JAMES McDonald and Paul Hasleby have recently joined that not-very-exclusive club of reluctant retirees.

They have both been fantastically loyal one-club players who have given incredible service, but who will finish their careers in the next few weeks with a hollow feeling, knowing they had more to give.

The system is so geared towards uncovering new talent that some of our most respected players are being forcing out of the game before their time, which is just crazy, given the amount of development that has gone into them to get them to where they are.

The veterans list, which allows the club some salary cap relief for 10-year players over the age of 30, has helped somewhat, but I think it’s something we should look to build on.

So here’s a couple of ideas, which may have been looked at before, but are worth revisiting now.

Short-term contracts
Tweaks would have to be made by clubs to accommodate player payment changes, etc, but that’s just an edit to a spreadsheet, so it’s not a biggie. I’m thinking something like an 11-game contract (plus finals, if the side makes it).

Matthew Lloyd is the perfect example. Essendon could offer Matthew a short-term deal, which keeps him around, but means that he could start pre-season in January and then look at a schedule that could be one-on one-off, or a couple each rotation. That would allow the Bombers to know they had guaranteed games they could get into someone like Jay Neagle, who would also benefit from working with one of the great modern-day forwards. It also helps ease players out of full-time football into the next phase of their life, and hopefully means they don’t leave disgruntled.

Also, players coming to the end of their careers simply can’t play all the games in a season without breaking down, so a limited-game contract means the club is forced to rest them, which takes away any suspicion as to their motives. No need for “general soreness”, or that old one that Kevin Sheedy popularised, the “Essendon virus”.

Using Hasleby as another example - he’s not old enough for the veterans list, but with a short contract, he’s around the club, he plays a few games, the club still gets games into some kids, and if they make finals, the club has a senior player to call on.

But if the club isn’t planning on giving the player any more games, or the player wants to leave because he reckons he has a chance to make it work elsewhere, that leads me to…

Mid-season draft/trade
Brad Miller’s papers were probably stamped half way through the year. Surely Fremantle knew that they weren’t going to keep Hasleby on. So, for these guys who want to keep plying their trade, this could be the way to do it.

I’m sure if Brad had been available the Bulldogs would have loved to have signed him for the second half of the year. And as for Hasleby, if the Cats had lost a few midfielders a bloke of his ability could be a very tempting top-up.

I know it takes a while to learn how a new team plays, but these guys are very good, and very good players know how other teams structure up and work. Even Tyson Edwards. The Crows say, “We’re not in it this year, let’s play kids”, and Tyson could head off to somewhere where he can help immediately, and maybe get on another short-term contract the following year.

And this could be either a delist/draft situation, or a trade. The trade would be for (obviously) future draft picks, so while clubs wouldn’t know they had, say, pick 43 in the draft that year, they could trade for their first third-round pick, or whatever.

This fascination we’ve got with calling the end for people is weird. Another we have forced out is Simon Goodwin, which is crazy. I know he’s got an injury at the moment, but he’s been playing very good footy.

Free agency might make some changes, but I think these are good ideas worth a look.

It was easy for me - my body wasn’t going to handle another year, and I wanted to move onto the next part of my life. But a lot of blokes are sure they still have more to give. Michael Tuck would probably still be playing if you let him!

I know some blokes don’t know when to call time, but I think it’s crazy that we put so much time and effort into development at the front end, and we waste them at the back end by kicking blokes out too soon.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs