Kane Cornes calls for public player salaries after 2022 payment numbers

Kane Cornes has teed off at the AFL again, saying the league should make player salaries public to avoid speculation.

Former Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has called on the AFL to reveal individual player wages, saying it causes unnecessary media speculation otherwise.

The two-time All-Australian turned outspoken football pundit’s remarks come after the AFL released their total player payment summary for the 2022 season, where they revealed that 12 players earned more than $1 million last season.

On top of releasing the number of top earners, the AFL broke down the number of players that fell into each pay bracket, with 126 players earning between $200-300,000.

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“Excuse me if I’m flogging a dead horse here, every category is broken down,” Cornes said on SEN.

“So then what happens is, no one has any idea, but everyone speculates.

“I read the Herald Sun, the $1 million plus must be Dustin Martin, it must be Buddy Franklin, Nat Fyfe, it must be Jeremy McGovern…these are all names in the Herald Sun.

“Then I pick up The Age and I see that Lance Franklin is the highest paid player in the game at $1.3 million, no one knows.

“It’s either all-in or it’s none-in, why does the AFL release the full numbers with every player in a category?

“We don’t know the players besides it, so then we speculate.”

Kane Cornes (L) played 300 games for Adelaide from 2001-2015 as a tagging midfielder. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

Cornes said releasing the information fully would allow fans to keep clubs accountable.

1 in 22 Australians is a member of an AFL club, but currently fans are not aware of individual player salaries and subsequently their impact on a team’s salary cap.

Collingwood ruck-forward Mason Cox commented on the AFL’s Instagram post detailing the player payments, saying it was a “very timely post with the CBA negotiations going on (at the moment).

“Also a bit of a conflict of interest for the AFL to say players’ contracts are confidential, but promoting things like this,” he said.

Cox moved to Australian Rules football from basketball, having grown up in Dallas, Texas and making Oklahoma State’s basketball team as a walk-on.

In the United States, player salaries being public information is commonplace amongst the major leagues.

“I see the Herald Sun are saying Coniglio, Green and Kelly are all earning $1 million plus, if that’s the case, the Giants have butchered their salary cap,” said Cornes.

“I see Carlton are in trouble with their salary cap, well I want to know who they’re paying…they haven’t won a final yet.

“If they’ve butchered their cap to the point where they’ve got no money left and they’ve got no success, then their fans should keep the club accountable for the way they’re spending the salary cap.

According to the Total Player Payment summary released by the AFL on Wednesday, the average wage for the 659 listed players across the league was $406,000, up from $372,224 in 2021.

Mason Cox (L) says the AFL have been hypocritical in promoting how well players are paid. Picture: David Crosling

The figures don’t include rookie-listed players.

AFL player wages took a significant hit during the Covid-affected 2020 season, rising by 10.14 per cent last year.

On the other side of the salary coin, AFL executives averaged $1.3 million in 2022, with the league reporting an operating profit of $20.7 million in 2022, a $66.8 million turnaround after reporting a $46.1 million loss in 2021.

The pandemic forced clubs to cut football and administrative staff to help save costs, as well as a reduction in the football department soft cap, which will likely be a focus of upcoming collective bargaining negotiations.

The current CBA has expired, and was last negotiated in 2017, before professionalism had arrived in the women’s game and before the pandemic.

The AFL had one of its “biggest football calendar years on record” according to AFL Commission chair Richard Goyder, after a new seven-year broadcast deal was negotiated with incumbent broadcasters Seven, Fox and Telstra, worth $4.5 billion.

The AFL Players’ Association has been contacted for comment.