The perils of trading for "pay packet" players....

[Cannibal]

The Age and Herald Sun have reported that St Kilda is facing a salary cap squeeze.

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/real ... 27402.html

Nick Riewoldt can seek a renegotiation of his contract if he finishes in the top four of their B&F, whilst Luke Ball has allegedly been offered just over $200k for the next two seasons.

The pressure on St Kilda seems to have been created by the contracts of Fraser Gehrig, who has a long-term deal worth about $500k per year, and Aaron Hamill, whose original contract was apparently so lucrative the club has given him four years more from the end of this year to reduce its impact. One imagines Hamill must be on something like Gehrig's pay, then.

But, it leaves no room to sign the kids developing into the club's future stars! So now even Grant Thomas says, "We need to manage it very, very prudently". He added, "It's always going to be difficult. You hope the players understand the balance between personal financial gain and team success" .

In other words, someone (or two!) is going to have to cop serious pay cuts.

It's a salutary lesson in the perils of chasing players who want big pay packets. In the end, it catches up with you. And you run a very serious risk of losing the youngsters who are your future.

[Johnson#26]

Thats why we should be playing very hard to get a Saints youngster. One will not be able to fit, so we should chase them all (Ball, Dal Santo etc) very hard.

[Nath]

3 Words For You All


BACK ENDED CONTRACTS

[Stinger]

Explain Nath... perhaps in another thread?

[Nath]

Can do very very briefly here Stinger.

Waht you'll find is that Goddards two year deal essentially pays around $175K per annum. Next year its estimated he'll be on $100K and the following year at $250K. They know Riewoldt will renegotiate so if he negotiates a three year term, he'll be skinny for the first year and then fat over the last two, given that he's already contracted for 2005 anyways.

Their biggest burden is the Hamill contract, which is big bucks and wasn't back ended, rather averaged out over the period of the 5 years.

St.Kilda players, this year aside, will generally come out of contract in different years, which will ease the salary cap burden as they can space it better. They'll still keep a number of their primary players and given that Harvey and Peckett will retire this year and next, they can space the contracts out. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if Ball stays and they lose players like Xavier Clarke and Stephen Milne. The nucleus of the midfield seems extremely likely to stay though.

[Cam]

I wish we were filling Nathan Brown's pay packet or Kane Johnsons.

[Nath]

Agreed Cam, we really missed the boat on Johnson, could care less about Brown, but Johnson was a big missed opportunity

[bwphantom]

No word on a Harvey retirement yet. I think it would not be too long.

[Cannibal]

3 Words For You All


BACK ENDED CONTRACTS

And three words back: impending financial disaster. At some point, you can't defer making the payments any longer and, worse, you have more new young guns coming up who want better money as well.

The clubs which have back-loaded contracts have all run into trouble, with Kouta being the worst example.

Unlike the American NFL, where back-loaded contracts are rampant, there are no "escape" clauses in AFL contracts, so the clubs cannot delist a guy just before he gets the big money, which is what happens in America, to avoid the impending disaster.

The only way it can happen here is for a contract to be renegotiated ie the player takes a pay cut.

But your comment is off the mark, Nath, in the worst possible way. If you'd read the post properly, you would have noticed that Hamill has ALREADY back-loaded his contract!

St Kilda have no room to run. If they can't negotiate some pay cuts, look for a gun to leave. Which was the whole point. Do you want to keep your young guns or some old bloke with a fat pay packet?

[Nath]

Hamill deal was renegotiated or signed last year, think it was for 5 years or something, more than happy to say if I'm wrong. These guys contracts will come up before the big Hamill payout. Thats all I'm saying, else wise, you are completely correct, they are a nightmare for financial reasons.

[Johnson#26]

Kane Johnson supported the Tigers as a kid - there was no way he'd let the chance to play with them slip.

[Cannibal]

...here you have a club that has played in 1 prelim final and they're under the pump salary cap wise

Yes, but it is their own stupid management in over-paying for Gehrig and Hamill which has put them there! Sensible cap financial management means you can have one well paid player on your list getting $500k+ but you can't have two, especially when neither qualify for the veteran's discount. Even Brisbane haven't been that stupid, concession or no concession! Clubs which get into this position - Essendon, is another example - have only themselves to blame.