GWS list boss Jason McCartney says early AFL draftees should have longer initial contracts as the Giants prepare to lose second-year midfielder Tanner Bruhn to Geelong.
Bruhn, a Geelong local who was GWS' pick No.12 in the 2020 draft, is poised to request a long-expected trade to his home town, which McCartney flagged as "disappointing".
The standard AFL draftee contract is two years and Bruhn's departure would follow Jye Caldwell heading to Essendon two years ago.
"Obviously it's disappointing," McCartney told AFL Trade Radio.
"Tanner's a wonderful young man and invested really heavily in our football club.
"He's played 30 games over the last two years and there's probably not many from that compromised draft in the COVID years that have played that many games.
"It is disappointing. It's a reality. We'll just have work with it now. It looks like it's leaning that way with Geelong and we'll sit down with (Cats list boss) Andrew Mackie and thrash out what we can get done there.
"But two years, that is really disappointing.
" ... We make no bones about it. We'd love to see our early draft picks at least being a minimum three years because two years can drift pretty quickly."
McCartney said player salary demands tended to explode in their third year which meant clubs were paying a premium just to retain players, regardless of whether they were performing.
He also noted Caldwell and Bruhn would both have left after COVID-19 affected seasons which meant they'd barely been in Sydney for large chunks of their initial contracts, making it harder to retain them.
McCartney acknowledged there would need to be a cut-off point in the draft for longer contracts, while deals would need mechanisms to protect players.
The Giants are eyeing a monster draft haul through trading Bruhn and Richmond-bound pair Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
"It's an interesting one to have that quality obviously both end up choosing the one club," McCartney said.
"Tim's a bit different to Jacob because Jacob is in contract.
"Richmond bowed out that first week of finals and they were around the mark all year and they've identified a need in their midfield and obviously there's two quality players there.
"Blair Hartley and the Richmond guy, they understand the quality of these players and they understand it's going to take a little bit of work with one still in contract. We'll keep working through that."
McCartney expected forward Bobby Hill's trade to Collingwood to be a straight-forward affair that would happen early on.
