The AFL hopes to develop a model for free agency by the end of this year, but it will not be in place for the upcoming trade and draft period.

The AFL Players' Association has made a concerted push for a limited form of free agency to be introduced.

Announcing a raft of minor changes to draft and trade rules, the league said it was yet to reach agreement with the association on the issue, but had "a view to reaching an agreement by December 31, 2008".

"The AFL and the AFLPA have discussed the issue of 'free agency' at length and the parties could not agree on a model of 'free agency' submitted by the AFLPA," football operations manager Adrian Anderson said in the statement.

"As such, the AFL and the AFLPA will continue to meet on this issue."

But several changes will apply from this year's national draft onwards:

* A player who is not contracted on or before October 31 will now be eligible to nominate for that year's national draft.

* The eligibility age for the national draft will increase by four months, so that the player must turn 18 or on before December 31 in the year of that draft.

* Players who have not yet made their AFL debut, but may previously have been on a senior or rookie list, will now be eligible to be listed as mature-age rookies.

* The removal of the rules restricting clubs to a maximum of five players traded out in a single year, and the maximum of three players involved in a single player-trade.

Anderson said the working party which came up with the alterations had tried to strike a balance between giving players adequate opportunity to switch clubs, while maintaining the evenness of the competition.

"The AFL's draft and salary cap rules have produced an evenness of competition across our 16 clubs that is almost unheard of in an elite competition, with every one of the current AFL clubs having made a preliminary final at least once since the 1998 season," Anderson said.

"This has been achieved with the agreement of our player group, and it is also extremely important that we continue to provide the best opportunities for a player to be able to move clubs to further his career, if those opportunities are available at another club."

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