THE AFL Players' Association has hit back at Melbourne coach Paul Roos' criticism of free agency, saying the system will allow cellar dweller clubs to regenerate their lists faster.   

A scathing Roos hit out at the AFL's free agency system on Thursday, declaring it unfairly benefits clubs in premiership contention at the expense of struggling teams.

His comments came after Melbourne's unrestricted free agent James Frawley was believed to have settled on reigning premier Hawthorn as his preferred club.

"Free agency is the greatest de-equalisation policy we've had in the last 100 years of footy," Roos said at the NAB AFL Draft Combine on Thursday.

"The players wanted it and the clubs have just got to deal with it.

"Probably about five years ago we had as even a competition as what we'd ever seen.

"Now we've got another factor that's been introduced which is clearly going to benefit the top clubs and we're already seeing that."

But Ian Prendergast, the AFLPA's general manager of player relations, said Roos' comments were premature.

"I just think it's too early to make those kind of statements about free agency," Prendergast told NAB AFL Trade Radio on Friday.

"We've agreed to review it after this player movement period is completed. We'll have a look at it then, but in the fullness of time free agency is going to be a really positive tool that clubs like Melbourne can use to regenerate their list more quickly than they have been able to do more traditionally through trading and drafting players.

"If I was Melbourne and had people in place like Roosy, who is starting to have an influence over the culture at the club, I'd be saying this could be something I could use to help get my club back on track more quickly than I have in the past."

In recent weeks the AFLPA has met with Roos and other club coaches, who have voiced their concerns about free agency de-equalising the competition.

Since free agency was introduced at the end of the 2012 season, some bottom eight sides have struggled to retain their star players.

In the past two years, St Kilda has lost key midfielders Brendon Goddard (Essendon) and Nick Dal Santo (North Melbourne) to free agency, with Dal Santo playing in the Kangaroos' preliminary final loss to Sydney.

Prendergast said he believed the AFL's newly introduced equalisation measures would go a long way to evening out the competition, but didn't rule out tweaking the current free agency system to iron out some issues of concern.

"[Free agency has] been introduced for good reason," Prendergast said.

"We were the only sport in the world that didn't have some form of free agency for its athletes. I think if equalisation is the concern, lets have a look at other measures that can be introduced to correct that.

"The AFL has introduced a number of measures that will hopefully have the impact they're intended to over the next couple of years. I'm talking about the handbrake on footy department spending, the sharing of revenue to address the inequity that exists in the competition structure at the moment.

"This will hopefully allow those clubs to spend 100 per cent of their cap, therefore accessing talent through the draft, trade, (and) through free agency to get back up the ladder quicker to compete."