The AFL's free agency rule should not be about players in their prime, but rather veterans seeking a fair deal.
That's the view of North Melbourne coach Brad Scott. But his brother Chris Scott, the Geelong coach, has this week called for free agency to be scrapped.
Geelong are among the leading contenders to recruit Melbourne's All-Australian free agent James Frawley, 25, in a deal that would follow the massive move of Hawthorn's star forward Lance Franklin to Sydney after the 2013 season.
"I can see where he's coming from. He used the word distasteful and I think there's an element of that," Brad Scott told reporters on Friday of his twin brother's comments.
"My view and our club's view has been we don't fear free agency.
"We always saw it as a mechanism to aid player movement.
"When players get to the latter half of their careers, the balance of power shifts more towards the club."
Brad Scott said if a player in his late 20s was offered a contract he didn't like, he had few options.
"Trading is not the easiest mechanism to move. For those players, free agency is a great thing," the North coach said.
"What I'd be concerned is if you've got players in their absolute prime who are going to get paid really well by their clubs, being paid even more by someone else.
"The good players, they'll get paid well regardless.
"Free agency is a mechanism if a club won't offer a player what he thinks he's worth, he has an option to move.
"If you lower the threshold from eight years to six years, you start to see players who are in their prime, who are going to get paid well anyway, moving for more money which then distorts the market even further.
"That's the concern that a club like Hawthorn will invest pick five and develop him (Franklin) and then lose him for nothing.
"It's more of a mechanism to support player movement later in players' careers rather than in their prime."
