DUAL premiership player David King has suggested a solution to help prevent young players leaving the clubs they are drafted to early in their careers.

Traditionally, players sign a two-year deal when they are drafted — though in recent years, several players have departed their clubs either during that contract or shortly after its completion.

The likes of Josh Schache (Brisbane to Western Bulldogs), Tom Scully (Melbourne to GWS), Jack Gunston (Adelaide to Hawthorn) and Elliot Yeo (Brisbane to West Coast) all left their original clubs after just two years, while Sam Docherty (Brisbane to Carlton) and Tom Boyd (GWS to Western Bulldogs) left after just one season at their original clubs.

King said the AFL could look at the option to lock players into six years at their original club, with the first three years on a fixed contract, before opening negotiations on pay ahead of their fourth season.

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“I’ve never liked free agency and I think they’ve got one or two ways to go here,” King told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.

“Either you open the whole thing up — have the first six years locked away that, if you sign with a club, maybe the first three are on a fixed contract and the next three are independent of that.”

King said the AFL had options to look at from “all around the world”, including using an independent league arbitrator to settle the final three years of a six-year contract.

In Major League Baseball, when a club adds a player onto its 40-man roster, that player’s future is effectively controlled by their club for the first six years of their contract (unless they are released) — with the first three years on a set wage.

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Players then become eligible for salary arbitration when they have completed three or more (but less than six) years of MLB service — bar some exceptions — allowing them to negotiate salaries with their club. After six years of service, players are eligible for free agency.

King said the idea would be that players were free to move at the end of that six years, creating “a heap of movement” in the market.

Josh Schache. Pic: Michael Klein Source: News Corp Australia

“In baseball, they brought in a rule because everyone wanted to play for the Yankees,” King said.

“The first three years you were locked away, the next three (years) players said they wanted ‘X’, club said they were prepared to pay ‘Y’ and an arbitrator would say ‘that’s more accurate than that, that’s the figure’. No negotiations, bang, bang.

“Something like that we’re you’re locked away for six years so the club gets a good run at these picks and you don’t have the Josh Schache situation where they leave after a couple. And after six, we say ‘OK fair enough’ and we create a heap of movement.

“The problem is we don’t have enough movement, so everyone goes up the table and nothing falls the other way.

“If you’re going to do it, open it right up or shut it right down. One or the other.”

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