Port Adelaide wingman Jared Polec’s impending move to North Melbourne highlights players have won battle over AFL clubs
PORT Adelaide wingman Jared Polec’s offer of a lifetime from North Melbourne highlights the AFL’s plan to have the salary cap trigger player movement is working, says Kane Cornes.
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JARED Polec has two million reasons to ignore being “home sick” again - as the speedy wingman was in Brisbane - when he leaves his home city of Adelaide to join North Melbourne next month.
That $2 million gap between Port Adelaide’s current three-year contract signals to Power premiership midfielder Kane Cornes that the AFL “world has gone crazy”.
It also highlights how the AFL winning its strategic battle to have the salary cap create player movement - and marks the end of players asking the team-mates to make sacrifices to keep a group together, as noted at Brisbane, Geelong and Hawthorn through their successful eras from 2001.
PORT PLAYERS WON”T STAND IN POLEC’S WAY: EBERT
Polec’s love for Port Adelaide is overcome by the money - big money - from North Melbourne, a club that for the past three years has splashed around big offers to miss big signings with Josh Kelly, Hamish Hartlett and Dustin Martin.
But Cornes questions the ripple that may follow Polec to Arden Street.
“How does North Melbourne captain Jack Ziebell feel being paid less next year than Jared Polec, on $1 million?” Cornes asks.
“Is it a smart move by North Melbourne to put that money ($3.5 million across five seasons) to Polec when he has had injury issues (navicular bone in left foot) - and never be in the top-10 of a club best-and-fairest count?”
Cornes was part of the Port Adelaide group that in 2003 agreed - without the offer being taken up - to take pay cuts to deter wingman Nick Stevens chasing a go-home move to Collingwood (that became Carlton as the Power refused to trade Stevens).
But finding $2 million in the changerooms at Alberton - to add to the salary cap room already available to the Power next season - highlights how the pendulum has swung to the players’ favour.
“We’ve seen that at Adelaide with what the Crows had to pay (either by dollars or extended contracts) to keep Josh Jenkins and possibly Rory Sloane - and with that three-year contract extension for Eddie Betts last year after his 30th birthday,” Cornes said.
“Or giving more than $700,000 a year (and possibly $1 million) to West Coast (free-agent) midfielder Andrew Gaff, who is not a player who can win a game off his own boot. It is madness.
“Free agency is working for the player. And the salary cap is working for the AFL.”
Polec, 25, has four AFL suitors - North Melbourne with an offers that supersedes those of Carlton, St Kilda and Sydney.
Port Adelaide has to decide if it increases its offer with more seasons, as it did for Hartlett when he was courted by Richmond and North Melbourne in 2016, or more money. The latter could hinder the Power’s recruiting missions, especially if there is the chance to lure Gold Coast captain and key defender Steven May to Alberton.
North Melbourne has to consider what it offers the Power for a trade in October with a first-round draft pick being Port Adelaide’s expectation.
The current Port Adelaide players, unlike in 2003 with Stevens, there is no bridging the $2 million gap to Polec.
“ ‘Polly’ has got a bit of a decision to make,” Power team leader Brad Ebert notes. “But when it comes to an extra $2 million …”
It might be madness, as Cornes notes. But it also is what the AFL wants.
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