'No' to mid-season moves
"I don’t like it, signing mid-season. I don’t like the NRL how they do it. I don’t like how they make it public."
Drew Petrie has thrown his support behind Free Agency, but says the idea of mid-season moves has potential to put a player's season in jeopardy.
On Wednesday, AFLPA CEO Ian Prendergast raised the potential of players being able to confidentially confirm their intention to join a new club during the year.
"These athletes are people first and athletes second, so they're always going to be professional in terms of continuing to fulfil their obligations to their current club," he told SEN on Wednesday.
But the North Melbourne vice-captain believes it could be a risky move.
"I don’t like it, signing mid-season. I don’t like the NRL how they do it. I don’t like how they make it public," Petrie said on the AFL Exchange podcast.
"If I was a coach of an AFL club and I knew that two players were leaving at the end of the season, even if they were in the best 22 I’d probably wouldn’t play them for the rest of the year.
"If you put time and effort and strategy into two blokes that are going to leave your club at the end of that season, I would hate to have thought I’d wasted so much time on those two players."
PRESS PLAY above to listen to Petrie's thoughts on Free Agency
While Geelong coach Chris Scott says the AFL should abolish Free Agency completely, Petrie is confident the system is working on the whole.
“Players are the only employees in a footy club that can’t move on their own free will. They’re stuck to that one job. You’ve got players moving into the back-end of their careers who should reserve the right to have some sort of say where they might finish their careers.
“Over the first two years of free agency, less than 20 per cent of eligible free agents move clubs, so we are jumping at shadows a little bit thinking it’s going to ruin clubs.
“The worry was all the free agents were going to go to the rich clubs; that’s not the case. Over half of the players who have moved clubs over the last two years have gone to clubs below them on the ladder.”