Tigers faces tight salary cap if it signs Tom Lynch, how much Tiger stars earnJON RALPH,
360 VIEW,
Herald Sun
7 Sept. 2018RICHMOND faces one of football’s biggest salary cap imbalances next year, with six players taking up as much as $5 million of a $12.76m salary cap.
Veteran list builder Gary Buckenara says the Tigers list management team will find a way to juggle its books to squeeze in Gold Coast star Tom Lynch.
But as Buckenara says, it could cost the Tigers a handful of mid-tier players in the coming years just as Sydney felt the squeeze with “Bondi Billionaires” Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett.
Football’s greatest certainty is that Lynch, 25, will eventually get to the Tigers, probably having made up his mind a long time ago.
The Herald Sun understands that Lynch’s contract could be up to seven years when a free agency deal is eventually brokered.
His camp is adamant that he hasn’t told the Tigers of his decision.
Nor have Collingwood and Hawthorn been officially ruled out.
But quite clearly they have been given enough of an indication to know he’s going elsewhere.
What is more relevant is how the Tigers squeeze him into a cap that will be as tight as a drum.
Dustin Martin is on around $1.2 million a year.
So he should be on a deal that with his durability will likely get him to 350 games by the age of 33, with fuel potentially left in the tank.
Lynch is likely to ask for less money per season to accept a deal past five seasons, sitting him underneath Martin on around $1 million a year.
Dion Prestia’s deal is around $750,000 a season, and Alex Rance, Jack Riewoldt and Trent Cotchin have all extended deals and renegotiated terms that would still see them earn $700,000 or more.
As Buckenara says, it takes some nifty financial manoeuvring to balance the books.
“It’s a balancing act, a bit like Sydney had to manage with Buddy and Tippett when they came in,” he said.
“More of Buddy’s money was paid in the back end and somewhere along the line if you don’t get it right, it will cost you a player or two.
“Mummy (Shane Mumford) was a casualty, (Nick) Malceski got squeezed out.
“There has been an increase in salary cap, but if Dusty is on $1.2 million, Cotchin could be playing for unders but he has got to be on $750,000-plus.
“Before you know it that’s three players on three million.
“Then you have Riewoldt and Rance and you get an imbalance where five or six players get the majority of your cap and the rest are fighting.
“Player incentives have come back to bite clubs where a guy suddenly plays better than he has before and all of a sudden, ‘Oops, we have to watch how many games he plays or where he finishes in the best-and-fairest’.”
Richmond has some big names on some big money. Picture: AAP Images
What makes it a remarkable feat of cap management is that Jayden Short has accepted a significant pay rise and Toby Nankervis, Jack Higgins, Jack Graham, Nathan Broad, Dylan Grimes, Ryan Garthwaite and Shai Bolton have all signed again this year.
There were reports this week Shaun Grigg and Bachar Houli will sign one-year extensions, but Anthony Miles will move on.
We will find out in coming weeks if Jacob Townsend, Corey Ellis and Sam Lloyd will be squeezed out or if as Brandon Ellis said this year, they just want to stay at any cost.
Richmond won’t be the last team to have its stars stay for less, but what makes it an outrider is Martin’s salary and Lynch’s likely wage.
The Tigers do seems to have the kind of culture in which key role players Kane Lambert, David Astbury, Shane Edwards and Nick Vlastuin — all out of contract next year — will be happy to stay for less.
In 2016, before two seasons of knee issues, Lynch kicked 66 goals, took 66 contested marks, took 3.5 marks inside 50 per game and averaged 15 disposals, incredible for a key forward.
He was an emerging megastar, and if Richmond can land him and nurse him back to full health, any price they pay will be worth it.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/richmond-faces-one-of-the-afls-biggest-salary-cap-imbalances-if-the-tigers-sign-tom-lynch/news-story/754e5473a9b84b6867947240280c9ec1
