CRITICS of free agency argue it prolongs the on-field misery of clubs near the bottom of the ladder, but top-two teams have been the hardest hit since the player movement system was revolutinised in 2012.

Of the 39 players who have moved clubs via free agency*, nine – or 23 per cent – have left teams that played in that year's Grand Final, four of them from the newly crowned premier.

Remarkably, the club widely seen as the AFL's premier destination in recent times, Hawthorn, has lost more players via free agency than any other team.

Five Hawks free agents, including superstar spearhead Lance Franklin and fellow premiership players Matt Suckling, Xavier Ellis and Clinton Young, have departed Waverley.

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Melbourne, which earned a reputation as free agency's whipping boy during its horror on-field stretch from 2012-14, has lost only four players under the player movement mechanism: James Frawley, Colin Sylvia, Jared Rivers and Brent Moloney.

Although the Demons have not lost a free agent since 2014, they still rank second for players lost through free agency.

The bottom-two teams, which included the Dees in 2013 and 2014, have parted with six free agents over the past seven seasons, the second largest toll in the competition but still three fewer free agency losses than their top-two counterparts.

The grand finalists' struggles to keep free agents can be put down at least partly to the equalising effect of the salary cap. Where they are generally close to the player spending limit, other lower-ranked clubs are cashed up and happy to dangle huge money and long-term tenure at key targets.

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Strong clubs are also occasionally happy to let fringe players leave in pursuit of expanded roles at other teams.

Nonetheless, free agency statistics make worse reading for top-two teams when you consider their struggles to lure players from rival teams.

For all they can offer players in prospective on-field success, just two free agents have joined one of that year's grand finalists, with Frawley joining premier Hawthorn in 2014 and Sylvia joining 2013 runner-up Fremantle.

Not surprisingly, bottom-two teams have battled to land free agents too, also landing just two over the past seven years: Alex Fasolo crossed from Collingwood to this year's wooden-spooner Carlton and 17th-placed Gold Coast signed Hawks defender Tom Murphy in 2012.

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Players' wariness about joining teams whose immediate on-field futures look bleak has extended to the bottom-six teams, who collectively have signed just eight free agents.

But you don't have to climb too much further up the ladder to find the competition's most successful free agency poachers.

Teams finishing 11th-12th have led the AFL in both acquiring rival free agents and retaining their own, bringing in a combined eight and losing just one.

The next most successful teams on this combined measure have been those finishing ninth and 10th, followed closely by third and fourth-placed teams.

Alex Fasolo left the Magpies to join this year's wooden spooners, the Blues. Picture: AFL Photos

Besides Greater Western Sydney, which will have players eligible for free agency for the first time in 2019, Essendon is the only team yet to lose a free agent.

Having acquired Brendon Goddard in 2012, James Gwilt in 2014 and Matthew Leuenberger a year later, the Bombers can lay claim to being free agency's most successful team to date.

North and Fremantle have also used the system to their advantage, each signing three free agents and losing one.

Port Adelaide, Collingwood and Geelong* share the record for the most free agents signed (four), but their gains have been off-set with each also losing three players through free agency.

*AFL.com.au has included Patrick Dangerfield's move from Adelaide to Geelong in 2015 in these figures given Adelaide unofficially indicated it would match a free agency offer before the teams agreed to a trade.

FREE AGENCY BY LADDER POSITION*

TEAMS LOSSES GAINS NET 1-2 9 2 -7 3-4 3 6 +3 5-6 4 4 0 7-8 5 6 +1 9-10 2 6 +4 11-12 1 8 +7 13-14 5 3 -2 15-16 4 2 -2 17-18 6 2 -4 Premier 4 1 -3 Top-four 12 8 -4 Finalists 21 18 -3 Teams 9-18 18 21 +3 Bottom-four 10 4 -6 Last 2 1 -1

FREE AGENCY BY TEAM*

TEAMS LOSSES GAINS NET Adelaide 2* 1 -1 Brisbane 2 1 -1 Carlton 2 2 0 Collingwood 3 4 +1 Essendon 0 3 +3 Fremantle 1 3 +2 Geelong 3 4* +1 Gold Coast 1 2 +1 Greater Western Sydney 0 1 +1 Hawthorn 5 2 -3 Melbourne 4 1 -3 North Melbourne 1 3 +2 Port Adelaide 3 4 +1 Richmond 3 3 0 St Kilda 3 1 -2 Sydney 1 1 0 West Coast 3 1 -2 Western Bulldogs 2 2 0

*Figures include Patrick Dangerfield's move from Adelaide to Geelong via a trade in 2015.