Australian Football League - Players

Players

See also: List of current AFL team squads and Category:VFL/AFL players

The AFL has tight controls over the player lists of each club; each club can have a senior list of 40 players plus up to ten rookie players; up to two international rookies are also permitted. Changes to playing lists are permitted only in the off-season: clubs can trade players during a "trade period" which follows each season, clubs can recruit new players through one of three AFL Drafts which take place after the trade period, players with eight years service at their club may switch clubs as free agents. The league has had an entry draft since 1986, in which the draft order is based on reverse-finishing position from the previous year; and free agency deals have been permitted since the 2012/13 offseason.

A salary cap (known as the Total Player Payments or TPP) is also in place as part of the league's equalisation policy; in 2011, this is set at A$8,780,000 with a salary floor of A$8,121,500 for 2011 (except for Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney), whose playing lists and salary caps are larger while they remain expansion clubs). Salaries of draft selections are fixed for two years. Salaries for senior players are not normally released to the public, although one report put the average for 2011 at $211,000 and the top few players can expect to earn up to $1,000,000 a year.

The breaches of the salary cap and salary floor regulations outlined by the AFL are: exceeding the TPP; falling below the salary floor; not informing the AFL of payments; late or incorrect lodgement or loss of documents; or engaging in draft tampering. Penalties include fines of up to triple the amount involved ($10,000 for each document late or incorrect lodged or lost), forfeiture of draft picks and/or deduction of premiership points. The most significant breach of the salary cap was that of the Carlton Football Club in the early 2000s.

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