Melbourne Storm legend Cooper Cronk is on the move next year, and is out and loud about it. In the AFL, Nat Fyfe and Dustin Martin might be, or might not be; they are not saying. So might young GWS gun Josh Kelly, who is not saying either, probably because he is still dumbstruck.
The difference between rugby league and AFL in how they handle player movement always is said to be cultural. AFL people tend to be high-handed about it, priding themselves on a guise of loyalty and looking down on leaguies as fickle, grubby and mercenary, thick in the neck maybe, but not with each other. AFL operators don't say they don't do mid-season backroom deals, just that they are not seen to do them.
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![MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 01: Cooper Cronk of the Melbourne Storm runs away to score a try during the round five NRL match between the Melbourne Storm and the Penrith Panthers at AAMI Park on April 1, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)](http://web.archive.org./web/20170407180113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/c/a/7/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1491373878078.png)
The Cooper Cronk announcement allows Storm fans to celebrate a club legend for one final season. Photo: Getty Images
But where does this veneer of untrammelled and undying happy chappiness get the AFL? Cronk's future is clear, at least to the extent that it is not in Melbourne, and Storm fans now can cherish him for one last season while processing his departure and perhaps even planning a rousing farewell. He might turn up next year in another club's colours, but it will feel less like a betrayal than if he had walked out at season's end. Storm fans can be certain of one thing, that he will give his best until the end.
In the AFL, by contrast, Martin is already hiding behind doors and Fyfe behind platitudes, and even though North Melbourne have admitted tabling a deal for Kelly, he cannot even acknowledge that it has reached his side, because that is the lore of the code. Yes, these matters are handled manager-to-manager, but arm's length does not mean hands off: how could it? Meantime, the dance goes on.
![MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 30: Dustin Martin (left) and Trent Cotchin of the Tigers celebrate during the 2017 AFL round 02 match between the Richmond Tigers and the Collingwood Magpies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 30, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)](http://web.archive.org./web/20170407180113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/e/c/a/p/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1491373909523.png)
One of the talking points of the season will be where Dustin Martin will be next season. Photo: AFL Media/Getty Images
The three biggest AFL names to move clubs this decade were Gary Ablett, Patrick Dangerfield and Lance Franklin. In the leaky footy world, in which every club knows every other clubs business, all three transfers were open secrets, but because they could not be announced until season's end proved excruciating for players, clubs and fans. Ablett and Dangerfield had to pretend they were still  making up their minds. Each was obliged to keep a secret about himself that everyone else was broadcasting from the rooftops. It made the whole business needlessly testy and tense. The strain showed.
Franklin's last game for Hawthorn brought a premiership, yet at the celebration the next day he could only mime farewell; protocol forbade him from saying it. It made the moment sadder than it ought to have been. As it happened, Franklin did have a secret – he was going to the Swans, not GWS. When it emerged, it felt doubly sordid.
Would it have really hurt if all three had felt free to publicise their decisions once made? It is a live question: now that free agency has quickened the market, it will recur often.
Early disclosure would obviate the obfuscation. It would ease the stress on the players and clubs. It would break fans hearts, but they would be broken anyway, and at least this way, it might smooth the healing process: a little wistful cheering now, a little panto booing to come, a fond farewell – a lap of honour even – and then on with the show. Fans are resilient. They have to be. Deep in those true-beating hearts, they know the cold reality of the professional footy stage, that "their" superstar was only ever a conscript in the first place, their shared mission a beautiful conceit. On those terms, best to appreciate what he did and does while he is there than damn him for departing.
If the protocol was to change, the least concern anyone should have is that a star with one foot out of the door would drag the other. It would impugn the very qualities that made him a star in the first instance. Ablett was best-on-ground in his last game for Geelong, Dangerfield best for the Crows, also winning their best-and-fairest. If outbound Franklin was a lesser player at all in 2013, it was only because they Hawks then had the luxury of planning and rehearsing for a future without him while winning the premiership anyway, and the next two.
Players move clubs. They always have and always will. The child in us footy fans protests it, the adult understands. I'm not advocating carte blanche, just that when a player makes his decision, he should be at liberty – but under no compulsion – to forgo the old charade and say so.
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