THE GO-HOME factor has largely been a non-factor in free agency, with more players moving away from their home state since its introduction in 2012.

Only eight of the 39 players who have changed clubs via free agency have moved from an interstate club back to a team in their home state, with Patrick Dangerfield*, former Sun Tom Lynch and Scott Lycett among the biggest names to do so.

By comparison, 10 players, including Eddie Betts, Danyle Pearce and Chris Mayne, have used free agency to relocate from their home states.

Victoria's 10 teams had not lost a free agent to the go-home factor until West Australian Reece Conca left Richmond to join Fremantle this year.

South Australian clubs have been the hardest hit in this area, with four Victorian free agents electing to return home from the City of Churches: Troy Chaplin (Richmond, 2012) and Jackson Trengove (Western Bulldogs, 2017) left Port Adelaide, while Dangerfield (Geelong, 2015) and Chris Knights (Richmond, 2012) departed Adelaide.

West Coast is the only West Australian team to lose an interstate free agent to his home state, with Lycett returning to South Australia this year and Scott Selwood to Victoria in 2015, while Sydney and Brisbane join Fremantle as teams that have yet to suffer such a departure.

Greater Western Sydney is in the same position, but no Giants player has been eligible for free agency until now.

The Giants watched their expansion sibling Gold Coast lose its former co-captain Lynch to his home state, Victoria, this year, the first season in which Suns players became eligible for free agency.

GWS will be hoping to avoid the same fate with its inaugural batch of free agents in 2019: Steve Coniglio (Western Australia), Nick Haynes, Adam Tomlinson and Matt Buntine (all from Victoria).

History will largely be on the Giants' side in this respect, but interstate rivals won't be afraid to challenge that history and prey on the slightest sign of homesickness among their free agents.

It seems, however, GWS need not fear a raid from its crosstown rival Sydney.

Outside of Victoria, no free agent has moved to another team in the same state.

Players' reluctance to move to an intrastate rival makes perfect sense when you consider the fierce rivalries between the Eagles and Dockers, and the Crows and Power.

Imagine the grief star defender Jeremy McGovern would have copped from Eagles fans every time he went out in public if he had accepted the huge free agency offer Fremantle dangled at him earlier this year.

Similarly, it's tough to imagine either Richard Douglas or Sam Jacobs crossing from Adelaide to Port Adelaide in next year's free agency period, or Power pair Justin Westhoff and Matthew Broadbent crossing to the Crows.

However, Victorian clubs have had considerable success prising free agents from local rivals.

Sixteen free agents have moved clubs but stayed in Victoria, four of them despite hailing from another state – West Australians Daniel Wells (North Melbourne to Collingwood in 2016) and Alex Fasolo (Collingwood to Carlton, 2018), South Australian Jared Rivers (Melbourne to Geelong, 2012) and New South Welshman Matt Suckling (Hawthorn to Western Bulldogs, 2015).

*AFL.com.au has included Patrick Dangerfield's move from Adelaide to Geelong in 2015 in these figures given the Crows unofficially indicated they would match a free agency offer before the teams agreed to a trade.

Free agency moves

Returned to home state: 8 +
Moved from home state: 10
Stayed in home state (Vic): 12
Stayed in same state (Vic): 4
Moved to another state*: 5