MELBOURNE champion Garry Lyon has labelled the AFLW expansion signing period as a “joke” after Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich accused North Melbourne of disrespecting the spirit of the competition.

The 10-day expansion club signing stage concluded on Monday, with key signings for new clubs North Melbourne and Geelong finalised. The Kangaroos’ 17 signings, including 13 AFLW signings, were ticked off by the AFL, as were Geelong’s 13 signatures.

North landed an array of high-profile signings, including reigning league best and fairest winner Emma Kearney via the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood duo Emma King and Mo Hope, while it also landed five players from Starcevich’s Brisbane Lions, headlined by Kaitlyn Ashmore.

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Finals Week 1

As compensation, the Lions have been given two rookie list selections, which were confirmed after the league released the pick order for October’s AFLW draft. The Cats have been given the first two selections of the draft and North’s first selection won’t occur until Pick 12.

But Starcevich accused the Kangaroos of not abiding by the “spirit” of AFLW, telling ABC Grandstand on the weekend that they’d been targeting some players “for the best part of six months”.

Lyon told SEN Breakfast: “This is a joke.

“Who is making these rules on the run?

Emma Kearney is the reigning AFLW best and fairest. Source: Getty Images

“For a competition that we are told is, and we believe and have embraced, is so important to the future, and women’s football is growing at a rapid rate.

“Surely there is a more professional approach to putting in the parameters for building and developing teams?

“You can understand why Craig Starcevich is upset, because he is saying, what rules are we working with here?”

Starcevich said he wasn’t sure whether the Kangaroos had been “super” when it came to the "spirit" of building the league.

“Across the clubs we’ve all had some ownership about how this league works. I think a little bit of it is to do with the spirit of how we build the competition, I’m not sure North have been super with it, to be honest,” Starcevich said.

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“ ... There’s a little bit there about respecting each other’s space and not necessarily going in and pillaging each other’s players and doing it with some ounce of integrity.

“They’ve been into some of the players for the best part of six months.

“I’m not sure that sits that comfortably with us, even though the rules don’t allow that.

“You’ve got to do things a little bit underhanded at times to try and get where you want to get in terms of building your list so that’s disappointing.”

A North Melbourne spokesman told the Herald Sun that the club takes “exception to any suggestions we acted outside the rules and against the spirit of the game”.

Maddy Smith was the first Tasmanian to sign with the North Melbourne-Tasmanian Kangaroos AFLW team. Picture: Patrick Gee Source: News Corp Australia

Starcevich, though, said the expansion list rules must be reviewed ahead of next year, with four new teams — Richmond, St Kilda, Gold Coast and West Coast — set to enter the competition in 2020.

“There’s got to be a certain amount of movement with players that have had experience at AFLW, but at this point in time North Melbourne look like they are going to assemble 12 to 16 of those players,” he said.

“It’s probably a lesson learnt for next year when there’s four new clubs that will take us up to 14 teams in the comp as to what is the right mechanism.”

The AFLW trade period opens on Wednesday and will continue until Monday 4 June.

Eight of the 10 AFLW clubs will gather at AFL House for a ‘trade facilitation day’ where they will discuss 2019 primary list considerations.

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