Emphatically rejecting a mooted draft system change that would "remove the power of a contracted footballer to veto a trade," Australian Football League Players Association CEO Paul Marsh said that the move would see his members "reduced to cattle-like status," according to Samantha Lane of THE AGE. Marsh said that the "contentious proposition tabled in an AFL working party" would "dehumanise footballers and run counter to the fundamental pillars of the AFLPA." Marsh: "We just don't think it's fair, and it doesn't apply to anyone else in this industry. It just goes against everything that we stand for, that a player would have no choice about where he may play and where he may have to live." Marsh said on Wednesday that talk of removing players' trade veto rights "suggested clubs were feeling disempowered." Marsh, "straight-shooting in his assessment," underlined his opinion that "there's almost a view that the clubs think they own the players" (THE AGE, 6/17). In Melbourne, Emma Quayle reported the AFL is "working to iron out some potential kinks in the new bidding system for father-son and academy players," as clubs continue to "digest it" and plan for potential scenarios. A number of clubs have "also increased their push for future draft pick trading to be introduced alongside the new system, believing it is essential for it to come in this year" (THE AGE, 6/17).
