The problems with free agency have been discussed in other threads. I have created this thread to allow these problems to be discussed in greater depth.
Problem 1: The club receiving a player via free agency pays no price in the draft for such a player. This penalises all other clubs.
Problem 2: The free agency compensation picks are poorly structured. A club finishing on the bottom of the ladder has essentially no difference between an end-of-first-round compensation pick and a second-round compensation pick. A club finishing as premiers has essentially no difference between a first-round and end-of-first-round compensation pick.
Problem 3: The formula for determining free agency picks is not disclosed publicly by the AFL.
Problem 4: Clubs that are regularly raided by other clubs for players are not given any assistance to aid player retention. This is particularly pronounced with Gold Coast and GWS.
Problem 5: Clubs that regularly replenish their playing lists via free agency are able to circumvent the AFL's equalisation policy.
Problem 6: There is no effective limit on the number of players a club can acquire with free agency other than the salary cap.
Problem 7: Free agency may allow draft tampering by manipulating the compensation picks.
The system has other problems as well.
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