SEN chief sports reporter Sam Edmund (18.09.26)
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What is the AFL memo about trade restrictions that sparked the discussion?
Let's get straight in straight into the chief for asset based lending need a business loan and banks have said no, you still have options. Sammy Edmund is with us. Sammy, good morning to you.
Don't argue with me here with during the week. It was real angry dad vibes. Um so I respected it. And what about you? Oh, I read all is not well, Kingy. As well, you've had big weeks, haven't you?
We're rattling the tins in here. Oh GoFundMe. Go fund me. Not enough sheets apparently Not enough sheets apparently.
sometimes the truth hurts.
What do you got to say about that? Uh nothing. Keep this conversation going then. Nothing. Nothing at all. He folds quick. It's not my fight. You got you got one bullet in the chamber.
Well I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not folding this warning 'cause I need to renew some hostilities with Kano because he and I went pretty hard during the week on the well, the proposed Todd Marshall trade and whether it had merit or whether it should stand or or not. Well, I can tell you this morning that the AFL is actually being accused of making rules on the run after it shut down this proposed Todd Marshall deal, which as we know aids Zach Butters is free agent. Who's accusing them? Multiple sources at multiple clubs say the league has changed history by yesterday referencing a 2025 memo that it claimed prohibited clubs from trading with top-up payments before or after free agency exchanges in the same player movement period.
So just bear with me here because this takes some explaining. In that 2025 email that I've seen, the AFL says clubs will only be stopped from doing trades with top-up payments. This is the Marshall scenario after a free agency exchange has been processed in the same player movement window. Now, Port and the Dogs have been working on this Todd Marshall deal that involved the dogs giving up 12 and a future first-round pick for Todd, who would then have the bulk of his $800,000 a season deal paid by the pair until the end of 2029. Critically, though, they were working with the AFL on doing that deal before the Butters free agency move. Was finalized and we're working on it with the AFRs for as long as two months.
But in a memo sent to all 18 clubs yesterday, Greg Swan wrote, as set out in a memo to clubs dated 26 September 25, top-up payments will not be approved in relation to a trade between two clubs who have engaged or intend to engage in a free agency exchange for a restricted or unrestricted free agent in the same player movement window. But that 2025 memo actually reads top-up payments will not be permitted in relation to a trade between two clubs who have already engaged in a free agency exchange for restricted or unrestricted free agent. Now that intend to engage wording has been inserted into the memo's top-up payments chapter since last year. And the change is critical because the clubs were operating on the belief that trades with top-up payments, like the Marshall.
One could be agreed upon before free agency moves were processed, as the memo suggests. And as I say, well-placed sources have claimed that the AFO was actually working with the dogs and the POW for months on a number of options, including this Marshall trade, with both clubs intending to table that Marshall deal before the Butters free agency move was processed, as was written in the rules in the case. In the twenty twenty five memo. So they say history has been changed here and this is rules on the run and the league governing the game by memo.
How does the 2025 AFL memo define “top‑up payments” and why does it matter for the Todd Marshall trade?
History has been a very good thing.
But before you go, Kane, so you're they're saying that it's been changed, but you're saying the wording has been changed.
They're saying it was changed last year. It hasn't been changed. It was changed somewhere in the ether between last year and this year and inserted in this year. And the clubs are saying, Well, hang on a minute, we've been working with you for the last few weeks on this.
But not changed before the dealings had started six to eight weeks ago. So it's been changed in the last four to six weeks.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
What is the AFL memo about trade restrictions that sparked the discussion?
0:00–3:12
2
How does the 2025 AFL memo define “top‑up payments” and why does it matter for the Todd Marshall trade?
3:12–7:30
3
What evidence suggests the AFL changed the wording of the memo after clubs had begun negotiations?
7:30–10:08
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from SEN Breakfast
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