Finn Devlin

In an extraordinary trade period move, Lachie Weller is now a Gold Coast Sun. A last minute-move, driven by the player and completed by the fledging Queensland side, saw the Suns part with the prized second pick in the 2017 National Draft.

The move raised many eyebrows among those in the football industry. In the view of most, Weller, a 21-year old with less than 50 games experience, was not worth the chance at picking up the second best young player in the country at the draft.

From a list management perspective, Weller’s potential was less – and in the eyes of many, far less – than what could be extracted from pick 2.

The Suns, led by CEO Mark Evans, saw the situation differently. Their desire to land a player of note in the trade period, to replace the departing Gary Ablett, meant their hand was forced, particularly when Weller so publicly requested a trade home.

That Weller has roots and family connections on the Gold Coast made the trade even more enticing for the Suns, who couldn’t pass up the chance to land a player with the potential to be the cream of their midfield for the next decade. More importantly, the club couldn’t pass up the chance to land a player who wanted to be there.

It is this last reason that is so concerning for Queensland clubs. In the age of free agency and player power, players are increasingly finding homesickness an unacceptable challenge of being an AFL footballer. This is understandable, given the ever-increasing standards set in being a professional, high-performing athlete, and the spotlight that comes with being a footballer.

This landscape is meaning clubs are turning their focus to players from their home state to fill sizeable portions of their list. For example, West Coast is expected to use a large amount of its glut of middle and late draft picks on mostly West Australians in the upcoming draft, in order to ensure they have a core of homegrown talent to launch their rebuild from.

In other words, a core a players that are absolute certainties to stay at the club.

However, this is not a luxury that the Queensland clubs enjoy. The dearth of footballers that hail from the AFL’s most northern state mean that it is difficult for Queensland clubs to build lists that are comparable to clubs that are from more AFL-orientated states.

The reason is simple. Statistically, in a smaller sample size, there will not be as many comparibly talented as a larger sample size of players, such as Victoria or South Australia.

Therefore, it becomes harder for the Suns and the Brisbane Lions to build lists capable of challenging for premierships.

In this new age of free agency, players can nominate their preferred club, even if they are not eligible for actual free agency. A major flaw in the club vs. player power struggle is that these clubs are virtually forced to deal with this club.

As the majority of players are from Victoria, this means that despite the large amount of clubs and potential trades for the Lions or Suns to gain, if they don’t deal with the player’s club of choice, they face losing him for nothing in the pre-season draft, and the player will simply refuse to sign for another club who picks him.

The best example of this are the ‘go-home five’ for the Brisbane Lions, who departed in the summer of 2013. After losing five of their brightest talents, four of whom were in the Brisbane best 22 the year before, the Lions have had to go through yet another rebuild to get the club back on track. Although the squad is brimming with talent, they finished last in 2017.

And yet, the players the club gave away have been successful at other clubs. Elliot Yeo just won the West Coast best-and-fairest award, while Sam Docherty was an All-Australian this year. Billy Longer is first choice ruckman at St. Kilda, while Jarad Polec is established in the Port Adelaide side.

The Lions received no first round picks for these players, of whom two, arguably three, would command a top five pick now. Add those four to the Lions side and they are, in the estimation of this column, a three to four-win better side than their 5-17 record in 2017.

This trade period, the Suns gave away Gary Ablett, a two-time Brownlow medalist and their best-and-fairest winner last year, for a end-of-first-round selection (admittedly, there were other factors involved in this), while Brisbane received a mid-range second round and an early-third round for their number two pick, Josh Schache.

The clubs are bleeding talent, and getting peanuts in return.

The effect is two-fold. As more players than average depart the Queensland clubs to ‘go home’, less players want to move back home north, due to the comparatively low number of Queensland footballers in the AFL system. This forces the two Queensland clubs to overpay for players that want to come home.

The Suns gave up more than what Lachie Weller is worth in the eyes of the industry simply because he wanted to come home. Likewise the Lions for Charlie Cameron.

This means, over time, these two clubs will expend more to build a list, and receive less for departing players. Although both clubs may get it right with their respective additions this season, statistically, over a long period of time, these clubs will be at a disadvantage compared to others. This can be seen in their success record: The Lions haven’t made the finals in eight seasons, Gold Coast have never made them.

It is clear the current free agency system puts Queensland clubs at a distinct and unfair disadvantage. If the AFL are serious about making a good go of footy in Queensland, something needs to change.