Adelaide Crows agenda to keep young guns Jake Lever and Mitch McGovern will require careful working of the AFL salary cap
OUT-of-contract Crows defender Jake Lever is not alone in being grateful for an end to AFL collective bargaining talks. So is the Adelaide list management team that can now manage its new salary cap.
YOUNG Crows defender Jake Lever has his new market value - at least $800,000 a season.
Fellow Adelaide young gun Mitch McGovern, 22, was given the same value by Carlton last year during the failed trade for contracted Blues midfielder Bryce Gibbs.
These valuations are reflective of the new list-management theme in the AFL that has clubs pay a premium for impressive young talent.
And now the questions are:
CAN the Crows keep both Lever and McGovern amid heavy auctioning for their signature?
Lever, 21, has at least four Victorian-based clubs - Collingwood, Hawthorn, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs - primed for heady bidding. McGovern is strongly linked to West Coast where his older brother Jeremy is well established. Fremantle cannot be dismissed either.
CAN the Crows’ salary cap cope with handing both Lever and McGovern five-year contracts to match rival bids?
The Adelaide Football Club in April issued a strongly worded statement dismissing a Melbourne radio report that Crows players would need to take a pay cut to clear up salary cap space to win the bidding game for Lever and McGovern.
“Factually incorrect and baseless in every regard,” the club said.
But last week - as captain Taylor Walker extended his contract by three seasons to the end of 2021 - the Crows were eager to declare their key forward had taken a pay cut to create the same successful agenda used at Brisbane, Geelong and Hawthorn to keep promising squads intact.
Away from West Lakes, AFL list managers question if Adelaide “advanced” Walker’s salary into this year’s salary cap that has risen by more than $2 million, from $10.37m to $12.45m in the new collective bargaining agreement signed last month.
In essence, Walker takes an inflated salary this season - advances on future years - to capitalise on the opportunity presented by the cap rising by 20 per cent for Season 2017.
This ploy would clear significant space in the salary cap to allow Adelaide list manager Justin Reid to counter any five-year deals presented to Lever and McGovern from rival AFL clubs.
A review of Adelaide’s list-management highlights how the Crows can ward off five-year deals to Lever and McGovern - provided there is no blow out of the salary cap by heavily investing in two book-end players.
Adelaide has the bulk of its list - 32 players - falling out of contract this year or at the end of next season.
There are just 10 players with contracts from 2019 and onwards - ruckmen Sam Jacobs and Reilly O’Brien in 2019; restricted free-agent midfielder Brad Crouch, Eddie Betts, Wayne Milera, Kyle Hartigan and Luke Brown; and Walker, key defender Daniel Talia and forward-ruckman Josh Jenkins in 2021.
In question is how many of these contracted players - in particular Crouch and Talia - had their deals carry the proviso of their salaries being increased in line with the CBA rises that were determined after they signed their deals.
Adelaide would appear to have cleared critical salary cap space to manage rival bids on McGovern and Lever. Now the Crows list-management team has to debate if it will stand firm on its strict pay structures for players.
This was highlighted early in 2015 when the late Phil Walsh, in his start as Crows coach, made it clear he wanted a ceiling on player salaries at West Lakes - and would not breach this limit even to keep free-agent midfielder Patrick Dangerfield who later moved to Geelong.
Earlier, Walsh - and new Crows chief executive Andrew Fagan - put an end to a million-dollar play for Greater Western Sydney forward Jeremy Cameron to live by a strict pay scale at West Lakes.
MANAGING THE LIST
SALARY CAP
2017 $12.45m (average $371,000)
2018 $12.6
2019 $12.76
2020 $13.02
2021 $13.28
2022 $13.54 (average $403,000)
OUT OF CONTRACT
2017
Jonathon Beech*
Kyle Cheney
Tom Doedee
Cameron Ellis-Yolmen
Hugh Greenwood*
Paul Hunter*
Ben Jarman*
Alex Keath*
Jake Kelly
Riley Knight
Jake Lever
Mitch McGovern
Andy Otten (unrestricted free agent)
Scott Thompson (unrestricted free agent)
Harrison Wigg
*rookie list
2018
Rory Atkins
Charlie Cameron
Matt Crouch
Ben Davis
Harry Dear
Richard Douglas (unrestricted free agent)
Curtly Hampton
Jordan Gallucci
Elliot Himmelberg
Rory Laird
Tom Lynch
David MacKay (unrestricted free agent)
Myles Poholke
Matthew Signorello
Paul Seedsman
Brodie Smith (restricted free agent)
Rory Sloane (restricted free agent)
2019
Sam Jacobs (restricted free agent)
Reilly O’Brien
2020
Eddie Betts
Luke Brown
Brad Crouch (restricted free agent)
Kyle Hartigan
Wayne Milera
2021
Josh Jenkins (restricted free agent)
Daniel Talia (restricted free agent)
Taylor Walker (restricted free agent)
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au