Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has proposed a mid-season draft to allow clubs to fix seasons wrecked by injury.

But in a twist, Buckley suggests only allowing players outside the AFL to be drafted when long-term injuries at clubs arise.

“I like the (mid-season draft) idea more outside of the current playing pool,” he said.

“You’ve got blokes who are killing it at Diamond Valley or in the SANFL, or in the WAFL and they might have just miss out on being drafted or a rookie-listed player.

“But they’ve had a really great start to the season.

“You say … ‘we’ve got this guy we want to give a crack to’.”

The idea would turn heads in state and regional leagues, where players could find themselves battling in the mud one week and at the MCG the next.

Buckley believes it would also strengthen tight-knit bonds between grassroots and elite AFL clubs.

His contribution is the latest offering from AFL coaches keen to tinker with the balancing act between club loyalty and player power.

Geelong coach Chris Scott said he would scrap the free agency period if it was up to him, while Melbourne coach Paul Roos suggested clubs would resort to trading players in advance to avoid losing them for free.

Buckley says one of the advantages of his draft would be AFL clubs would not lose players, but injury-ravaged clubs could fill gaps on their list.

“With the injury profiles we’ve seen at certain clubs … we would have loved a little bit of support in the key back region,” he said.

“If we had a mid-season draft, we may have been able to go there.”

Buckley says there is a little bit of support from the coaches meeting for a mid-season draft but there is a united view on free agency.

“The unanimous view is that it does benefit destination clubs,” he said.

“It’s not a method of equalisation.”

Buckley did not mince his words when considering a model where contracted players could sign secret mid-season agreements to join another club. “It just sounds wrong,” Buckley said.

“I’ve heard stories about how the NRL run it and the fact that you can have players play out a season in a team with their team-mates already knowing.

“There’s only one thing worse than that and that’s somebody knowing they’re going somewhere else and not telling, not being honest.”

Source: AAP