Play On? Business Strategy, Labour Market Regulation and Game Development in Australian Football

The Australian Football League’s core operational strategy - equalization policy - seeks to promote competitive balance, treat all AFL clubs fairly, and develop markets for participants and consumers, via regulation of the labor market for AFL players. Great controversy therefore surrounded the AFL’s announcement, then withdrawal, of a proposal to give the Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans ‘special assistance’ in the 2001 AFL National Draft. Trade-offs between conflicting objectives are inevitable