Will Brisbane’s Jack Bird deal become a measuring stick and bargaining chip for other players?

WILL Brisbane’s Jack Bird deal suddenly become a measuring stick and bargaining chip all in one provocative package?

Jack Bird. Picture: Gregg Porteous

• Young gun faces three weeks on sideline
• Why Bird really wanted to quit Sharks
• Morgan’s message leaves Cowboys at sixes and sevens
• Pac-Man army is Brisbane-bound

HOW do you reckon Darius Boyd and Anthony Milford took reports claiming that Jack Bird is the Broncos’ first ­million-dollar man?

It’s not hard to imagine their agents being rocked by the thought “Bird got our next contract’’.

However a deeper analysis of the facts might also prompt them to muse “hang on ... if Bird is getting a million a year surely we have to get a bit more’’.

Will the Bird deal suddenly become a measuring stick and bargaining chip all in one provocative package?

Welcome to the complex world that awaits the Broncos in the wake of their signing of the utility back.

Anthony Milford at Broncos training. Picture: Annette Dew

The whole thing is deliciously mysterious because no one seems quite sure what money Bird is on — and the figure does matter because it could shape what happens next.

If the initially touted contract of around $700,000 per year is correct, then Bird can stick to his story about taking less money to play under Wayne Bennett and few would quibble with the price.

But if — as has been reported in Sydney — Bird has got $1 million a year, then the fallout could be deeper and more long-lasting.

Milford’s agent has been lobbying for months for a ­$1 million-a-year deal but the Broncos have not been able to reach that figure.

Boyd, who is seeking a long-term deal in what could be his last contract, deserves a bigger deal than Bird.

If Bird is on $1 million a year then Boyd, as the club captain and a distinguished Test and State of Origin player, deserves that plus more.

But can Brisbane afford it?

This time last week the Broncos had never signed a million-dollar player.

Could they really afford to have two or three on their books at the same time, even with an expanding salary cap?

It seems unlikely.

The Courier-Mail has heard whispers Bird’s first year is worth around $750,000 and it rises toward a figure of around $1 million in the fourth year, which he can take as an option.

Darius Boyd is seeking a long-term deal in what could be his last contract. Picture: Getty Images

But the truth has been a closely guarded secret known by few.

Australian sport tends to decry the American system of publicly announcing the wages of all professional sportsmen.

It can create jealously and occasional ridicule but it somehow works.

If 2016 premiership winner Bird is being paid less than publicly touted, it would be in his interests for that figure to be known.

Players are traditionally not told what their teammates are on but invariably get some clues through a timeless source of information extraction — their wives.

Brisbane are not the only club whose payment system is being jolted by out-of-the-blue signings.

Out-of-contract Englishman Gareth Widdop has been in the form of his life, leading St George Illawarra to the top of the premiership table.

At some stage this season he will talk to the Dragons about a new deal and we’re tipping we might already know his opening line.

“OK gents, so Ben Hunt is joining us next year on $1 million a year ... I think we all agree I’ve been playing as well as he has.”