AFL Rich 100: Richmond’s Tom Lynch, Dustin Martin and Shai Bolton all in the top-10

Despite having the worst season in club history, the Tigers dominate the Rich 100. But, as Josh Barnes finds out, it’s all part of how the AFL wants the cycle of footy to work.

Richmond fans may be shocked to see three of their players in the top five earners in the game after a two-win season but the code-runners at AFL HQ would be well pleased.

Adem Yze trudged through the worst season in club history on his debut as coach in 2024 but three Tigers have been well paid for this year, with Tom Lynch topping the AFL Rich 100.

Lynch earned more than $1,450,000 to be well clear of Essendon recruit Ben McKay ($1,300-1,400,000).

Retired legend Dustin Martin finished his famous seven-year deal by earning up to $1,350,000 in 2024 and the dynamic Shai Bolton lobbed in at No.5, earning between $1,150-1,250,000.

That is a total pay beginning at $3,850,000.

Martin has retired and Bolton wants to leave Punt Road and get to Western Australia.

Lynch, meanwhile, was thrown up in the media as a trade option for other clubs but has only said he wants to help the Richmond rebuild.

His hefty money – he is owed similar cash again next year – made any trade difficult anyway.

With Martin and Bolton gone, the Tigers would open up significant cash to spend.

These figures may be stark for a team that won just two games, but it is the AFL system at work.

The Tigers were smashed by injury in 2024 and Lynch was the poster child for that, having now played eight games in his last two seasons.

Martin earned well clear of a $1m dollars and didn’t play in a single victory in 2024.

But Tigers fans still in the aura of their flag-winning days will happily sit through the current pain and would gladly fork over the cash to a pair of players who helped make it all possible.

Teams that win premierships, particularly dynastic teams like Richmond under Damien Hardwick, are supposed to get old and expensive.

Those sides are supposed to owe their champions good money and pay it beyond the peak of their powers, with Lynch’s deal heavily backended to help keep the premiership team together.

Now the bag is due.

Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto crossed from GWS to Richmond on good coin.

The Tigers tried to stop the fall, luring Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper – both in the AFL Rich 100 top 35 – on big money to keep the team afloat.

But it hasn’t worked and no other club has five players earning more than $800,000.

Richmond’s is a textbook cycle – having won the flag in 2020, the team aged but stayed competitive before the bottom fell out and now the Tigers are going back to the draft.

It’s exactly how the AFL has drawn it up.

And it’s exactly why Geelong’s incredible run of success has continued to defy the natural laws of the game.

The Cats have just one player in the top 80 of the list, with Jeremy Cameron’s earnings of about $1m the outlier down the highway.

Chris Scott believes list management is one of Geelong’s massive advantages and it has played a large role in the club reaching the finals in 18 of the last 21 years and sitting in the top four in 15 of those.

The Cats fell out of the race for Hopper in late 2022 when the asking price became too high for the club’s payment rules.

He isn’t the first and won’t be the last potential fish to be let off the line by the Cats.

Under former list boss and recruiting manager Stephen Wells, the Cats devised a structure early in this two decade run of success, in which good players get rewarded but as they age, the money drops.

Patrick Dangerfield’s earnings have slid as his career has progressed. Picture: Brad Fleet

Those at Geelong refer to it as a bell curve, where the majority of players sit in the middle earners and very few rise up to the serious dollars.

And career earnings follow the same pattern, where a player earns what they deserve at their peak and then the money fades as they age.

That’s why club greats Cam Guthrie, Mark Blicavs, Mitch Duncan and Tom Hawkins did not make the list, having seen their take-home pay fall as their games-played number rose.

Skipper Patrick Dangerfield joined Geelong just before Dustin Martin signed his monster deal and was alongside the Tiger great in stature for much of the past decade.

But unlike Martin, his earnings have slipped well down into the $600,000 bracket as even he fell into the bell curve philosophy.

Goalkicking master Cameron will likely follow suit when he sits down with the club next year to negotiate a new deal, with his five-year contract ending in 2025.

Some Cats are entering the start of their curve next year, with Max Holmes and Tyson Stengle warding off bigger dollars elsewhere to stay in Geelong and start new contracts next season.

Homegrown defender Jack Henry will also begin a new deal in 2025.

Bailey Smith is also widely tipped to move to the Cats and will be driving over the West Gate Bridge with a healthy bank account.