The Herald Sun is running an article today around who the highest paid players in the AFL are.  They are looking at the players from 51-100 at the moment.  

Here is where some of the Melbourne players are:

86 - Angus Brayshaw.  Estimated salary between $600,000 - $650,000

66 - Christian Petracca.  Estimated salary between $650,000 - $700,000

59 - Tom McDonald.  Estimated salary between $675,000 - $725,000

56 - Jack Viney.  Estimated salary between $675,000 - $725,000

Thoughts everyone?

Happy to share info on other clubs if you want it.

As a follow up - you could easily argue that Trac is underpaid, while at the moment Gus and Tom McDonald (who signed their deals in 2018) are being over paid.  I'd say Viney right now is pretty spot on.

May, Lever, Gawn and even Oliver may be in the next article of the Top 50 players.

Edit - and before we complain about over paying players, Mitch McGovern is at #51 on an estimated $675,000 - $725,000.  

Edited July 24, 20205 yr by Wiseblood

 

Is this the wage they received last year ?  or does it take into account front and back loaded deals ?  or just the average over the deal ?

 

3 minutes ago, markc said:

 

Is this the wage they received last year ?  or does it take into account front and back loaded deals ?  or just the average over the deal ?

 

Great question - it is what they are being paid this year.  This is what they said in the article:

And when the Herald Sun tasked a reporting team of Glenn McFarlane, Jon Ralph and Jay Clark with building a list of footy’s top 100 paid players this year, two themes became apparent.

3 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Great question - it is what they are being paid this year.  This is what they said in the article:

And when the Herald Sun tasked a reporting team of Glenn McFarlane, Jon Ralph and Jay Clark with building a list of footy’s top 100 paid players this year, two themes became apparent.

interesting then , so these are the reduced wages ? didn't players take some wage cut ?? , time to have a coffee and do some research .... 

and we still have room in our salary cap , to chase another player , so they must have been front loaded to start off with. 

Edited July 24, 20205 yr by markc

9 minutes ago, markc said:

interesting then , so these are the reduced wages ? didn't players take some wage cut ?? , time to have a coffee and do some research .... 

and we still have room in our salary cap , to chase another player , so they must have been front loaded to start off with. 

They did take cuts - that is in the article as well.  So the above wages are what they would have been on without the affected season.

This figures are guess-timates. I’ve seen about 80-90 contracts in my work capacity in the past 10 years. The contracts are formed on the criteria of 

- Base salary. ie. If you get injured and play zero games , you still get this amount 
- match payments (AFL, VFL)
- number of matches played in season  . Example: if you play more than 10 games, if you play more than 20 games  

- performance based. Club best and fairest 
- awards based.  

A play like Brayshaw would be on base $250k then around $15000 a match. If he played 20 matches and finished say 8-10th in B&F, he would probably earn around $600k. 

8 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

This figures are guess-timates. I’ve seen about 80-90 contracts in my work capacity in the past 10 years. The contracts are formed on the criteria of 

- Base salary. ie. If you get injured and play zero games , you still get this amount 
- match payments (AFL, VFL)
- number of matches played in season  . Example: if you play more than 10 games, if you play more than 20 games  

- performance based. Club best and fairest 
- awards based.  

A play like Brayshaw would be on base $250k then around $15000 a match. If he played 20 matches and finished say 8-10th in B&F, he would probably earn around $600k. 

good info norm

what generally happens with player payments when they are injured?

is there a difference between playing/training injuries vs free time injuries/illnesses?

31 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

good info norm

what generally happens with player payments when they are injured?

is there a difference between playing/training injuries vs free time injuries/illnesses?

I’ve read a few times lots of injuries to older established players can blow out a club’s player payments, that being cited as a factor sometimes when clubs have financial losses or lower surpluses.

That would mean the older players tend to be on higher base, but lower match payments.

Because if the older players were on higher match payments, it would cost less match payments if they got injured and younger players played in their place.

It makes sense as the older players are the better ones, otherwise they don’t get to be older players, and have more power when negotiating contracts because there would probably be other clubs interested, so they go for higher guaranteed, lower incentive deals.

47 minutes ago, Lampers said:

I’ve read a few times lots of injuries to older established players can blow out a club’s player payments, that being cited as a factor sometimes when clubs have financial losses or lower surpluses.

That would mean the older players tend to be on higher base, but lower match payments.

Because if the older players were on higher match payments, it would cost less match payments if they got injured and younger players played in their place.

It makes sense as the older players are the better ones, otherwise they don’t get to be older players, and have more power when negotiating contracts because there would probably be other clubs interested, so they go for higher guaranteed, lower incentive deals.

yes, of course it depends on how contracts are structured and hi-end players can more easily negotiate "safer" contracts.
but your reply seems to indicate that injured players don't get match payments or some sort of equivalent?

i would have thought that if players were injured in club activities (at least) they should receive some sort of match payment equivalent

 

3 hours ago, daisycutter said:

yes, of course it depends on how contracts are structured and hi-end players can more easily negotiate "safer" contracts.
but your reply seems to indicate that injured players don't get match payments or some sort of equivalent?

i would have thought that if players were injured in club activities (at least) they should receive some sort of match payment equivalent

 

Unfortunately I don’t know how it works in reality, just reverse engineering what must be going on to some degree based on the finances aspect with some guess work.

Clearly the club covers the medical costs of injury, but I suspect an injured player would get nothing for games they don’t play if they don’t play, or are medically unable to play. Just their base payments. Not sure how omitted due to “Managed” would work if the player wants to play, there’s no clear injury, but due to loads they are rested (unless of course “Managed” is code for a genuine injury that is being kept quiet).

Maybe spirit can bring an actual (name sanitised) example of how it works.

Edited July 25, 20205 yr by Lampers
Typo corrected

53 minutes ago, Lampers said:

Unfortunately I don’t know how it works in reality, just reverse engineering what must be going on to some degree based on the finances aspect with some guess work.

Clearly the club covers the medical costs of injury, but I suspect an injured player would get nothing for games they don’t play if they don’t play, or are medically unable to play. Just their base payments. Not sure how omitted due to “Managed” would work if the player wants to play, there’s no clear injury, but due to loads they are rested (unless of course “Managed” is code for a genuine injury that is being kept quiet).

Maybe spirit can bring an actual (name sanitised) example of how it works.

let's hope norm has an answer

maybe insurance plays a part?

i'd be filthy if my income was reduced due to an injury while on the job

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-salary-cap-total-player-payments-ordinary-players-paid-too-much-jordan-lewis-leigh-montagna-fox-footy-podcast/news-story/df7bc15b771eee365f016ea1711dc29a

 

Clubs should pay their top eight players – those that win or lose the game for you every week and play all the time – as much as they deserve. They are your stars. They deserve top dollar,” Montagna continued.

“You then need to pay your next five or six young players – the ones that are going to be stars – because you need to keep them at your footy club.

“Anyone in between, I know it sounds harsh, should be hard-balled.”

Lewis added: “More clubs need to go down that path. Make it disproportionate.

“Pay your top-end high and your bottom-end low. And if they want to leave, well so be it.”

This article argues that fringe players especially those outside best 22 are overpaid. Brutal but worth a think

 

6 hours ago, daisycutter said:

let's hope norm has an answer

maybe insurance plays a part?

i'd be filthy if my income was reduced due to an injury while on the job

A professional sportsperson in a contact sport isn’t really like a normal job though.

I can’t think of too many other jobs where injury is inevitable, and serious injury reasonably likely, so the players would go out there with a very different attitude than your average office worker.

The players have their union and I suspect that body has input into acceptable contract structures with regard to handling impacts of injury. At the very least they would have had a big input into contract structure for draftees as they all get standard contracts when they first get drafted with amount and length based on where in the draft they were taken. At one point interstate rookie draft draftees had an additional year compared to locals which would have been driven by the union, not sure if that’s still the case.

I’m sure players could take out personal injury insurance  or income protection insurance if they chose, but given the high risk of serious injury the premiums would be huge.

The clubs would have insurance to hedge the cost of surgeries should they have a particularly unlucky run with injuries requiring surgery, maybe they also insure against potential player payment blow outs due to high rates of injury?

21 hours ago, Lampers said:

I’ve read a few times lots of injuries to older established players can blow out a club’s player payments, that being cited as a factor sometimes when clubs have financial losses or lower surpluses.

That would mean the older players tend to be on higher base, but lower match payments.

Because if the older players were on higher match payments, it would cost less match payments if they got injured and younger players played in their place.

It makes sense as the older players are the better ones, otherwise they don’t get to be older players, and have more power when negotiating contracts because there would probably be other clubs interested, so they go for higher guaranteed, lower incentive deals.

You are correct re the blowout of costs impacting on financial results.  I recall at last year's fan forum Mahoney or Pert mentioned it as a reason for our loss.  We had a lot of senior players out injured and paying their (fixed) contract amounts and paying the replacement's match fees.

Not sure if it is only older players that have fixed contracts being paid regardless of games played.  The better players and those enticed from other clubs would be on fixed base contracts with bonuses eg B&F, Brownlow, AA and other award results.

i'd still like for someone with contract experience to explain how injury payments (or not) are generally handled

15 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

i'd still like for someone with contract experience to explain how injury payments (or not) are generally handled

Maybe tweet Mahoney or any similar person at another club and see if they give a general response?

Edited July 26, 20204 yr by Lampers
Typo

7 minutes ago, Lampers said:

Maybe tweet Mahoney or any similar person at another club and see if they give a general response?

i'll see if spirit of norm smith replies, he's at least seen real contracts