How Richmond will handle 3 players earning more than a million in 2024 (HSun)

[one-eyed]

How Richmond will handle three players earning more than a million dollars in 2024

Richmond is facing a salary squeeze in 2024, with three players earning over a million dollars. Clubs never like to have more than two millionaires at a time. See how the Tigers plan to handle it.

Jon Ralph, Jay Clark, Sam Landserger and Glenn McFarlane
HeraldSun
June 26, 2023

Richmond’s brilliant mid-forward Shai Bolton will join footy’s exclusive group of millionaires from next year with his deal worth over $1.1 million a season.

Bolton signed a lucrative new five-year contract extension in late 2022 which starts next year but is currently in the last year of his existing deal worth around $600,000 a season.

The Herald Sun can reveal that five-year deal is worth well over $1 million a year and even has scope to hit $1.2 million if he ticks off every games-based and best-and-fairest clause.

The deal will mean that for a single season Richmond could have three million-dollar players as Dustin Martin finishes the final year of his seven-year $1.2 million contract and Tom Lynch’s back-ended deal continues until the end of 2025.

For Richmond it was a massive sum but it is understood rival clubs were offering more and had hoped to drag the 24-year-old out of Richmond.

It will lead to a short-term salary squeeze but Richmond is confident it can balance its books on a list that currently has 19 players 22 or under.

The Bolton deal was signed only months after the dual premiership player became a first-time All Australian as a player who kicked 43 goals and added 83 clearances to go with his 403 possessions in his breakout 2022 season.

Bolton finished fourth in the club’s best-and-fairest last year but as a dual threat capable of causing havoc up forward and winning crucial centre-square clearances he is the centrepiece of the club’s future plans.

Richmond still has cap space to acquire a replacement forward for Jack Riewoldt as it chases GWS free agent Harry Himmelberg.

Martin expects to see out the final year of his deal in 2024 and then play on - whether at Richmond or another club - while Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt are considered likely to retire this year.

It will save the Tigers some cap space even after the pair took pay cuts this year to play on, but Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper are due around $750,000 for the life of their seven-year contracts.

Martin would take a significant pay cut for 2025, with AFL clubs expecting the salary cap to rise as much as 20 per cent in the next four years.

Clubs ideally only want to pay two million dollar players on their list at any one time but Richmond has long been a club that has paid up for its mega-stars while being responsible with salaries for role players and emerging kids.

https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/afl-rich-100-how-richmond-will-handle-three-players-earning-more-than-a-million-dollars-in-2024/news-story/9a4ee850eeeb03875fd6d77f7d7f6f3d

[Andyy]

Ummm I didn't think Bolton was on that much lol.

Thought it was closer to 800.

If we're paying him 7 figures that's madness and poor list management.

I doubt it's true.

[wayne]

Back end it, Dusty and Lynch get their big bucks next season, then Dustys wage drops significantly.

[Tiger Khosh]

Ummm I didn't think Bolton was on that much lol.

Thought it was closer to 800.

If we're paying him 7 figures that's madness and poor list management.

I doubt it's true.

The figures that get reported to us are generally just the value of the contract divided by its length. 1 year he could be on 500k another year he could be pushing a million but overall it was reported around 700k a year which is great value.

[Tiger Khosh]

Back end it, Dusty and Lynch get their big bucks next season, then Dustys wage drops significantly.

Dusty’s contract finishes at the end of next season so at this stage it drops to 0 lol

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Not if they sign him to a 2 year extension and smooth the numbers

[Tiger Khosh]

Not if they sign him to a 2 year extension and smooth the numbers

I guess it’s not impossible but why would dusty play 3 seasons to earn the same amount as he would in 1? That’s the same thing McClure said on footy classified that Gold Coast should offer him and hutchy shut him down lol

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Not if they sign him to a 2 year extension and smooth the numbers

I guess it’s not impossible but why would dusty play 3 seasons to earn the same amount as he would in 1? That’s the same thing McClure said on footy classified that Gold Coast should offer him and hutchy shut him down lol

I didn’t say that. McClure did.
 I think a good trade off is to pay him $2m over 3 years which nets him another $800k over an extra 2 years.
Smooth it out and pay him $650k over 3 years.

[Tiger Khosh]

Not if they sign him to a 2 year extension and smooth the numbers

I guess it’s not impossible but why would dusty play 3 seasons to earn the same amount as he would in 1? That’s the same thing McClure said on footy classified that Gold Coast should offer him and hutchy shut him down lol

I didn’t say that. McClure did.
 I think a good trade off is to pay him $2m over 3 years which nets him another $800k over an extra 2 years.
Smooth it out and pay him $650k over 3 years.

Ahh misunderstood. Yeah that would be a different story. Are we sure dusty wants to go on another couple of seasons? Hope the champ is with us for another few seasons yet but also wouldn’t be totally surprised if he hung it up at the end of next season. Achieved everything there is to achieve and most of his best mates would have been gone by then too.

[Andyy]

Ummm I didn't think Bolton was on that much lol.

Thought it was closer to 800.

If we're paying him 7 figures that's madness and poor list management.

I doubt it's true.

The figures that get reported to us are generally just the value of the contract divided by its length. 1 year he could be on 500k another year he could be pushing a million but overall it was reported around 700k a year which is great value.

Good point. Hopefully we extend him again and spread it out otherwise that's like $3.5mil for 3 players

[Tiger Khosh]

Ummm I didn't think Bolton was on that much lol.

Thought it was closer to 800.

If we're paying him 7 figures that's madness and poor list management.

I doubt it's true.

The figures that get reported to us are generally just the value of the contract divided by its length. 1 year he could be on 500k another year he could be pushing a million but overall it was reported around 700k a year which is great value.

Good point. Hopefully we extend him again and spread it out otherwise that's like $3.5mil for 3 players

I don’t think it’s too much of an issue. They’ve already re-signed everyone of note in the sense that anyone not under contract yet for next season (Cotchin, Dow, Mansell, McIntosh, Pickett, Ralphsmith, Riewoldt, Tarrant, Biggy, Bauer, Colina, Coulthard, Trezise) will either retire, be delisted, or re-sign on minimal coin short term deals so they likely know exactly what they’re working with. Then after next season Dusty’s big contract gets off the books as well as Prestias with Lynch’s to come the following season. I’d expect us to have a war chest (aka the north Melbourne special) to throw at free agents by the end of the 2025 season.

[one-eyed]

Richmond know that Martin won’t be on $1.2 million beyond 2024, so they moved early to secure Taranto and Hopper and will use the space that Martin’s contract expiry will create to pay them in the future.

https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/secret-list-manager-answers-nine-key-questions-to-building-a-premiership-side/news-story/b53b6ece664137ff9f31b3af15dc0172