AFL’s billion dollar season was twice turned around from the brink, reveals AFLPA boss
AFLPA boss Paul Marsh says he twice feared for the future of the 2020 season as he reflects on those pivotal moments and pays homage to a group which he believes is not getting the gratitude it deserves.
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Twice in football’s most extraordinary year a season worth $965 million drew to the brink of catastrophe.
As player union boss Paul Marsh reflects on a season where so many officials, coaches and players gave so much, the individual toll is easy to identify.
It is there in the tears of players like Jayden Short this week, who spent the season away from his family as they mourned the death of his father without him by their side.
Marsh is aware so many Australians have lost jobs and endured months-long lockdowns, having spent time both in Victoria and Queensland hubs during the season.
But he cannot hide his admiration for a playing cohort who accepted pay cuts within five days in a negotiation that would normally take months.
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Then almost without fail accepted that the hubs they had hoped to spend weeks in would instead be their homes for 100 days or more.
As football emerges from its most turbulent season having lost less than $100 million instead of the AFL‘s worst-case $965 million estimate, Marsh tells the Herald Sun it is still remarkable the game was able to survive.
The first flashpoint came during the AFLPA phone hook-ups with medical experts as the players attempted to reach consensus on starting the season.
“This season presented challenges we have never seen before.” he told the Herald Sun.
“I think the players felt a deep responsibility to keep the industry going. Whatever was asked of them they basically signed up for.
“There were real doubts as to whether we would play in Round 1 and we had a meeting of all the players about this virus and there were so many unknowns about it.
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“We had health experts talking to the whole playing group and there were genuine fears about what might happen if players got it, and the biggest fear was passing it into family members.
“It was at a point where the prime minister was thinking about (a lockdown) being six months under those conditions and we thought getting a season away would be tough.
“We went ahead with that weekend and then the whole season was on pause. At that point in time everyone we were talking to was suggesting given the nature of this thing it would be very challenging to get back on.”
By mid-July the season had recommenced and yet with COVID numbers suddenly escalating in Victoria the season was again in crisis.
AFL boss McLachlan detailed last week that crucial hour when he told Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk the AFL needed to relocate its teams to her state.
She delivered in spades, with Marsh adamant it saved the season.
“That was a moment of great unknown when the virus was closing in on Melbourne and everyone had to get out. NSW had numbers growing and we weren’t going to play in NSW.
“Everything was relying on Queensland and thank god they came through. That was another pivotal point in the season.”
Was there anywhere else the AFL could have played?
“Not really. WA was incredibly challenging. I heard the AFL say the other day they would have found a way, but where they would have played is not evident. It would have been another huge challenge.”
“To think we got through the entire season with only one players testing positive (Essendon’s Conor McKenna) and even then there is a certain amount of grey area around what happened there.
“If you compare that with the NFL at the moment with dozens of players testing positive, it shows how seriously the players took those protocols in place.”
At times the players were painted as the enemy as they initially railed against the idea of massive pay cuts and pushed back against seemingly full-time hubs until a middle ground could be reached.
Marsh says the measures won in those struggles — a guaranteed minimum wage for the playing group, greater mental health care in hubs, the capacity to bring families into hubs — allowed players to finish the season.
He says that $100 million sacrifice from players with short career spans should not be underestimated.
“Any professional athlete has a short and precarious playing career. You are only one injury away from your career being done. So it was a big financial hit for the players too.
“If I go back they did what we asked of them. If I reflect back on that time we got criticised for it taking too long but we did it all in five days, which is remarkable if you think about it.
‘’At a time when there was so much uncertainty about whether the season was going to start and it was odds-on not to happen.
“It was a tense few days but the huge focus was that they wanted a guarantee they would receive an income this year.
“They ended up giving up about 28 per cent of their wage for the year but were also guaranteed about 60-odd per cent.
“It was a difficult year with so many decisions to make and they weren’t all ideal outcomes but we communicated a lot and the players just bought in. The players have a sense of deep responsibility to the game.”
WHAT GIL’S HOLIDAY MEANS FOR TRADE PERIOD, PAY DISPUTE
Hopes of a new pay deal for AFL players by Friday’s free agency opening have drifted despite the league boasting of a rapidly improved financial position in recent days.
The league has the player union’s pay proposal in front of it but chief negotiator Gillon McLachlan will holiday with his family for the next week after a gruelling season keeping footy alive.
It means there will only be a handful of days to negotiate before the trade period starts on Wednesday, November 4.
AFL clubs are desperate for certainty, with some players set to miss out on the chance to be traded if risk-averse list managers protect cap space because of the impasse.
McLachlan said over the weekend the league’s feared $965 million black hole at the start of the year would shrink to a loss of less than $100 million.
AFL players have already sacrificed more than that figure this season, after taking pay cuts of around 28 per cent.
But the league wants an ongoing cut to the $13,273,522 salary cap for 2021 (plus $1,194,555 in marketing allowances) given a potential drop in crowds and memberships next year.
Players who were initially frustrated the league proposed a pay cut of up to 30 per cent will be prepared to again take a cut if the AFL’s revenue remains low in 2021.
But they will be keen for a guaranteed minimum wage in a potential deal that has a clawback facility which sees them receive extra money on the basis of a better-than-expected financial result for the AFL
There is an existing CBA that rolls through to 2020 so list managers could progress in the trade period working off the current 2021 salary cap.
But there will not be a universal clause that sees a percentage salary cut applied to every contract, because the contracts of some stars specifically exclude those types of clauses.
The AFL has said it will not delay the trade period so it will have to make significant ground over the weekend and before next Wednesday.
McLachlan told The Australian on the weekend: “In March, April, when the season stopped, we had a notional hole of about $965 million”.
“Through sacrifice and commitment from all parts of the industry and hard work and great partnership with our broadcasters and our sponsors, and the incredible loyalty of our members and supporters and the commitment to get this season away, the industry loss between the clubs and the AFL will be something under $100 million. It will be significantly lower and (that is) a credit to our players and our clubs and our supporters.”
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PLAYERS FACING HEFTY PAY CUT AGAIN IN 2021 – Reece Homfray
Players are bracing for another hefty pay cut next year amid fears it could be even bigger than the 30 per cent that was slashed from their wages this season.
The AFL Players’ Association believes the proposal it put to the league last week is fair and reasonable but declined to comment on its demands or the negotiations that it hopes will be resolved before free agency opens on October 30 and trade week on November 4.
Players gave up a combined $100m this year with a 50 per cent pay cut over the past seven months equating to a 30 per cent reduction across the whole year which was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two parties are renegotiating the final two years of the collective bargaining agreement and Port Adelaide midfielder Tom Rockliff said he was expecting a lengthy standoff before reaching a resolution. Player contracts start on November 1 each year.
An AFL spokesperson said the pay deal was a work in progress but it has been reported the salary cup could be cut by $1-2m per club next year.
Rockliff told The Advertiser’s Lowdown Podcast that the league’s initial offer was for the players to take a bigger paycut to keep the game going next year, and Power president David Koch said his club was budgeting for the competition not to return to normal in 2021.
“They’re obviously negotiating at the moment, the Players’ Association and the AFL and I think the AFL have come to the association with a fair whack, potentially even more than what we took this year,” Rockliff said.
“(This year) it worked out we were on 70-odd per cent (of our wage) this year but the first thing that’s been negotiated seems to be that the offer is a fair bit more (of a cut) than that.
“So I think there’s going to be a fair fight on our hands there just to negotiate to get to a fair and reasonable deal without really knowing what the future holds.
“I think the players took a fair chunk this year and probably went above and beyond, it was touched on that yes we took the 50 per cent for the six months but there were other things like donating all the grand final ticket we normally get – 800 or so – nothing went into our players’ association retirement funds and we lost the training grants as well.
“So you could say we lost even more than just the 50 per cent over that six months.
“At the moment the number is pretty high that the AFL want the players to take but I think there’s going to be a fair bit of negotiation to get through before it all gets said and done.”
Rockliff’s co-host on The Lowdown, Adelaide’s Brodie Smith, says just as important is the AFL’s determination on list sizes.
At least two of his teammates in Kyle Hartigan and David Mackay have been given training programs to follow in their off-season but are in limbo without a contract for next year because their spot may hinge on the size of lists.
“It’s a bit of a strange one at the moment, we’ve taken the whack this year so hopefully the players’ association and AFL can come together and work out something that’s fair and reasonable,” Smith said.
“I think the main thing at the moment is list sizes, as soon as we can figure that out the better.
“There are a lot of guys in limbo at the moment purely because we don’t know what the list sizes are going to be, there are a lot of guys who are pretty stressed out and worried about what their year looks like, if they have a contract or have to look elsewhere.
“Hopefully we can get it sorted as soon as possible.”
Koch told FIVEaa he believes the season will not return to normal with maximum crowds next year.
“I think there will still be restrictions, that’s certainly what we’re budgeting for at the moment,” he said.
“Still 50 per cent (crowd) capacity, I think you just never know, and it’s better to be conservative and prepared than unrealistic and then you’re going to be scrounging to try to cope with any changes.
“I know we’re taking a really conservative approach for next season, we don’t think it will be back to normal at all, and you’re starting to see reports a vaccine could be months and months away … if then.
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“Starting the season at the same time gives you that ability, like we’ve just gone through, that if there is a second wave or things get out of control, you can put the season on hold and still be able to complete it.
“London are going back into restrictions again, 17,000 new cases in Britain in the last 24 hours and 150 deaths … it’s starting to rear back up in Europe.
“We’ve got to learn from that, we can’t go berserk over summer, yes it’s party season but our behaviours have to reflect the caution that we need to take with this virus otherwise come winter, autumn, all the restrictions come back.
“My personal view and it’s up to the AFL they’ve done an incredible job getting the season away, but I think if you can start it on time it just gives you that flexibility that if you need to pause it (you can).”
Originally published as AFL’s billion dollar season was twice turned around from the brink, reveals AFLPA boss