PLAYERS ON MEGA DEALS COULD BE FORCED INTO NEGOTIATIONSFoxsports
14 April 2020There is growing uncertainty over player contracts with managers and clubs waiting on further information from the league amid the coronavirus shutdown.
The AFL will not tick off new deals for the foreseeable future, while long-term arrangements may need to be restructured.
The financial hole the industry finds itself in will be unknown until football returns.
One player manager told foxfooty.com.au that uniformed pay cuts appear likely, but a decision to simply tear up contracts and start again would be carnage and a logistical nightmare.
There are also questions of legality. Theoretically, players could refuse to adjust their contracts regardless of a reduced salary cap in future years. This move appears unlikely, but as one club official said, ‘literally anything is possible at the moment.”
There are 30 players in the AFL who have penned long-term deals. For the purposes of this exercise, we will categorise ‘long-term’ as 2024 or beyond.
Brodie Grundy and Lachie Whitfield are tied to Collingwood and GWS respectively until the end of 2027, while Stephen Coniglio is committed to GWS until the end of 2026.
Wayne Milera (Adelaide),
Tom Lynch (Richmond), Jack Darling (West Coast) and Tim Kelly (West Coast) have contracts in place until the end of 2025.
There are a further 23 which will come out of contract at the end of 2024, including Andrew Gaff,
Dustin Martin and Patrick Dangerfield.
Many of these players are stars of the competition and have rock solid career security for a reason. They are valuable commodities. They aren’t at risk of losing their jobs – like some of their colleagues – but they have the most to lose from a pure dollars perspective.
POTENTIAL FIGHT LOOMING BETWEEN AFLPA AND AFL OVER PLAYER CONTRACTSVeteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson expects there will be some vigorous discussion between the AFLPA and the AFL, given list sizes and contracts will need to be restricted.
The financial hit on the AFL is likely to force a number of playing spots to be cut, while those on mega contracts will likely need to restructure them moving forward.
"I think there's a big blue looming between the AFLPA and the AFL,” Wilson said on Channel 9’s Footy Classified.
“There's various views about what lists are going to look like ... but the AFL hates seven-year deals and I have no doubt that Brodie Grundy will be taking a pay cut over the next few years.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-coronavirus-updates-covid19-afl-aflpa-player-contracts-brodie-grundy-mega-deals-finances/news-story/d0f2e418ecca4858f174e306f120e812
