The AFL is aware that the recent trade of Jaeger O’Meara didn’t meet our own rules.

In considering this, the AFL decided to adopt its Close Enough Policy.

The Close Enough Policy is a key pillar in our ‘Making It Up As We Go Along’ Legal Framework, now in its 33^rd year.

Considering the trade, within these parameters, the AFL came to the conclusion that changing anything would be a massive pain.

The AFL also considered that the club receiving O’Mera was Victorian and more specifically, Hawthorn.

We, therefore, interpreted the rule to achieve our preferred outcome in this circumstances.

By ‘interpreting’, the AFL means ignoring the rule and just saying something else.

In this case, Hawthorn traded something they couldn’t, but we just decided they had other things, and hey, we made up these rules so we can ignore them.

Like when you say you won’t eat the whole tub of ice cream but you do anyway. We’re just like you really, except this is meant to be a billion-dollar professional industry.

We hope this clears up the situation.

Go Hawks!