

However, one prominent player manager, who preferred to remain anonymous to speak freely, said that was unlikely as few players would be able to resist what the market offered.<\/p>\n

But the willingness of players to push for a trade with years on their contract remaining \u2013 and the potential damage that may do to their reputation \u2013 may change. Not only will clubs have the power once a player is signed, they appear more willing to assert that power.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely Port Adelaide\u2019s Zak Butters considered this year whether pushing for a trade now, a year out from when he becomes a free agent next season, was worth the drama. He decided to bide his time, ensuring his exit happens, if it does, at the appropriate time \u2013 when he is a free agent entitled to follow the path Lance Franklin, Patrick Dangerfield and many others have gone down before him.<\/p>\n

This trade period won\u2019t be the real mechanism for change. That will happen when the AFL sits down with the players\u2019 association to discuss potential changes to trading and contracting rules in the interests of equalisation.<\/p>\n

What this year\u2019s trade period did show is that battle lines are being drawn between clubs and players.<\/p>\n

A fight seems inevitable.<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What has changed the landscape significantly in the past decade \u2013 and made the pursuit and trading of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-223575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}