Its Tuesday 1st of October 2013 and the AFL Football World has gone into meltdown.
Why ? Because firstly the media got it very wrong when it said Buddy Franklin is a certainty to sign with GWS. Nothing is certain at this time of the year.
I have dealt with every AFL Club over 20 years and two of the best in the business when it comes to AFL Footy List Management are Andrew Ireland (CEO of Sydney) and Kinnear Beatson (Sydney Recruiting Manager). People may not know or recall that these two men were responsible for a lot of the success of Brisbane during the early 2000’s
I have seen players re-signed, delisted, traded, want out and lately leave via restricted or unrestricted free agency at this time of the year. So nothing surprises me least of all today.
As a follower of sport all you can ask is that you have the best possible information to form an opinion. Let me try and help you.
Firstly Buddy is a Restricted Free Agent. The definition is
A player has served eight or more seasons of AFL football at one club, is one of the top 25 per cent highest-paid players at his club, and is now out of contract for the first time since reaching eight seasons of service. (restricted free agent)
The player is eligible to field offers from all rival AFL clubs. If he wishes to change clubs, the player must decide on the best offer of his choice from one rival club. His club has the right to match the presented offer. If the club matches the offer, he may choose to remain with his original club, seek a trade or enter the Draft. If the club does not or can not match the offer, the player can move to the new club of his choice. His original club will receive a compensation pick for the loss of the player, on an AFL-determined formula to apply where clubs lose more free agents than they gain in any single transfer period.
What has happened is this. GWS tabled a $1.2million a year offer. This has now been trumped by Sydney with an offer of $1.4million but now possibly a 9 year deal of up to $10million. This does not include AFL money (possibly up to $500K) to promote football in Sydney
It’s only the playing contact offer that forms part of the salary cap.
Hawthorn wont be matching either offer if Buddy wants to go.
How can Sydney put forward and offer like that ? Here are some of the ways:
- By delisting, trading or the retirements of players ie Mumford, Reid, Bolton, etc freeing up to $1.4million and/or use some of the living allowance that Sydney has ie 9% of the Salary Cap therefore close to an extra $900K to distribute to players. Buddy contract might have $120+K of living allowance in it.
- Do what’s called a back ended contract ie if he’s agreed on $10M over 9 years then if he could be paid $1.4M for 5 years (hence putting it out of Hawthorns grasp and GWS) then paid $600K for the remaining years.
- Juggling players on their Veterans List over the next 5 years whereby if juggled right up to $112K can be reduced from the Salary Cap per Veteran hence helping pay Buddy’s wage. They therefore have confidence that some players on their list at the moment can play in to their 30’s
- Third Party agreements. Agreements with parties that are not sponsors, associates, officials etc of the Club to endorse products or services. Sydney might have a supporter who is not linked to the Club who is prepared to “Sponsor” Buddy to the tune of $100k-$200K a year to promote their business.
- Perhaps they also have put forward and arrangement with their Junior Football Academy.
It’s never over until it’s over so can the Hawks pull a rabbit out of the hat ?
Perhaps they are playing it pretty cool. Of course they would prefer to retain Buddy but have a good plan in place should Buddy make things official tonight and take the Sydney offer.
They now have an extra $1M in their cap. Its means they can retain young up and comers like Gunston, Bruest and Hill etc. It also means they could go and buy an experienced player like they did with Lake, Hale etc.
It means they are alive in Trade week next week and will be a big player.
What would Liam Pickering (Buddy’s Manager) be doing right now ? He would be working his backside off to make sure he has everything in line in front of Buddy and that Buddy fully understands what the deals are and what they mean and what obligations Buddy has. Finally he would be telling Buddy to take a big breath and suck it in before deciding what to do. Sydney is a very different place to Melbourne but maybe such a bad place to live when sitting on a fat wallet !!!
Is it the biggest deal in AFL history ? Hardly. There was a pretty good Centre Half Forward running around on $1million 13 years a go !!! But another time for that.
Either way today is a pivotal day in AFL History. A day we will remember for a long time and a day I think we will be hearing a lot more about. A lot more !!!!!
For All Speaking Enquiries: info@rickynixon.com.au
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- GETTING THE DEAL DONE by Ricky Nixon (rickynixon.wordpress.com)
Ricky Nixon 