North Melbourne great David King has admitted he is perplexed by the idea of Carlton midfielder Matt Kennedy earning a spot on the Blues list as a rookie for 2021.
Kennedy, a former first-round selection, was delisted by Carlton on Wednesday, with the club promising to re-draft the 23-year-old in the Rookie Draft.
King believes the 'loophole' shouldn't be on offer for AFL clubs to re-sign experienced players to rookie deals.
“Clearly he is (a better footballer than being on the rookie list). I don’t understand the whole rookie thing, how you can just slide a player from the list proper to the rookie spots,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“I don’t understand that. I think we’ve lost our way with the whole rookie scenario.
“It should be a first-time opportunist, 18 to 24 (years old). Cap it, I reckon. When we had Drew Petrie going to West Coast as a rookie, that’s when we lost our way.
“It’s crazy. If they’re good enough to be on the list, well they have to suck up a list spot, simple as that for me. I just think it’s a sneaky way of getting around things.”
King did however have some leeway for the sneaky deals for next year given the circumstances of list changes due to the past year.
“You can still pay them whatever the contract states, so from a financial standpoint it doesn’t really impact your list, but this will be a different off-season, so we probably have to give some grace,” he said.
“There’s some thoughts going around that some clubs will only take one player in the draft because lists will be so full already, the dropping of lists by three or four players makes it pretty tight.
“I think the early feedback when the Kangaroos delisted 11 players was ‘how are they going to replace these guys?’. Well, the lists have dropped, you get some flexibility in doing so and you get picks in the draft, they’ll fill pretty quick.”
Carlton announced the delistings of Harrison Macreadie, Cameron Polson, Fraser Phillips and Callum Moore this week.
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