Nathan Buckley says clubs should be able to trade players without their consent

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has declared AFL players should be able to be traded “without their consent”.

Buckley also said club lists “have become too big” as he sized up the changes he believed were necessary for the game to progress.

As clubs continue to haggle over getting the best possible deal for players who have declared their desire to move, headlined by Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston, Western Bulldogs star Bailey Smith and West Coast’s Tom Barrass, Buckley said players had the “whip hand”.

Sydney veteran Luke Parker and Richmond vice-captain Liam Baker are also among about 10 players who have declared a desire to move, but deals are yet to be done.

The collective bargaining agreement between the AFL Players Association and the league bans players from being moved on without being part of the discussion, and they have the right to say no.

Despite a flurry of opening free agency moves, there has been next to no player movement despite five days of discussions and Buckley said the power should go back to the clubs to create a more even competition.

“Clubs need to be allowed to trade players without their consent,” he said on Monday.

“At the moment, the players have too much of a whip hand. Clubs are going down these long-term contracts and they’re doing it to prevent their players being poached.

“But it doesn’t stop that when the players choose to leave anyway with multiple years left on their contract or a club wants to move a player on with multiple years left.

“Why don’t we say, ‘If you sign a contract with us for a certain period of time, the AFL industry is going to honour that contract’. That doesn’t mean it has to be with us (the club), it might be with another club.

“We need to be at $600,00 and above to be put in this category of being traded without your consent. It doesn’t matter about how many years.

“We’ll see far more player movement, it will control the inflationary impact of long-term contracts, it will make the players more accountable for their professional output year by year.

“There’s a chance to even up the competition quicker than we are doing at the moment.”

Buckley, who has baulked at a return to coaching having been linked to the West Coast job before Andrew McQualter was appointed, also advocated for a change to list sizes because “we don’t need 46 people on lists anymore”.

Despite Carlton battling a significant injury list during the latter stages of 2024, having only 26 fit players to choose from at one stage, Buckley said a “train-up squad” would be a better alternative.

“We can reduce the list size to 32 with a train-up squad of 12,” he told SEN.

“You need 36 players on the park at training to get your match scrimmage work in. Every club would say that they need that.

“I don’t think we need the massive lists we’ve got at the moment. There’s not enough delineation between elite performance and development. AFL clubs are expected to do both.

“I think we can beef up the pathway. If you have 32 on an AFL list and then make sure every AFL club is aligned with a reserves team in a reserves competition.

“It doesn’t mean that they’re under the same roof, but they’re definitely under the same banner. They have their own development arm like Hawthorn and Box Hill.

“We don’t need 46 people on lists anymore.”