AFL Rich 100: The Secret List Manager takes you inside the wheeling and dealing for AFL contracts
He’s explosive like Dustin Martin but Christian Petracca chose not ‘do a Dusty’ at the negotiating table. The Secret List Manager believes his loyalty to the Dees cost him $300,000 per season.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s the AFL version of the stock market.
How do you find quality stocks that are about to rise?
How do you balance a portfolio that includes blue-blood stocks, penny dreadfuls with upside and middle tier assets that won’t let you down in any given month?
The AFL trade and free agency market, and the clubs’ contract commitments for their players, remain every bit as volatile as the ASX.
There are Bull and Bear markets, soaring highs that make you think you are invincible and inevitable crashes that convince you otherwise.
SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE AFL RICH 100
Take Melbourne, for example.
At the end of a disastrous 2020, the Demons must have been fearful that a number of their stars were ready to walk out.
Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now
Max Gawn, Christian Salem and Christian Petracca were coming out of contract and the Demons’ list was massively underachieving.
Then, despite some of the issues that we’ve since read about what was going on with Simon Goodwin at the time, Melbourne was able to get its act together – just in time.
Their captain and talismanic presence in Gawn chose to sign on for under market value and the snowball effect began.
Petracca then signed a new deal entering the season, choosing stability over the absolute top dollar he could have received elsewhere, and as the 2021 wins started coming, Salem joined the signature push that became a rush by the end of the season.
If Petracca had “done a Dusty Martin” and held off his contract talks until the eve of the finals, it could have cost the Demons an extra $300,000 per season.
But he can hardly have any regrets, given the premiership and Norm Smith Medal that are now his, and the prospect of even more success.
Twelve months on, we’ve seen Clayton Oliver and Angus Brayshaw commit to the club for extended periods, when at times a departure might have been on the cards for both.
Yet, through no fault of the Demons’ own, Luke Jackson looks as if he is ready to walk away from the club, lured home to Perth where Fremantle has offered him a small fortune.
Just imagine the investment and man hours put into Jackson – from the recruiting of the high-end draft pick who would have assessed his potential flight risk possibilities to the endless development put into him by his coaches, the footy department and his teammates.
With his likely departure, the Demons are looking to the future, as they do their best to weigh the pros and cons of potentially convincing Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy to join forces with Gawn.
That’s what life is like for an AFL list manager, and for player managers, who need to be prepared for every eventuality.
There are no certainties. You have to meticulously plan for the future, but remain fluid because if one of your dominoes happens to fall, it can bring about a host of other changes.
Western Bulldogs’ Sam Power looks like the ultimate accountant-style list manager. He has been saving the club’s pennies for a rainy day and has now been able to lock away Bailey Smith, Caleb Daniel, Jack Macrae and Tim English through responsible list management.
Power doesn’t pay overs and has even managed to ensure Collingwood is footing the bill for $300,000 of Adam Treloar’s salary, which the AFL Rich 100 has him in the $800,000 to $900,000 bracket.
But you can never feel comfortable, as Power surely knows.
Port Adelaide has similarly saved its pennies, carving out a $2 million cap hole which has seen them come hard for out-of-contract Bulldog Josh Dunkley. Watch this space on that one!
Even the players are never sure what might happen to them despite inking deals that have some thinking they will finish with the club that has given them a long-term commitment. Treloar is a case in point. He wanted to stay a Magpie, but they didn’t want him.
How quickly things can change. Grundy could be forced out of the Pies as they assemble the jigsaw pieces on their 2023 list puzzle. His seven-year deal with Collingwood looked shaky from the moment he put pen to paper, which is why some clubs are less inclined to lock into exceptionally long-term deals for players when so much can change.
The Demons don’t subscribe to that theory though. They are gloating over their players’ tenures, which is understandable. But they will still have to be prepared for any future eventualities.
Sydney felt as late as last week that it was close to finalising a deal for Buddy Franklin to play on again next season before he announced on Saturday that he was putting all talks on hold until the end of the Swans’ season.
How about that for an unexpected curveball?
The success of any contract can never be judged on the signing of a deal. It can only be assessed after the fact.
For instance, if Brisbane did agree to give Buddy two years at $600,000 per season, they would be seen as a hero if he played a role in unlocking the premiership riddle. On the flip side, if he happened to have another serious hamstring injury and was sitting on the sidelines on good coin in the second year, the fans would be baying for blood.
Timing in contracts is everything, as we are seeing play out in the Dyson Heppell situation.
Will he be in Essendon’s best 22 next season? How do you balance the need for list prudence with his loyal service over many years and the fact that you could be seen to be penny pinching with a player who carried the club through some of its darkest times?
If the reports are right, Heppell twice approached the Bombers about extending his contract for a year, but was told the club intended to wait.
Now the tables have turned. Gold Coast is interested in the Bombers’ veteran, in a playing and coaching arrangement; Essendon is the one doing the catching up in trying to keep him.
Emotion can play a part, too. The Suns were filthy that the Bombers tried to lure Izak Rankine, so it is no surprise that Gold Coast has been tracking Heppell all season.
Clubs have long memories. Geelong is interested in Giant Jacob Hopper for obvious reasons. But don’t forget that GWS hurt the Cats in late 2020 when they matched a bid for Jeremy Cameron, meaning Geelong had to give up three high picks as part of an exchange.
Some would suggest the Dockers are paying well over for Nat Fyfe now, given the struggles he is having with his body. But that doesn’t take into account what he has given them in the past. You can’t judge him on one or two years of his contract; you must take into consideration the whole deal. The Dockers wouldn’t regret it as he is an all-time club great.
Freo spent much of the year low-balling established players – and Fyfe sacrificed some of his big wage too – to allow them to create enough cap space to launch a raid on Luke Jackson.
It could yet prove the addition to the Dockers’ list that might one day produce their first flag.
When you pull off a list-changing trade, it can change the course of a club’s history – for good or for bad. The good will see you acclaimed as a genius; the bad might just end up being a career-ending move.
‘Overdone’: Shock Welcome to Country take
The former Geelong forward and proud Aboriginal man has very strong feelings about “overdone” Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Former umpire stuck in two-year legal limbo
Michael Pell’s lawyer says the former umpire has no interest in officiating as his legal limbo approaches two years since he was arrested over a Brownlow Medal insider scandal.