As the AFL’s trade week creaks into life footballers across the country are well advised to stay close to their mobile phones.

The week of horse-trading that follows the Grand Final has become a ghoulish postscript to the season. Player’s names are openly thrown about, often without their knowledge, as the clubs engage in a type of football speed dating. Each club meets with every other in an endless circle until they finally agree on just who will be trading places.

This year it’s all about Chris Judd. The former West Coast Eagles premiership captain is out of contract and has nominated Carlton as his preferred destination. He’s also indicated he won’t leave the Eagles empty handed and will insist on a trade, most likely a combination of high draft picks and a quality player.

Whilst the Judd trade should go smoothly, the availability of the best player in the land on the open market has really tested the commitment of some big clubs to the AFL’s heavily regulated drafting and salary cap system.

Limiting the money spent on players’ wages and regulating the market for recruitment has had the desired effect. The success of Sydney and Geelong in breaking long premiership droughts has proven that the equalization of the competition gives the minnows a shot at glory.

It’s questionable how long the cashed up superclubs like Collingwood, Essendon and the non-Victorian franchises accept their emasculation in the market place to facilitate these fairytales.

Take Collingwood. Sitting on a pile of cash, the Magpies have built their state-of-the-art training facility, The Lexus Centre, and purchased a whole bunch of Melbourne hotels in order to keep the moolah rolling in.

Yet the best player in the country becomes available and they can’t spend any of their hard earned on the one thing they really want and need – players.

The Magpies have had to watch as Judd chose their arch enemy Carlton. A choice made as much on the fact that doing a trade deal with Collingwood was near impossible given their lack of early draft picks.

It will only take one player acting as a free agent and one club to challenge the AFL draft and salary cap arrangements under the Trade Practices Act as a restraint of trade and the whole delicate bio-system of the AFL trading and wages will be wiped out in a single ruling.

Anyone searching for a precedent overseas need only look at the case of footballer Jean-Marc Bosman in the European Court of Justice in the mid 1990s. Bosman, a lower league player in Belgium challenged the old transfer system as a restraint of trade and won.

What became known as the Bosman ruling changed the face of European football forever.