Buddy Franklin-style megadeals history in AFL’s post-coronavirus era

Buddy Franklin and Dustin Martin-style blockbuster contracts are likely to be binned as the financial tsunami sweeps the AFL.

Lance Franklin training at Lakeside Oval next to the SCG. The nine-year deal worth $10m that Franklin signed with the Swans in 2013 is not likely to be repeated with players in the future. Picture: Toby Zerna

Buddy Franklin and Dustin Martin-style blockbuster contracts — and long-term deals of four or more years — are likely to be binned in favour of shorter-term arrangements as the financial tsunami sweeps the AFL.

Out-of-contract Collingwood superstar Jordan De Goey looms as an important early test case of footy’s changed landscape in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

De Goey, 24, would have been able to command a tenure similar to the seven years Collingwood gave ruckman Brodie Grundy earlier this year.

But player agents say the uncertainty surrounding future salary cap sizes — and the financial squeeze on clubs — will result in fewer megadeals.

Managers warn the hardest hit group of players will be middle-tier footballers seeking the security of three or four-year deals.

It comes as list guru Chris Pelchen forecast a solution to the AFL’s radical plan to cut list sizes back to 35 next year, which would cost almost 200 current players their job.

Pelchen, a highly rated former list manager at Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and St Kilda, has called on the AFL to allow clubs to have “active” and “inactive” lists.

It would provide greater player movement in-season and secure the futures of those players in jeopardy, with inactive players receiving substantially less money.

The plan would also suit the competition’s shift to shorter contracts — with some deals fixed for six to eight weeks for those changing clubs during the season.

“We’ve seen in the last decade, and in particular the last five years, franchise players — and now it is spreading a bit deeper than just franchise players — getting longer-term contracts,” Pelchen said. “Four and five-year contracts are not an anomaly any more.”

“I think that will flip. Go back 10 or 15 years, and not many people were getting four or five-year contracts. You would still have the opportunity to have those long-term contracts. But I think you will find clubs are starting to look at shorter-term contracts.”

Pelchen said the best way to safeguard players against a list squeeze — including “project’ players and mature-aged recruits — was to change list structures.

“I am a strong supporter of what was a planned initiative when the draft was first prepared in the mid-1980s — I was on the original draft committee — and that was to have active and inactive lists,” Pelchen said.

“This is the perfect opportunity. It means players won’t be lost to the system when the AFL cuts back list sizes.”

The plan involves each club having an active list of 35 eligible to play AFL in any given week, as well as an inactive list of 10, who can play in the secondary team.

Clubs would have unlimited opportunities to move players between their active to inactive lists.

Any player on an inactive list could be poached by a rival club during the home-and-away season, if that player was willing to leave and if the rival club put them on their active list.

There would be a limit on how many times a club could secure a player from an opposition side’s inactive list.

“You can upgrade or downgrade a player at any time but if you are downgraded you can move to another club who can pick you up as a free agent,” Pelchen said.

“If you want to protect a player who is injured you have to keep him on your active list.”

A key plank would see clubs provided with one chance each season to bring in a player – who has been overlooked in two or more drafts – from outside the AFL system.

“It would encourage greater player movement between the clubs, and give an opportunity to players who might otherwise have been forced to spend the whole season in the twos,” Pelchen said.

“It also stops clubs stockpiling talent because their inactive list is exposed to the opposition.”

HERALD SUN