WEST Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett says that although Carlton did not breach AFL rules in its hunt for Chris Judd, the Blues had deliberately lost games — or tanked — to ensure a priority pick before the national draft.

The Eagles have also expressed fears that Judd's swap to Carlton will spark a raft of free-agency-style trade deals unless the AFL tightens rules on players switching clubs.

Carlton lost its last 11 games in 2007. One more victory would have put it over the priority pick limit of four wins in two consecutive seasons.

Blues' chief executive Greg Swann was ecstatic this week when he claimed the club had not only secured the best player in the game (Judd), but also the opportunity to select the best young player in next month's draft after negotiations this week with the Eagles.

Nisbett said he would immediately seek to express concerns to AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and football operations manager Adrian Anderson that Judd's trade was a form of free agency because the 24-year-old was prepared to deal with only one club.

Nisbett revealed Richmond had been prepared to offer a package including its draft picks two and 18 to West Coast for Judd if it could have done a separate trade deal to win back another top-10 selection.

The Eagles would then have dealt with the Tigers to preserve the "integrity" of the system.

But Carlton and Judd are understood to have discussed cutting Richmond out of the market with a first-year price tag of up to $2 million for the 2004 Brownlow medallist, if the Eagles and Tigers struck a deal.

The Blues would then have grabbed Judd with their second pick in the pre-season draft, leaving West Coast with nothing in return. "As a club, we will have to re-address the principles of free agency because this was tantamount to it," Nisbett said.

"We were dealing on the outskirts with two clubs, but we were in a very poor bargaining position with the fact that Carlton had the second pick in the pre-season draft.

"We were tempted to do a deal with Richmond on the basis that Chris would have gone to the lowest club and it would have maintained the integrity of the draft, which is that the bottom clubs should get the best players.

"In this case, the second-bottom club got the best player and also for want of a better word, had tanked the last seven or eight games to get a priority pick. That's within the rules, so I guess in the end we have to look at how the rules are structured.

"Now every player will think that if they need to leave a club, they can just walk out, interview clubs and select one — and there's no reason at the moment why you can't. Our club remains an advocate for no free agency because it protects the integrity of the whole competition."

Nisbett was furious when Swann revealed on Thursday that Judd's manager Paul Connors had alerted the Blues midseason that his client was ready to come home, when the Eagles had been told no contract talks would be held until the end of the season.

"We wish Chris well because his service to the club was exceptional. But we're extremely disappointed we didn't get the same opportunity Carlton got in June," he said.

Connors yesterday said that Swann was simply commenting on the list of his out-of-contract clients, which included Judd, that he had sent to all clubs.

Demetriou said last night the AFL believed the trade rules had proved to be working with more deals done this year than the previous two combined. He said no trades appeared untoward.

WEST AUSTRALIAN