THE TERM 'trade week' has been rendered obsolete, with the AFL extending its annual trade period from one to three weeks.

Tying in with the introduction of free agency, nearly the whole of October, starting straight after Grand Final weekend, will be dedicated to player movement.

The free agency window - where eligible players can change clubs without being traded - opens on Monday, October 1 and runs for three weeks, closing on October 19.

Trades start on Monday, October 8, overlapping with the free agency period for two weeks before closing a week later on October 26.

Last year's trade period lasted for only eight days.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said it was important that clubs had enough time to make list management decisions based on their player gains and losses to free agency.

"In the free agency negotiations, the AFL Players Association were keen to make sure there was a reasonable amount of time during the free agency period for players thinking about transferring to talk to clubs and for deals to occur," Anderson said.

"During those negotiations, we agreed that that amount of time would be three weeks.

"Once we'd made that agreement with the players association, it was then our decision that the trade period should also be extended.

"When we analysed it we realised that we can't separate free agency and trading; it's two sides of the one coin.

"We thought it was important that during the period when clubs are signing and losing free agents, that they also have the opportunity to trade while that's going on.

"And as importantly, the trade period will extend after the free agency period concludes, so that if clubs have lost, for example, a ruckman on the last day of the free agency period, they can then look to trade in a replacement."

Anderson also said that clubs who receive a draft pick from the League as compensation for losing a free agent would have an opportunity to trade that pick straight away if they chose to.

He said the AFL would keep a close eye on how the new system worked in its first year.

"It's obviously a big difference from last year, so we'll monitor it and see how it works, and then make any adjustments that we need to," Anderson said.

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