CLUBS' investment in young players and the equalisation benefits of the draft needed to be preserved in any form of free agency, two AFL coaches said yesterday.

Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said that clubs who had put years of time and effort into improving young players could potentially be burned by free agency, while St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said the equalising effects of the draft and the salary cap could be compromised.

The AFL Players' Association is pushing for a form of free agency where players would become eligible for limited movement after four years, and true agency after six years.

While Eade said he did not oppose free agency, he believed conditions needed to be put into any proposal. "I know the AFLPA and the AFL are probably worried about litigation for restraint of trade. Obviously they're worried about the decline in the number of trades over the last few years, making it a little easier … for players to change clubs if they need to.

"I think we've got to be careful that it's not too easy for players to change on a whim either. Any club puts four or five years into a player's development and, all of a sudden, if he wants to go, it's very easy to go. That destroys the nature of the draft where you've put time and effort into a player. I'm certainly not against it, but I'd hope it's not too easy for players to change clubs."

While admitting the restrictions of the trading period were not ideal, Lyon said: "I know it's a concept that exists overseas and there's good reasons for it to exist but, clearly, the rules of the competition, the salary cap and the draft, have really encouraged some clubs to lift off the bottom and I think we have got to be careful with anything that tampers with that.

"I think it is a reasonable system without being perfect and all the powers that be and all the clubs are making suggestions to improve it."

■Kevin Sheedy has advocated the return of an in-season draft. Between 1990-93, clubs could recruit players mid-year and the Essendon coach believes the concept still has merit.

If players won the right to be free agents Sheedy said clubs would need at least a year's notice. "You'd want to know 12 months ahead … it'd be very difficult for clubs and the players to say it's happening this trade period, that would be very, very awkward for everybody."

With SAMANTHA LANE