AFL postpone Round 1 decision as AFLPA believe 22-game season is possible, footy news from Tuesday, March 17, 2020

AFL players have declared they are ready to play Round 1 starting Thursday, but uncertainty surrounds the 2020 season as the AFL delays an almost impossible decision amid shifting advice.

An uncertain AFL has pushed back a decision on starting Round 1 until today as it faces a confrontation with the player union over its proposed 17-round season.

AFL player’s association boss Paul Marsh yesterday said the league’s playing group was still keen on playing 22 rounds this year in a move that preserve $260 million of wages.

Marsh said the players believed it was still possible to play 22 home-and-away rounds across the next 40 weeks, despite the AFL’s medical advice that the coronavirus would peak in June or July.

“Gill (McLachlan) and the AFL’s view is that 17 is the only realistic number that we can go for,” Marsh said.

“All we’re saying is we’ve got a 40-week window.”

The AFL has postponed an official position on starting the season until Wednesday, knowing that it could still bin the season only hours before the Carlton-Richmond first bounce.

The league is concerned that governments could ban mass gatherings of more than 100 people — a number that would be exceeded by 44 players, dozens of staffers and up to 200 MCC officials on Thursday night.

Clubs are bracing for massive financial pain, with Brisbane CEO Greg Swann saying the Lions were bracing for a $5 million shortfall from playing in empty stadiums this season.

Watch every match of every round of the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE & On-Demand with KAYO. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

Club’s could save more than $50 million in player wages if the AFL secures a 20 per cent pay cut across the board.

But Marsh was adamant any new pay deal would take months of detailed negotiations.

Senior players such as big-earners Dustin Martin and Jeremy Cameron would give up as much as $250,000 under a blanket 20 per cent pay cut for players.

Tellingly for Cameron, he had his wage heavily back-ended to help Greater Western Sydney with its salary crunch.

“It’s a very long and complicated piece of work we will have to do,” Marsh said.

“Players have an understanding that everyone is hurting and clearly we are part of that.

“We will get to that when the time is right. We haven’t got down to those discussions with the AFL.

“We don’t know what the size of the financial hole is yet.”

Pioneering player agent Ricky Nixon told the Herald Sun yesterday he would tell his clients to accept a 20 per cent pay cut.

“I would always be honest with them and say ‘yes’. The game is more important than the individual,” he said.

“I would actually tell them to. I would say, ‘Listen you might not want to and you have a mortgage but I will restructure your deal’.

“I would say, ‘You have lost 200 grand but we will extend your contract for a year’.”

Each club’s salary cap is $13.273 million this year with an additional services agreement budget that takes in marketing payments of $1.194 million.

It means the total wage bill for the 18 clubs from pay and the separate ASA marketing component would be just over $260 million in 2020.

The player union conducted a telephone hook-up with 53 player agents yesterday to discuss the pay cuts, with some last night angered their players had been painted as greedy.  

 

They said the players had volunteered to give to their leave to ensure the league could play a full season, with most answering that they still wanted to play 22 games when asked in a Monday night questionnaire. 

 

They discussed the potential pay cuts with AFLPA head of legal James Gallagher and discussed whether the cuts would be issued to the average wage of an entire contract to stop player with back or front-ended deals being unfairly penalised. 

 

Some player agents also brought up players on small base contracts and $5000 match fees, arguing they were already being penalised by losing the capacity to lose $25,000 in payments. 

Scroll down to recap all today's headlines

Originally published as AFL postpone Round 1 decision as AFLPA believe 22-game season is possible, footy news from Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Updates