BRISBANE Lions AFL Women's coach Craig Starcevich is not happy after losing four players to North Melbourne, saying the Kangaroos have not bought into the "spirit of the competition".
The signing period for expansion clubs Geelong and North Melbourne closed on Monday night. The Kangaroos and Cats will play in the third season of the NAB AFLW competition in 2019, joining establishment clubs Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Collingwood, Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.
While Geelong signed six of its 13 players from AFLW clubs, 13 of North Melbourne's 17 have swapped AFLW teams.
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Four of those 13 are from Brisbane – Kaitlyn Ashmore, Brittany Gibson, Jamie Stanton and Tahlia Randall.
Ashmore has a pre-existing connection to North Melbourne through its VFLW-aligned team Melbourne University, while Gibson is from Tasmania and was signed as a member of the Tasmanian contingent attached to the Kangaroos.
"It's building a ready-made team basically. You look at the people they've brought in and they're going to be a tough team to knock over from the get-go, which is good for them to start off the competition that way," Starcevich told ABC Grandstand.
"A little bit of it is to do with the spirit of how we build this competition. I'm not sure North have been super with it, to be honest.
"They've been into some of the players for the best part of six months. I'm not sure that sits with us that comfortably, even though the rules don't allow that," he said.
"If you abide by the rules, that doesn't necessarily get you where you want to go. You've got to do things a little bit underhand at times to try and get where you want to get in building your list, so that's disappointing, but that's the way it is."
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The AFL has consulted with participating clubs when developing aspects of the competition, including rules around player movement.
"Across the clubs, we've all had some ownership in how this league works. There's a little bit there in [relation to] respecting each other's space and not necessarily going in and pillaging each other's players. [it's about] doing it with some ounce of integrity," Starcevich said.
When asked directly if North had "disrespected" that aspect of the AFLW, Starcevich agreed to a point.
"I think there's a little bit of that, yeah no doubt, which is disappointing. But that's the way they've gone about building their group," he said.
"It's just given the rest of us a little bit of impetus in wanting to go out and compete against them."
North Melbourne spokesman Heath O'Loughlin disputed Starcevich's comments, and said the club had acted appropriately. The Roos' player haul was partly a result of the club's strong preparation for its entry to the competition and its willingness to listen to the needs of players, he said.
"We take exception to any suggestions we acted outside the rules, and against the spirit of the game," O'Loughlin said.
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Although Brisbane may receive compensation in the form of extra draft picks, it can draft only players who have nominated to play for the Queensland team, diminishing the impact of having more or higher-placed picks.
The Lions have had an excellent run with injury and form over the past two seasons. This year, they used only 24 players, with a competition-high seven not taking the field (including Sam Virgo and Renee Cowan, who were both sidelined with knee injuries).
On average, the other seven AFLW teams each had only two or three players who did not play a game.
That scenario gave the likes of 18-year-old Lions Ruby Blair, Kalinda Howarth and Molly Ritson the chance to develop their skills through training and being in a team environment, as opposed to being forced to play before they were ready.
"We will regenerate, no doubt about that. There's enough talent running around here and particularly in our Queensland talent pathway to stock up from underneath," Starcevich said.
"It's probably a lesson learnt for next year when there are four new clubs (Gold Coast, Richmond, St Kilda and West Coast) who will take us up to 14 teams in the competition, as to what is the right mechanism and what sort of conversations we need to have as to the right build for the expansion clubs.
"We can't just have a free-for-all."
