Collingwood players sacrifice cash to help squeeze in Dayne Beams for premiership pursuit

Up to 12 Collingwood players have agreed to take a cut in their 2019 pay packet to squeeze Dayne Beams into the club’s tight salary cap. Find out how much they’ve given up.

Collingwood’s senior core has agreed to sacrifice some of their 2019 pay packet to squeeze Dayne Beams into the club’s tight salary cap.

A group of between 8-12 Pies were approached by the club to defer some of next year’s wage into later years given the club’s salary cap issues.

It is understood the sums were between $30,000-$40,000, with the players happy to do so if it would help them win the premiership that eluded them against West Coast.

EXPERIENCE: WHERE YOUR CLUB SITS ON AGE LADDER

CHAMPION DATA: PIES FORWARDS DON’T MAKE TOP 10

FINANCIAL REPORT: MAGPIES’ BIG YEAR REAPS HUGE PROFIT

Beams is on a four-year deal on less than the vast sums he received at Brisbane, set to be paid less than $500,000 in his first season as part of a heavily back-ended deal.

It is not known exactly how many players eventually agreed to push that money into the latter years of their deals.

But with Beams’ recruitment coming late in the trade period and the Pies admitting their cap was tight, his signing took some shuffling of contracts.

Despite costing the Pies plenty at the trade table, the Beams trade is a masterstroke that will make one of the competition’s best midfields even more lethal.

With the help of the club’s stars the Pies not only found a way to get under the 2019 salary cap, they re-signed Darcy Moore, Jordan De Goey and Jamie Elliott.

Dayne Beams will be back in Collingwood colours next season. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

One player manager whose Collingwood clients were happy to shuffle around their contract said: “The players know they are in the window and they want to win a premiership.”

Variations to contracts which front-end or back-end existing deals are becoming more common-place in the AFL list management landscape.

Clubs like St Kilda attempting to hoard cap space are front-ending the deals of many encouraging players to save space for when they become a destination club.

The Pies effectively gave up two first-round picks and received a second-rounder back, getting Beams, pick 41 and 44 for selections 18, 56 and a 2019 first-rounder.

Collingwood was still able to secure a first-round pick in Isaac Quaynor, whose brothers Ben, 15, and Luke, 12, are already in the club’s NGA academy and showing exciting signs.

Provisionally suspended defender Sam Murray also volunteered to be put onto the club’s rookie list as he awaits a hearing over his positive match-day test for cocaine.

The Magpies were still able to secure Isaac Quaynor in the draft. Picture: AAP

Murray had a two-year deal with the Pies and is also entitled to a presumption of innocence after taking cocaine mid-week before a match-day positive.

It means he will be paid the second year of his salary at least until a potential guilty finding that would seem likely to put his AFL career into jeopardy.

Pies chief executive Mark Anderson said recently the club hoped his case might progress to a hearing early in the new year.

Sports lawyers believe he will need to make a strong case to get less than the maximum four-year ban under ASADA provisions.

But with Murray only just turning 21, a two-year ban would give him the chance to eventually get back into the AFL system given his talent.

Collingwood’s senior players have already returned to the club but officially start pre-season training on Monday.

De Goey will be on a monitored program until Christmas to ensure his shin/leg injury fully heals, while Jeremy Howe said recently he would be in full training by late January or early February after a shoulder reconstruction.

Originally published as Collingwood players sacrifice cash to help squeeze in Dayne Beams for premiership pursuit