AFL Rich 100: Who are the AFL’s highest-earning stars? See the players ranked 1-100

You don’t keep a premiership list together by paying everyone top dollar. Across the contenders in the competition, who is sacrificing the most for their team? See the full AFL Rich 100 list here.

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The Sunday Herald Sun’s list of footy’s top 100 paid players in 2020 is, unsurprisingly, brimming with elite talent at the pointy end of the scale.

But it’s not just a case of the biggest names in the game banking the biggest salaries.

Front-end loaded contracts and deals that are built to ward off potential poaching raids from cashed-up rival clubs help to skew the picture.

Then came COVID-19, and the resulting wage sacrifices — more than $20m handed back among the game’s top 100 paid players alone.

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That’s why amassing the salaries list required hundreds of calls to industry figures, and weeks of cross-checking.

The list includes the player’s initial 2020 salary and then a revised figure that takes into account this year’s “COVID cut” — players are each handing back about 28 per cent of that money.

Broadly put, AFL players contracted to earn $1 million this year are sacrificing a minimum of $280,000 in wages and those on $600,000 are effectively handing back about $170,000.

MORE AFL RICH 100:

AFL rich list: Who are the AFL’s most underpaid players?

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

Moneyball: The latest trade news and whispers from around the AFL

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Players remain sensitive about their pay rate but as this list shows, many take far less money than a lot of us would believe in order to keep premiership lists together or to accept long-term security.

The list is based on 2020 wages, so front or back-ending of deals can produce surprising rankings.

HOW IT WORKS

SALARY FIGURE

* Player’s contracted salary for 2020 to the best of our information. A number of players are in the same wage band. Salaries can alter depending on bonuses.

COVID SALARY

* Each AFL player is losing around 28 per cent of his 2020 contract salary because of COVID-19.