TO UNDERSTAND how big a deal player evaluation and scouting has become in the AFL, a glance at the 2007 AFL Record Season Guide reveals a fair bit.

In the listing of the key management for each club, there are just six - Essendon, Fremantle, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Melbourne and the Sydney Swans - who appeared to have a list manager in their employ.

The people concerned might not have carried that actual job title, but the job description across the six clubs was pretty much the same - to oversee the playing list, manage the salary cap and keep some sort of inventory on the playing lists at rival clubs.

Fast forward to 2012. According to the same publication, each club except for Collingwood has employed some sort of list manager.

They carry all sorts of lofty titles - general manager of player development, national talent manager, and contracts and list manager are among them - but they have become among the most valuable employees at AFL clubs as the football industry welcomes the era of free agency.

The freedom for players to change clubs after eight and 10 seasons, depending on their status as restricted or unrestricted free agents, has drastically changed the landscape for AFL football departments.

Football clubs have been analyzing their rivals for years, but primarily for the purpose of prepping for their upcoming matches. But opposition analysis has grown within AFL circles, with most clubs employing at least one pro scout in addition to the list manager, whose main focus is to analyse opposition clubs, not with a view to next week, but instead with a view to the trade and free agency period.

The AFL's move towards free agency was announced in 2010 for a start following the 2012 season. The timing made perfect sense, coming at the end of Greater Western Sydney's first season in the AFL and the end of the compromised drafts.

But the clubs have been preparing for even longer. Melbourne installed Tim Harrington, formerly of North Melbourne, as its list manager in 2009 and chief executive Cameron Schwab recalled this week, it was a weighty decision for the Demons at the time.

"Even when we were struggling for resources, we felt we had to beef up that area," he said.

The Demons have split their opposition analysis straight down the middle. Harrington and Kelly O'Donnell look at the other 17 clubs from a list management point of view, with O'Donnell, a former assistant coach, carrying the increasingly common title within AFL circles of 'pro scout'.

Then there is David Dunbar, the man of many disguises, who is charged with scouting forthcoming opponents from a coaching point of view. Dunbar famously once locked horns with Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson when he was spotted watching the Hawks train at Waverley from a neighboring construction site while wearing a hard hat and overalls.

Pro scouting is a bit more white-collar, involving lots of video and statistical analysis, number crunching and lots of coffee dates with player managers.

"It's fundamentally different to who we're playing next week and how to play against them," Schwab said. "There's obviously some overlap between the two, but it's about keeping one eye on the next game and the other on how our playing list develops and evolves."

Over at the Westpac Centre, just across the railway tracks from Melbourne's base at the MCG, Collingwood engages in all the same sort of activity, as do the Demons and every other club in the AFL. But there was no list manager recorded on the Collingwood page of the AFL Record Season Guide in 2007 and nothing has changed in 2012.

"We're not going to change what we do too much," said Collingwood's director of football, Geoff Walsh. "We've known for a while that the new rule is coming in, but it's one that we've already catered for."

"In previous years we've always been aware of which guys are coming out of contract and we know the new opportunities that free agency will bring us, but it won't change what we do.

Walsh oversees list management at the Pies, working closely with national recruiting manager Derek Hine. But as his footy director title suggests, Walsh is across every football department matter at the Pies and given that he has been in the caper for nearly 30 years, there are few wiser heads in the game.

Add former Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade to the mix as the club's new football and coaching strategist and the Pies strongly believe they have the knowledge and the structure to successfully manage footy's new world order.

"We've been doing opposition analysis for a while and while the application of the data will now be broader, we don't think we need to change the way we do it," said Walsh.

And it is hard to argue when you consider the success the Pies have had in successfully bringing the likes of Luke Ball, Darren Jolly and Chris Tarrant to their club in the last few years.

You can follow Ashley Browne on Twitter @hashbrowne

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