Patrick Dangerfield wants AFL to open its books before players agree to salary cut

Patrick Dangerfield says the players are prepared to accept more painful wage cuts but want full disclosure about the AFL’s dire financial situation before an informed decision can be made.

Patrick Dangerfield says the players are also taking painful pay cuts. Picture: Phil Hillyard

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AFL players are demanding a look at the league’s books before they agree to any pay cut.

Players’ Association president and Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield has called for “transparency” from the AFL, and confirmed players had been told by the league that their offer of a 50 per cent pay cut for the next two months was not enough.

But he said without seeing the league’s finances and knowing the full effects of the coronavirus crisis, it would be impossible for players to make an informed decision.

“The next step is getting greater clarity around the finances of the game and where the line of credit or whatever it might be sits with the cost of just keeping the whole competition running, without games and without any income. We need to be in sync with the AFL,” Dangerfield said.

“It’s not asking for something that’s totally unreasonable.

“It’s going ‘yep, OK, we understand where you’re at, let’s come to an agreement that looks after all parties’.

“As a PA, we have a responsibility to the game, but we have a responsibility that we’re looking after our players and their families who are an extension of themselves.”

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Patrick Dangerfield says the players will do whatever it took to ensure the AFL remained viable. Picture: Getty Images

The Brownlow medallist said players would be willing to take “more severe cuts” over a longer period should the numbers indicate that it would be required.

“This has been rapidly evolving, and has escaped all of us, clearly,” he said on SEN.

“That’s why we volunteered the 50 per cent at this stage. Because we don’t know. Are we prepared to take longer-term cuts? Absolutely, but we need a bit more information in regards to where the season is going, the finances of the season, so we can make the right decision for the players but also the game.

“Without a game, we have nothing, clearly. But we need that information, and we haven’t got it yet.

“We get (that information) from the AFL. I understand they’re in an incredibly difficult position at the moment, but we need greater certainty around what it looks like so we can make an informed decision that’s not rape and pillage, (one) that’s respectful of being able to continue the competition if and when it starts again.

“The perception that we’ve been too slow … a week and a half ago, this hit our industry.”

He called for players to be judged “at the end of the process”, and conceded that players had “a really delicate balance that we must meet” as “people are bleeding … they’re losing their jobs”.

“We need full transparency from the AFL so we can make the right decision for players in the game,” the Cats midfielder said.

“If it extends beyond then, then absolutely we take further severe cuts … but we need to determine what the pay cuts look like based on the information that we need from the AFL. It’s hard to make those decisions when you don’t have that information.

“I find it hard to understand the reasoning … you can see that it’s unreasonable when you don’t have the information in front of you.”