AFL Rich 100: The young guns making their first appearance among football’s top earners

The rise of the pre-agent has had a significant impact across the league, but how is the impact shown on this year’s Rich 100 list? Check out the fresh faces making the big bucks in the AFL.

Jump ship to a cashed-up rival or show loyalty to your club by sacrificing the right to consider leaving.

The time-honoured method of switching clubs for a bigger deal and an increasingly modern phenomenon – the rise of the pre-agent – are both well represented on the AFL Rich 100 for 2023.

Luke Jackson makes his first appearance on this list at No. 40, but expect him to rise up those ranks and be a mainstay all the way through to 2029.

Jackson’s deal at Fremantle has been shrouded in secrecy – how many years, was it $1 million a more per season?

This masthead can reveal for the first time that his deal is a five-year contract through to 2027, but contains a two-year extension that he can trigger with modest games-based and performance clauses.

Jackson will be paid $750,000 this year – the last year of Nathan Fyfe’s monster $1.1 million-per-season deal – and his contract averages out at $900,000 a season.

Luke Jackson joined the Dockers on a huge deal in the off-season. Picture: Getty Images

So 21-year-old Jackson quickly becomes an AFL millionaire, gets the security of a five-year deal, lands great but not insane money, and can extend that deal to 2029 with modest performances.

Further down the list, Griffin Logue (Fremantle to North Melbourne) and Karl Amon (Port Adelaide to Hawthorn) secured $650,000 a season by accepting the free agency premium at bottom-six clubs.

Just like Jordan De Goey, Amon found a way to extract maximum leverage by going to the wire on contract talks in his eighth season.

De Goey waited until the death to extract a few extra dollars from Collingwood as a free agent, after also dealing with St Kilda, as he attempted to throw off a bad reputation and minimise any behavioural clauses.

But increasingly clubs and managers are in lock-step as they sign players in the back-end of their seventh season and avoid a whole year of pain.

The player gives up his free agency rights and sometimes $50,000-$100,000 a season that he could have secured by putting himself on the open market and offering himself to the highest bidder.

Jordan De Goey held out for the deal he wanted from Collingwood. Picture: Getty Images

But he gets the security of a long-term deal and doesn’t have to deal with the risk of injury in his free agency year.

And the club gets long-term security and lands the player at a fair price, aware a rival will not be throwing a stupid unmatchable number at him simply because he is a free agent.

It is what Carlton did with Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow, both signing long-term deals as pre-agents. They are not newbies on this year’s AFL Rich 100, but consider the principle.

As much as McKay’s season has coughed and spluttered, what would Curnow be worth on the open market as a free agent? $1.4 million a season over six years? More?

Caleb Daniel signed on at the Western Bulldogs early in his free agency year, earning him a deal worth $700,000 a season.

With All-Australian Sam Walsh’s $825,000-per-season deal kicking in, the brilliant ball-winner is a Rich 100 debutant.

For a player who should play 15 seasons, it is appropriate money but only the tip of the iceberg of his eventual career earnings.

Originally published as AFL Rich 100: The young guns making their first appearance among football’s top earners