The Sydney Swans remain hopeful of appearing before the AFL Commission in December in a bid to have their ban from trading in players next year overturned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Fairfax Media has been told the Swans have even sought legal opinion about the recently enforced ban, should the AFL not seriously rethink its move.
The Swans have officially written to the AFL seeking to have their case for a reversal heard and continue to plot counter arguments.
The Swans were stunned when told they would be banned from trading in players - unless they were delisted free agents - during this month's trade period. The ban stands for 2015.
The commission told the Swans on the eve of the grand final, saying they could not enter into trades or bid for restricted or unrestricted free agents unless they immediately stopped paying the cost-of-living allowance.
Industry observers believe the decision was linked to the club's bold recruitment of Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett on multimillion-dollar deals. Rival clubs claim these deals, in part, were aided by the Swans' controversial allowance.
The allowance, in total up to $1.4 million, was to be phased out over two years. The Swans argue it cannot be done immediately as the money has been written into the players' contracts.
Club chairman Andrew Pridham, chief executive Andrew Ireland, coach John Longmire and new football department chief Tom Harley could all front the commission.
Gerard Healy, a commentator and the Swans' 1988 Brownlow medallist, took aim at the AFL's decision, claiming league chiefs may have been "spooked" and decided to act amid speculation the Swans had been chasing Melbourne free agent James Frawley, who would ultimately sign with Hawthorn.
"What emerged was the worst piece of vindictive bastardry legislation that I have ever seen from the commission," Healy said on 3AW.
"There has been silence from head office ever since its inception because surely no one on the commission is going to admit to fathering and nurturing this legislative tripe.
"Not the chairman, Mike Fitzpatrick, despite his anger over the Buddy defection, not Gill McLachlan, who has to implement it, and surely not the AFL legal man Andrew Dillon, who must have questioned its legality. He would expect to need to defend it in court if it goes to a second year."
In announcing earlier this year that the cost-of-living allowance would be phased out, the AFL had said it would introduce a "new fixed accommodation subsidy to be introduced for newly contracted players (from season 2015) below a salary threshold to be determined, that will be paid directly by the AFL".
From 2017, the cost-of-living allowance for current players will be replaced by the rent subsidy.
The AFL Players Association was also stunned by the trade-ban decision, and complained it had not been consulted about it.
