AFL 2022: Latest trade, free agency and contract updates
It promises to be one of the craziest trade periods as the Gold Coast pushes to offload players and picks in a dramatic bid to realign their salary cap space. How it could unfold?
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Gold Coast list boss Craig Cameron knows his club is about to contravene list management’s only truism — the more first-round picks you amass the stronger your position.
Stuart Dew’s Suns will in coming weeks donate their No. 7 overall pick to a club who takes on Jack Bowes’ contract.
Gold Coast gave up pick 10 for him only six years ago.
Using two top-10 selections to hand on an exciting player doesn’t just alter conventional list management strategy, it turns it on its head.
But as Cameron told the News Corp on Monday of the club’s new-age approach: “Salary cap space is a weapon for clubs”.
As revealed by the News Corp, Gold Coast will this off-season off-load $2 million of salary cap space and overpriced contracts in a dramatic bid to realign their salary cap space.
It will mean they give up top-10 picks they would normally give their back teeth for and hand over players who might become first-choice players in rival sides.
But having been forced to overpay almost every player on their list given the go-home factor amid threats they would join the list of departures, there comes a time to bite the bullet.
Bowes will head to a Victorian club who absorbs his $1 million-plus salary over the next two years, Brayden Fiorini looks set to join Collingwood, and Jeremy Sharp will eventually find his way to the Dockers.
What goes unsaid at Gold Coast is that none of these players are in the Suns’ best 22 that is now about building a premiership team rather than gathering random talent.
“We have collected talent,” says Cameron.
“When you collect it you have to retain it and we have had some favourable contracts for guys when a lot of players left back in 2018.
“And we need to tidy that up a bit but we also have the pillars with the young guys and (Jarrod) Witts and (David) Swallow and (Touk) Miller in career-best form. We have the pillars to build on to take the next step.
“To do that we need cap space. We look at what Richmond can do in bringing in two A-grade mids and what Geelong has done. It’s not until you are convinced you have the pillars that you can do what those teams have done.
“They can do it in different ways to us but we still want to try to achieve the same outcome which is to bring in players when we are ready. So we need to engineer enough room in our player payments that we can be active in the market to top off the list.”
Gold Coast will lose Izak Rankine to Adelaide as one of nine first-round picks taken in the past four years including Ben King, Jack Lukosius, Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson, Sam Flanders, Elijah Hollands, Mac Andrew.
Academy players Mal Rosas Jnr, Alex Davies and Joel Jeffrey add to the exceptional list of talent, but Cameron said the cost of first-round picks is also a drain on an emerging list.
“The easiest way to explain it is if you are anywhere in the top six to eight players you are going to demand nearly $400,000 in your third year, coming off a collective bargaining agreement getting paid $100,000 to $110,000,” he says.
“If you have nine of those in four years, that’s almost $2.7 million in your cap very quickly, before a lot of them have reached that level of performance.”
The club is crestfallen to lose Rankine to Adelaide but knows his family motivations for returning home were out of their control.
“This footy club did everything right for Izak. There is a scenario around his family that we can’t solve,” he said.
St Kilda, Geelong and Essendon are among the clubs interested in Bowes, with Cameron adamant the list space multiple salary dumps will provide will pay off in the long run.
“There are a few clubs in the market that are interested in the package we put to them. For us the outcome is space for us to be active,” he said of the Bowes transaction.
“And we know Jack wants to play midfield and we have spoken to him about that and said we think it’s going to be difficult in our team.
“If the (loss of top-10 picks is) only way you are going to measure the transaction you are going to look at it and scratch your head but it’s part of an overall strategy.
“Each transaction we do leads to an outcome we want which is cap space and the ability to go to the market. That is our strategy. People will have their own view on what we are doing, but the bottom line is we don’t shy away from this. This is a definite strategy we have and if we are doing something different, so be it.”
The crazy early contracts for Ben King and Jack Lukosius are proof the Suns have had to pay more for interstate stars.
Cameron admits the Suns have often been “a little bit on the back foot” in contract talks but believes the conversation is now evolving.
“We are now feeling there is a shift towards players wanting to come to us not just to pick up money at the end of their career, but because they believe the club is heading in the right direction.”
Cameron says the AFL is on board with their strategy, having made clear to clubs last week they will allow salary dumps of a more extreme nature.
“They understand that salary cap space is a weapon for clubs. It’s not something we will drop on their tables, we will work through it with them.”
Queensland 194cm power forward Jed Walter will be one of the early picks in next year’s draft as a Gold Coast academy player and the Suns will stockpile 2023 picks in a superior national draft.
The Suns will only truly know if they have enough talent when their star midfield marries with a 2023 forward line that will include Ben King, Joel Jeffrey, Mabior Chol and Levi Greenwood.
But they know they cannot continue the doom loop of overpaying for kids without at some stage taking the brave step of setting the team up for a legitimate crack at a premiership.
“It’s always a debate as to whether you have broken through to that point where your list is ready and until you are there you don’t really know but it feels like we have some pillars in place to allow us to compete,” Cameron says.
“We are unique in what we are doing. We have had a lot of picks and we have still got them but now we need to engineer that cap room and we have to be aggressive in that space.”
Pies, Dons, Saints queue up for Suns fire sale
Gold Coast could shed as much as $2 million in salary cap room in the next 15 days in an aggressive bid to overhaul its total player payments.
The Suns will be the first club in modern history to make dramatic use of the salary dump mechanism which allows clubs to move on highly paid players for little or no draft return.
It will give Victorian clubs the chance to add quality Suns players and draft picks to their lists with very little downside or risk.
Running defender Jack Bowes has interest from multiple clubs who would secure the Suns pick seven to accept the last two-years of back-ended highly paid deal.
The Herald Sun understands that deal is worth over $500,000 in each of the next two seasons, with Essendon, Hawthorn, St Kilda and Geelong among the interested parties.
Essendon has vast cap space, St Kilda wants to get back into the draft, and Hawthorn has already thrived by securing Jack Scrimshaw as a fellow Suns top 10 pick from the same draft.
The Suns would have paid Izak Rankine around $650,000 a season over a long-term deal but will not replace him as a small forward given their confidence in Malcolm Rosas and Ben Ainsworth.
Brayden Fiorini will also be involved in a salary dump, most likely to Collingwood, which could see the Pies absorb his $600,000 salary next year and improve their draft hand.
Alex Sexton is also due over $500,000 on the last year of a back ended deal but if there is little interest from rivals the club and his management might consider restructuring his deal.
The Suns are investigating restructuring some existing contracts after smoothing out Darcy Macpherson’s contract last year over an additional year.
Jeremy Sharp is not well paid but could head to Fremantle, while versatile tall Josh Corbett is also linked to the Dockers.
If the Suns can move on those players or restructure their contracts it will realign their salary cap and give them opportunities to be aggressive in free agency or the trade period in coming years.
After nine first-round picks in the past four years the Suns have judged that having cap space is more critical to their fortunes in coming years than stockpiling more early picks.
The Suns will secure Ben Long on a four-year deal and has some interest in Western Bulldogs defender Jason Johannisen but is not prepared to offer him the three-year deal he has requested.
He has been offered a two-year deal at the Dogs so could stay there if another suitor doesn’t emerge.
Last-ditch bid to keep emerging Pie
- Jay Clark
Collingwood will make a last-ditch bid to keep flying forward Ollie Henry as he weighs up a move to join Geelong’s back-to-back premiership tilt.
The Magpies do not want to lose the talented goal kicker despite moves to land Brisbane free agent Dan McStay and GWS speedster Bobby Hill.
Henry, 20, played 15 games this year after 10 last season and is considering trying to make a move to join his brother Jack at Geelong next year.
Henry celebrated his brother’s role in the premiership win over Sydney Swans on Saturday but is yet to formally submit a trade request to Geelong with Collingwood.
A move to Geelong would be a huge boost to the Cats who could add Henry to the best forward line in the league including Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron, Gary Rohan and Tyson Stengle.
At 186cm, Henry has drawn comparisons to Geelong great Steve Johnson for his natural forward craft although Henry is still considered a developing prospect.
Henry is out of contract and has so far baulked at attempts from the Magpies to secure an extension from him beyond this season.
Collingwood is adamant there is a bright future for him in black and white as it looks to continue its remarkable rise under Craig McRae in 2023.
The club has told the second-year forward it wants to re-sign him and play him in the senior side next year despite plans to nab McStay and Hill as well.
However, Henry remains tight with his Geelong-based family and has attracted strong interest from the Cats.
Geelong has significant salary cap room after missing out on GWS onballer Jacob Hopper, while Melbourne is set to pickup star ruckman Brodie Grundy from Collingwood.
The Cats could offer a long-term deal to Henry as well as land GWS midfielder Tanner Bruhn in a boss to Chris Scott’s midfield stocks.
Bruhn performed well in the second half of this season but has made the unsurprising choice to return home to Victoria after two years.
GWS was aware Bruhn could pursue a move back to Victoria at the end of his first contract to be closer to his family.
Geelong has had limited access to first-round draft choices but Geelong Falcons pair Bruhn (pick 12) and Oliver (17) were both taken early in the 2020 draft.
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