http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/pay-now-play-later/story-e6frf9jf-1225844049547

This seems like a very good idea to me, AS LONG as the players having their contracts front loaded are only our very very best players who will definitely be looking to play for the demons for at least the next 6 years.

If the front loading includes Davey, Sylvia, Morton, Morton, Grimes, Moloney and Trengove- then i'm all for it.

Whilst we are not good enough on field to attract a big-name player by offering $700k a year, in 2-3 years time, when we make the 8 for first time with this group, i'm certain we will find someone who will take the cash and play for us. Having room to attract that kind of player could make all this difference and fill a hole that wasn't filled by drafting. (Barry Hall at Bulldgos anyone?).

Anyways, i reckon it's a good idea

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/pay-now-play-later/story-e6frf9jf-1225844049547

This seems like a very good idea to me, AS LONG as the players having their contracts front loaded are only our very very best players who will definitely be looking to play for the demons for at least the next 6 years.

If the front loading includes Davey, Sylvia, Morton, Morton, Grimes, Moloney and Trengove- then i'm all for it.

Whilst we are not good enough on field to attract a big-name player by offering $700k a year, in 2-3 years time, when we make the 8 for first time with this group, i'm certain we will find someone who will take the cash and play for us. Having room to attract that kind of player could make all this difference and fill a hole that wasn't filled by drafting. (Barry Hall at Bulldgos anyone?).

Anyways, i reckon it's a good idea

It's a great idea, but it's not exactly anything new.

It's exactly what Tim Harrington was brought in for. This article is only confrmation he is doing his job.

What you see here is quality list management at work.

Planning for a successful future.

Excellent stuff.

It's a great idea, but it's not exactly anything new.

It's exactly what Tim Harrington was brought in for. This article is only confrmation he is doing his job.

Doing his job well.

This is good news for us, whether expected or not.

We are finally getting the right people in place.

maybe now he has sorted out the financials maybe he can concentrate on telling BP to get another key forward to the club.

maybe now he has sorted out the financials maybe he can concentrate on telling BP to get another key forward to the club.

Don't start this again.

There is no way in hell we should have chosen Butcher ahead of Trengove, or any other combination of drafting.

If all our players are fit I think we'll have a formidable forward line, given a couple of years' worth of development.

None of Butcher, Talia, Black or Carlisle et al would be ready to help us now anyway.

If we are paying the same as Geelong and Hawthorn, 100% of the cap, we are a failure at rebuilding already. I thought we were front ending contracts to get to 92.5% not 100%. Please someone tell me Jon Ralph has got this wrong.

Don't start this again.

There is no way in hell we should have chosen Butcher ahead of Trengove, or any other combination of drafting.

If all our players are fit I think we'll have a formidable forward line, given a couple of years' worth of development.

None of Butcher, Talia, Black or Carlisle et al would be ready to help us now anyway.

Agreed. I know plenty of people doubt this, but I think by the time we need our forwards firing Martin will be there. Given that we also have Jurrah, Bate, Watts and Fitzpatrick in there, I have absolutely no fear of our forwards letting us down when we need them.

If we are paying the same as Geelong and Hawthorn, 100% of the cap, we are a failure at rebuilding already. I thought we were front ending contracts to get to 92.5% not 100%. Please someone tell me Jon Ralph has got this wrong.

Jon Ralph has got this wrong.

old news Jon Ralph...(Yawn)

We will now be paying 100% of the 92.5% salary cap limit if that makes sense....that first paragraph is incorrect from what i have read

Edited March 23, 201015 yr by why you little

If we are paying the same as Geelong and Hawthorn, 100% of the cap, we are a failure at rebuilding already. I thought we were front ending contracts to get to 92.5% not 100%. Please someone tell me Jon Ralph has got this wrong.

I don't think you understand the plan. Rather than having players like Sylvia, Davey, Morton, etc taking up cap space in 2-3 years time as senior players demanding big money they will be on less money than what they will receive this year, leaving ample room in the cap for paying up bigger money to retain our young future stars like Grimes, Watts, Trengove, Scully, Jurrah, Strauss, Blease, etc etc who we've invested so heavily in through the draft.

Rather than get bogged down in an irrelevancy like whether Aaron Davey makes as much as a St Kilda midfielder, rather consider your sheer horror and fury at losing a player from the 2nd group above because we didn't have cap space.

I don't think you understand the plan. Rather than having players like Sylvia, Davey, Morton, etc taking up cap space in 2-3 years time as senior players demanding big money they will be on less money than what they will receive this year, leaving ample room in the cap for paying up bigger money to retain our young future stars like Grimes, Watts, Trengove, Scully, Jurrah, Strauss, Blease, etc etc who we've invested so heavily in through the draft.

Rather than get bogged down in an irrelevancy like whether Aaron Davey makes as much as a St Kilda midfielder, rather consider your sheer horror and fury at losing a player from the 2nd group above because we didn't have cap space.

If we did not front load contracts this year we would in fact be paying about 85% of the salary cap because our list is so young.

This Jon Ralph does not mention.

If we did not front load contracts this year we would in fact be paying about 85% of the salary cap because our list is so young.

This Jon Ralph does not mention.

The way I read the article is that we are paying 100% of the cap so we can have some spare cash to keep the youngins on the list after we win our 2nd Cup

The way I read the article is that we are paying 100% of the cap so we can have some spare cash to keep the youngins on the list after we win our 2nd Cup

Correct, but i still do not think it is possible we are paying the full 100% of the cap as our list is so young and inexperienced, but i could be wrong.

I am pretty sure i heard CC talk this all through on radio last week, but i was busy at the time so could not concentrate all the way.

Edited March 23, 201015 yr by why you little

I don't think you understand the plan. Rather than having players like Sylvia, Davey, Morton, etc taking up cap space in 2-3 years time as senior players demanding big money they will be on less money than what they will receive this year, leaving ample room in the cap for paying up bigger money to retain our young future stars like Grimes, Watts, Trengove, Scully, Jurrah, Strauss, Blease, etc etc who we've invested so heavily in through the draft.

Rather than get bogged down in an irrelevancy like whether Aaron Davey makes as much as a St Kilda midfielder, rather consider your sheer horror and fury at losing a player from the 2nd group above because we didn't have cap space.

I understand how it works but the plan, as I understood it, was we'd be frontloading contracts to get to the minimum 92.5% of the salary cap. It's irrelevant how much is front loaded in 4 years if we're paying 100% of the cap now, we'd still have little room to move when contracts are being renewed.

I hope WYL and others are correct in saying that Ralph got it wrong. This list shouldn't be anwhere near 100% of the cap yet.

Yeah, it's pretty simple and quite effective.

Consider this - Aaron Davey is on a four year contract, which will earn him a given amount over those four years. Davey will never be a salary cap problem again, since by the time those four years are up, he'll be eligible for the veteran's list and his salary will be calculated at a half rate.

Pay the bulk of it in the first year, more is opened up for next.

The room opened up for next year can be used to front load other contracts, say, multi-year deals for Morton or Frawley.

Players on them love it (money received now is money invested, and lasting security)

Players looking at their future contracts love it (more cap space available)

And hopefully, we can ride the premiership cylce with it.

What we are doing is essentially paying advances on the 2012-2016 cap, out of the 'underpayment' from 2010 and presumably 2011 as well. Ideally we would have been paying 100% all along, with frontended contracts just building a wave of future cap space.

It will let us peak higher for longer. Any objections?

Yeah, it's pretty simple and quite effective.

Consider this - Aaron Davey is on a four year contract, which will earn him a given amount over those four years. Davey will never be a salary cap problem again, since by the time those four years are up, he'll be eligible for the veteran's list and his salary will be calculated at a half rate.

Pay the bulk of it in the first year, more is opened up for next.

The room opened up for next year can be used to front load other contracts, say, multi-year deals for Morton or Frawley.

Players on them love it (money received now is money invested, and lasting security)

Players looking at their future contracts love it (more cap space available)

And hopefully, we can ride the premiership cylce with it.

What we are doing is essentially paying advances on the 2012-2016 cap, out of the 'underpayment' from 2010 and presumably 2011 as well. Ideally we would have been paying 100% all along, with frontended contracts just building a wave of future cap space.

It will let us peak higher for longer. Any objections?

Correct on all points. Our senior Players will all be front loaded, hopefully with incentive clauses so they do not get lazy. But even after doing this i still doubt we are paying anywhere near 100% of the entire Team Cap.

Maybe by 2012 but not now.

Davey would be on a fair wickett - if the major of his earnings over the length of the contract is all paid in the first year, then I can see how we could reach 100% of the salary cap.

Say, for arguments' sake he is to earn 650K a year over 4 years, making it 2.6mil over the length of the contract.

If we pay him 2.4 mil in his first year it would go a long way to giving us space in the cap later, only having to pay out 200K over 3 years, but filling the cap for this year.

When he finally comes out of contract later on, based on his average of 650K and him being considerably older he may only earn 450K a year, which isn't that much to squeeze in when you've had time to frontload a lot of your other contracts.

Remember Trengove and Tapscott are on 3 year deals and probably will get the majority of it this year.

Those deals were made not just because they look like promising players.