AFL free agency and trade period explained
Eight years at one club opens the door. Here is how matching, compensation picks and the October trade period work, and who moved in 2026.
AFL players change clubs in three ways during the off-season: free agency, the trade period and the draft. The first two happen in October, straight after the grand final, and they decide much of the draft order that follows in November. This guide covers how each system works and what happened in 2026.
The 2026 player movement dates
All times are AEDT. The league confirmed these dates before the season began.
| Window | Opens | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Restricted and unrestricted free agency | Friday 2 October 2026, 9am | Friday 9 October 2026, 5pm |
| Trade period | Monday 5 October 2026, 9am | Wednesday 14 October 2026, 7.30pm |
| Delisted free agency | Monday 2 November 2026, 9am | Friday 6 November 2026, 5pm |
| National draft | Thursday 19 November 2026, 7pm | Friday 20 November 2026 |
| Rookie draft | Monday 23 November 2026, 3pm | Same day |
How free agency works
Free agency arrived in the AFL at the end of the 2012 season. It lets experienced players leave for a club of their choice without a trade, provided they have served long enough at one club and are out of contract. The usual threshold is eight years at the same club.
Unrestricted free agents
An unrestricted free agent can sign with any club that wants him, and his old club has no say. Players qualify in two main ways. A player with eight or more years at one club who is outside the top quarter of earners on that list is unrestricted when his contract ends. Once a player reaches ten years at one club, he is unrestricted regardless of his pay. A player who has been a free agent before also becomes a free agent at the end of each later contract.
Restricted free agents
A player with eight or nine years at one club who is among the top 25 per cent of earners on that list is a restricted free agent. He can take an offer from a rival club, but his current club gets a short window, three days under the rules as they have long been applied, to match it. A match has to cover the same contract length and the same base, match and additional services payments. Clubs do not have to match team performance bonuses, and an offer put up for matching must run for at least two years.
If the club matches and the player still wants to leave, he has to be traded or go into the draft.
Compensation picks
A club that ends a free agency period with a net loss of free agents gets draft picks from the league. The AFL uses a formula that gives each departing player a points rating based on the value of his new contract and his age. The result lands the pick in one of five places: straight after the club's own first-round pick, at the end of the first round, in the second round, at the end of the second round, or in the third round. A committee can recommend a different outcome when the formula produces a result that looks badly out of line.
Delisted free agency
Players cut from AFL lists become free agents too, and any club can sign them without giving up a pick. The 2026 delisted window runs from 9am on 2 November to 5pm on 6 November 2026 AEDT. It is the last chance for clubs to add a senior player before the draft.
How the trade period works
The trade period ran for ten days in 2026, from 5 to 14 October, finishing in the evening on the last day. Clubs can swap players, draft picks or a mix of both, and a deal can involve two clubs or several. The clubs agree on what is fair between themselves, and the league checks and lodges the trade. A player who wants to move usually names the club he wants to join, and the two clubs then bargain over the price.
Clubs can trade future picks as well as current ones. In 2026 they could deal in picks for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 drafts, which is why many of the bigger trades involved first and second-round picks two years ahead. Pick trading also continues on draft night itself.
The biggest moves of 2026
Free agency produced two restricted free agent moves where the old club chose not to match.
- Zak Butters left Port Adelaide for the Western Bulldogs. Port took first-round compensation instead of matching, and that pick ended up at Richmond as pick 5.
- Ben King joined Hawthorn from Gold Coast. The Suns declined to match and received a first-round compensation pick.
- Lachie Neale moved from Brisbane to Collingwood as an unrestricted free agent, and Toby Greene left GWS for Geelong on the same basis. Both former clubs received compensation picks.
The trade period itself brought several large deals.
- Zach Merrett was traded from Essendon to Hawthorn on 5 October for picks 15 and 25 and a 2028 second-round pick.
- Nick Blakey moved from Sydney to North Melbourne on 13 October. Sydney received pick 6 and a set of future picks that includes North's first-round pick in 2028.
- Jesse Hogan joined Collingwood from GWS, and Scott Pendlebury left Collingwood for Gold Coast.
- On the final day, Jack Viney and Trent Rivers moved from Melbourne to West Coast, and Keidean Coleman went from Brisbane to Essendon.
Pick numbers here are as they stood when each deal was done. They shift as compensation picks and later trades are added.
How it all feeds into the draft
The draft order starts from the reverse of the final ladder. Free agency compensation picks are then slotted in, and every traded pick moves with its new owner. This is how Richmond came to hold picks 2 and 5 and Sydney gained pick 6 in 2026. Academy and father-son bids on draft night push the order around again.
Our guide to the 2026 AFL draft explains bidding and the full schedule. The AFL finals system explains how September results set the order of the finalists, and the Australian sports calendar shows where the off-season sits in the year.
Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.