A pre-season trade window - instead of a mid-season trade period - is set to be introduced to the AFL, according to Tim Watson.
Speaking onย SEN Breakfast,ย Watson believes that a pre-season trade period will come into place next year.
It comes afterย The Ageย raised the prospect of it happening on Tuesday night, and Watson thinks it will certainly come to fruition.
โThe mid-season trade period is going to become the pre-season trade,โ Watson said.
โThereโll be a 48 to 72-hour window that will open just before the season, Iโm not exactly sure what the dates are going to be, but there will be a window that opens when those trades can occur.
โIt wonโt happen during the year, it wonโt happen mid-season, itโll happen in the pre-season.
โIt will happen according to my people.
โWhen the clubs met, all the CEOโs, there was opposition, they didnโt like the mid-season draft."
The idea of an additional trade period has long been on the agenda, with speculation rife over recent months.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan toldย Sportsdayย on Tuesday night that an out-of-season trade period would be implemented in order to facilitate the trades of depth players at clubs, as opposed to stars.
โI think whatโs clear is it wouldnโt be anything that would enable star players to be shopped around,โ he said.
โMaybe it would be earlier in the year โฆ I might need a ruckman coming into the season or half way through the season and youโve got a surplus, but it wonโt be something โ what the strong feedback is from football is they donโt want something that gives an opportunity for star players (to move) or clubs under pressure to be put in poor positions.โ
