Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield has backed the AFL introducing a mid-season trade period this year, but believes it’s “probably 12 months away”.
The Age reported Dangerfield, the AFL Players Association president, declared his support for the move at the AFLPA’s delegates conference in Melbourne.
The most recent five-year, $2.26 billion Collective Bargaining Agreement, agreed upon in September, allows for the introduction of mid-season trading as previously occurred in the VFL during the 1970s and 80s.
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But AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh revealed the league hadn’t yet ironed out the details or made an official proposal.
“The AFL has the ability to do that and that sits with them. At this stage, they have not told us they want to do it,” Marsh said.
Dangerfield backed the idea but also warned of going too far and becoming “Americanised”.
In American sports player salaries and team salary caps are made public, allowing for deeper analysis but also criticism, and while the idea of copying the system has been floated in Australia few have been willing to officially back it.
“I would do it (mid-season trading) … most of the time if it has taken this long it says we’re probably 12 months away,” Dangerfield said.
“Maybe that makes sense.
“This is elite-level sport. This is where tough conversations do happen and happen every season.
“We don’t want the AFL to be Americanised to the point where you lose total sense of where players are going. We see that in the NBA, and it is difficult to keep up.
“We will get there at some point, it’s just how fast it happens.”
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