AFL Rich 100: The eye-watering amount of money players are sacrificing to keep footy alive

The true personal cost of keeping the AFL season alive has been laid bare and it’s eye-watering, so critics should stop laying the boot in.

Footy’s 100 highest-paid stars will sacrifice over $20 million to keep the competition afloat this year while living away from family in interstate hubs.

The Herald Sun can reveal that after players accepted 50 per cent pay cuts in March, those 100 players will average more than $200,000 in lost earnings.

Stars including Lance Franklin who were due to earn $1.4 million this season as part of a back-ended deal will lose nearly $400,000.

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The average player salary of $360,000 (including rookies) before tax will be pruned by almost exactly $100,000.

The Herald Sun this weekend reveals the top 100 paid players in the competition and the individual COVID-adjusted salaries after sacrificing 28 per cent of their contracts this year.

Based on those estimates the players will hand back between $20.3-$21.7 million plus extra benefits they forgo.

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The entire playing list will in effect hand back $90 million in expected earnings when salaries, match payments, marketing agreements (additional service agreements) and contributions to the player retirements scheme are included.

AFL legend Jonathan Brown told the Herald Sun many players had a single large contract that they used to set themselves up for the decades after football.

“To the person on the street it might not be relatable because why should players complain if they are on big money and taking a pay cut. But there needs to be a level of empathy towards them, they are only in the game for a short period of time to earn their money and usually it’s only one big contract so to take a nearly 30 per cent pay cut is pretty significant.

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“I think we have to get beyond saying, “Suck it up boys” because they are doing the right thing. And they are going away and staying away in hubs away from families so it’s not just pay cuts. You can’t fault the players for their motivation to keep the game alive because they could have dug in and said we aren’t going into hubs.

“The professional footballer does a hell of a lot to allow them to survive in football which we don’t see. It is very difficult to come out of an AFL career fully qualified and become a lawyer or doctor, so it’s hard to be critical of players in my opinion.”

Dustin Martin of the Tigers. Picture: Michael Klein

Coronavirus cabinet member Jeff Kennett said the entire football community had pitched in to save thousands of jobs and a $1 billion football economy.

“The players have done the right thing, but so too have the administrators,” he told the Herald Sun.

“Everyone has contributed to ensure that we can get a season together this year and their contribution is to make sure we have a season next year and for the next 100 years.

“It is not just the players alone. This has been an industry recognition that we would not be where we are today unless everyone contributed. And everyone has, and sadly some are no longer employed by the AFL or the clubs.”

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Some of those players on back-ended deals sacrificing up to $400,000 from their 2020 salaries have no concrete assurances they will be reimbursed.

AFL player managers are hopeful players like Jack Martin on front and back-ended deals with much of that salary in the 2020 season might be compensated for some of that lost money.

But there is still no fleshed-out process or AFL mechanism for compensation for players who are being paid a large slice of their contract this year rather than spread out over the life of long-term contracts.