From article: Football and the dollar divide
Jake Niall
The Age
June 9, 2006
Figures obtained by The Age detail the amounts the 16 clubs each spent on key areas in football, including recruiting, fitness/medical costs and coaching — in addition to the major item of player payments.
The figures, which are reported to the AFL, showed:
■ Collingwood more than doubled the amount most clubs spent on recruiting in 2005, the Magpies spending $623,000 — more than six times the amount attributed to Richmond, which did not have a full-time recruiting manager last year, the position filled by football director Greg Miller, who had dual roles.
The Tigers upgraded their recruiting this year, appointing Francis Jackson as recruiting manager.■ West Coast, which devotes significant resources to development coaching, spent clearly more than any other club on coaches. The Eagles forked out $1.69 million to their coaching staff, well ahead of second-ranked Essendon ($1.45 million). Collingwood, which was third in this category last year ($1.317 million), has since hired a number of full-time and part-time coaches, including Alan Richardson and Wayne Carey, and will probably push the Eagles on coaching dollars this year.
■ Despite the hiring of Terry Wallace on a five-year contract believed to be worth about $500,000 a season, Richmond spent the least amount on coaches in the competition, with $715,000, just edging out Hawthorn for the title of the cheapest coaching panel. The Tigers also intend to bolster their coaching ranks with a development coach next year.■ The Brisbane Lions remain the competition leaders in spending heavily on fitness, conditioning and medical costs. They spent $1.343 million on that increasingly crucial area, almost half a million ahead of the next highest spender, Sydney ($888,000). In 2005, the Lions spent nearly three times that of the Kangaroos ($453,000) on fitness/medical.
■ St Kilda ran the competition's leanest football department. The Saints had the fewest football staff (nine), and were in the bottom four spenders on recruiting, player payments and overall football operations.
While the Saints have boosted their football spending by more than a million dollars this year, St Kilda chief executive Jim Watts said yesterday that the club would remain in the competition's bottom half for football spending and probably in the bottom four.
Watts said St Kilda had ranked 16th in "total expenditure" last year. He said the amounts attributed to various football areas could be misleading because clubs might count one staffer as a "coach" and another as part of the fitness or conditioning staff.
■ Adelaide, renowned for its high tech and sports science under Neil Craig, had the most full-time staff (22), ahead of Collingwood (20), but the minor premier did not spend excessively on player payments or coaches — perhaps a reflection of the city's lower cost of living.
■ Financial powerhouse Essendon, while a heavy spender on coaches and player payments, had only 13 full-time staff in the football department — fewer than Melbourne and the Kangaroos, and the same number as its financially ailing rival Carlton.
■ Hawthorn had high player payments for a club that finished 14th last year and has been out of the finals since 2001. The Hawks spent $8 million on players, a figure swelled by the backloaded contracts of veterans Nick Holland and Shane Crawford.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/06/08/1149359883620.html
