Geelong V Melboune Storm?

[Penelope]

With all the crap going on at the moment about gold coast poaching players, free agency and outside payments, it got me thinking about the two clubs that have dominated their respective leagues recently. Geelong playing in the last 3 Grand Finals for 2 wins and Melbourne Storm playing in the last 4 Grand Finals for 2 wins.

The two clubs though have vastly different methods in trying to combat the salary cap and keep a competatve side on the field.

Geelong have gone down the path of trying to keep as much of the playing group together as possible, hoping the lure of premiership glory will outweigh the lure of big bucks. They are "relying on the players in my opinion to accept offers which are about 20 per cent less than their market value"
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/geelong-cats-confident-salary-cap-squeeze-will-not-break-them/story-e6frf9io-1225780167980

The Storm on the other hand rely on a spine (fullback, five-eighth, halfback and hooker) of superstars who are highly paid on long term contracts, with a big gap in payments from the top to the bottom.
"We have a massive gap between our top tier and the guys at the bottom of our salary cap."
"There's a lot of those on the minimum wage. That's just the way it is. We make no apologies for it."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/how-melbourne-storm-defies-salary-cap/story-e6frg7mf-1225782320430

Every year the storm seem to loose 'name' players yet still keep fronting up. They obviously feel that you can afford to loose those run of the mill type players as long as the key positions are filled by elite, match winning players.

To me this makes sense, as its easier to replace those type of players than the out and out champions. I suppose the AFL equivalent would be having 3 or 4 top line midfielders and a KPF and KPB on the top tier of payments then surrounding them with sound players and youngsters on lower level players.

To me, on face value, the Storm have the better system in place for long term success, but would it work in the AFL?
Which path should Richmond head down in 3 or 4 years time ?

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[mightytiges]

I don't know if this will happen by some argue that free agency will see AFL go down a similar path in respect to the top end players receiving a bigger chuck of the cap (like your NRL example al) than they do now. Although the AFL has tried to prevent big names moving clubs with their 10 year criteria for those players in the top 25% earnings, they argue clubs will be forced to pay more to their guns to keep them and of course attract free agents over to their club.

As for the Storm they have been a very consistent club since entering the NRL. Off the top of my head they have only missed the finals twice in their 12 year history. I don't think the NRL has a draft system so the Storm obviously have a strong feeder club and recruiters/scouts. They know the kind of player they want and go after him. You don't find a Brett Finch scenario in AFL where a top player switches clubs midseason and walks into a premiership side. It's harder to find elite kids in a draft system as it's designed to favour bottom clubs over top clubs.

[Penelope]

I think there is a fair chance that will happen MT. I just cant see players like ablett taking 20% less than his worth for the rest of their career. As Smokey pointed out in another thread, their football life is short thus their capacity to earn from footy is short. As it stands now ablett has two premiership medallions and a brownlow. You could understand him thinking that he has achieved more in terms of success than most so it is time to make some big bucks from footy to safegaurd his financial future. It's interesting that under the free agency proposal the players existing club has the option of matching the offer from the rival club. This also could contribute to a big gap between the elite and the average.

While the NRL is different in no draft ( If I recall correctly there was talk of a draft years back but the threat of restraint of trade action killed it), the storm seem to work better with the system available than most. The fact they are in a non rugby league state speaks even higher volumes for their success. Finding Elite players is difficult no matter what the system, but yeah probably harder under the draft system, which means you need to be more vigilant in keeping them.

I reakon the storm may have nailed it here, but I think the aspect of culture at the club is important. Reading that article they go to lengths to ensure there is no animosity towards the higher paid players and if an average player wants to go elsewhere for the dollars, fine, there's a plethora of young blokes who want to play in a successful side to replace them.

It will interesting to follow the on field fortunes of Geelong and Storm over the next few years.

Perhaps the time is right given Richmonds lower player payments, young list and free agency around the corner to snare one or two truly elite players from other clubs - not hacks, never was and never will bees, but top class players with 4-5 years of football still left in them

[mightytiges]

With our current list structure with so many players 23 and under and so few genuine A-graders yep we could quite easily convert to such a payment regime in theory. I actually think the 92.5% minimum place on AFL clubs' TPPs is now totally unnecessary (I know it's still there to appease the AFLPA but it was introduced to stop Fitzroy hanging on forever paying very little to their players and getting flogged every week). A young list like ours as a whole is effectively being forced to be overpaid with respect to a top club. The difference between 92.5% and 100% is around $600k. It isn't much when you think about especially as these young players will rightly demand more and more money as they develop together. Slightly off-topic but if clubs were allowed to pay say 80% of the cap it would allow more room to keep your best players as they matured and ward off free agency poaching.

I think you've made a good point al in terms of hacks, never was and never will bees (love the names btw ). I agree clubs will be forced to less tolerant about these types and won't be able to afford (in more ways than one) to keep them on their senior list unless they're on base salary. The mature rookie rule may be used more and more for the "best" of these types as cheap ready-made back-up so you're list only contains your stars and up and coming youth rather than list cloggers. Then again other clubs have been less tolerant already compared to what the RFC has been. I can't see a Schulz lasting 7 years   on one club's list ever again.

Actually the more you think about it this split-tier payment structure seems inevitable in some way. The new 25% earnings rule will almost encourage a natural split in how players are ranked on a list. Once one club does it the rest will follow or risk losing their better players. The restrictions on free agency of course doesn't stop a player asking for a trade before the 8-10 year period chasing $$$ if they are increasingly being made available at another club with a split-tier TPP and room to maneouvre to target opposition players with offers of $$$. Pelcham at the Hawks already ranks their players from A-D and apparently pays accordingly. Hopefully the RFC with Benny Gale now at the helm with his inside knowledge as head of the AFLPA are prepared to get ahead of the game rather than follow and get caught out  .

For the Ablett's and absolute superstars of the comp. I'm not sure how else to boost their salary greatly while staying within a salary cap system. They A-league uses the idea of a marque player. The marque player's salary is allowed to be counted outside the salary cap but capped to a certain amount (about 15 times the average player's salary in the A-League). The average AFL salary is around $275k so a AFL marque player would then be paid $4m   based on that theory.

You're right about Storm's culture al. Second to none in the NRL for mine. Over time they've lost top players like Kimmorley, Orford and last year Falou to the call from home up north yet they are still No.1 and now world club champions  .

[Penelope]

What ever happened to the 'club 10' or whatever it was going back a few years ago? that was a group of the most marketable players (nixon's stable?) who were used for endorsements etc, thus bringing in extra income to their contracts.

[mightytiges]

What ever happened to the 'club 10' or whatever it was going back a few years ago? that was a group of the most marketable players (nixon's stable?) who were used for endorsements etc, thus bringing in extra income to their contracts.

Yep it was Nixon's club 10. Gary Ablett Snr, Carey and Lockett were part of it. Cuz was added to it so that's how Nixon became his manager until the recent fall-out. I think it died out as other player managers joined in the rush to sign big names but I'm not 100% sure. It certainly hasn't existed since the 90s. Richo was managed by Nixon's flying start company.