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20-02-2022, 05:32 PM
Saw this article by Peter Ryan and Jake Niall
AFL superstars Lance Franklin, Dustin Martin and Nat Fyfe are among a list of six players who managed to earn more than $1 million in the COVID-hit 2021 season.
Sydney’s Franklin – who needs just five more goals to become the sixth player in the game’s history to kick 1000 goals – and Richmond’s three-time Norm Smith medallist Martin are among the three players in the competition who earned more than $1.2 million in 2021.
When Franklin signed his mega nine-year deal to join the Swans after two premierships with Hawthorn, the champion goalkicker was set to earn $1.5 million in 2021 as his deal was heavily back-ended. However, COVID pay cuts would have impacted slightly on the exact figure he received.
Martin was in the fourth season of his seven-year deal in 2021 with the Tiger superstar believed to be earning $9 million over the length of his contract.
Dockers skipper Fyfe has completed four seasons of a six-year deal that began in 2018 as the club was beginning to rebuild, while his cross-town rival, Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern, was also a potential million-dollar earner, according to industry sources.
The figures were part of an AFL release which revealed that AFL clubs paid $233.9 million in player payments in 2021, with the average player salary for a listed player reaching $372, 224. There were 655 listed players across the competition.
Carlton’s Patrick Cripps is the highest paid Blue but sources said his pay packet was not $1 million in 2021, with the club adding former Giant Zac Williams and ex-Bomber Adam Saad to the line-up and Charlie Curnow in the middle of a lucrative multi-year deal.
Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy was in the first year of his seven-year deal with the Magpies that is expected to earn him more than $900,000 per season. Players in that category can sometimes earn $1 million a season when clubs spread their total contract across the salary cap paying more in some years and less in others, however sources said the Magpies list was too tight to carry a player on
seven figures a season.
Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron and Patrick Dangerfield are understood to be below the $1 million mark, with other key players Tom Hawkins, Joel Selwood and Tom Stewart in the line-up.
Western Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli and Melbourne’s Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca both signed long-term deals last year that will place them among the highest earners in 2022, while Giants co-captains Stephen Coniglio and Josh Kelly are pushing towards the million-dollar range.
Franklin will fulfil the final year of his game-changing nine-year deal this season with the Swans unable to alter its terms due to the fact he joined the club as a restricted free agent. Long-term contracts had become fashionable before COVID-19 hit, with some clubs still prepared to take the punt on attracting recruits, or on their marquee players. Hawthorn, Franklin’s original club, is the only team to resist the trend.
There were 158 listed players who earned more than $500,000 in 2021 and 497 listed players who earned under that figure. One player earned between $700,000-800,000 without playing a match in 2021.
The bounce back in the football economy led to 44 players earning more than $700,000, an increase from just 10 in the COVID-ravaged 2020 season, when each team played 17 matches.
In 2020, there were just two players who earned $1 million or more in the COVID-shortened season.
There were more players earning $1.2 million or more in 2012 (four) than there were in 2021 (three), with the highest-paid players earning between $1.2-1.5 million per year for the past decade.
Gross total player payments in 2021 are yet to return to the levels reached in 2018 and 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic ripped revenue holes in the league, forcing the collective bargaining agreement to be renegotiated and a hard cap to be placed on football departments.
AFL superstars Lance Franklin, Dustin Martin and Nat Fyfe are among a list of six players who managed to earn more than $1 million in the COVID-hit 2021 season.
Sydney’s Franklin – who needs just five more goals to become the sixth player in the game’s history to kick 1000 goals – and Richmond’s three-time Norm Smith medallist Martin are among the three players in the competition who earned more than $1.2 million in 2021.
When Franklin signed his mega nine-year deal to join the Swans after two premierships with Hawthorn, the champion goalkicker was set to earn $1.5 million in 2021 as his deal was heavily back-ended. However, COVID pay cuts would have impacted slightly on the exact figure he received.
Martin was in the fourth season of his seven-year deal in 2021 with the Tiger superstar believed to be earning $9 million over the length of his contract.
Dockers skipper Fyfe has completed four seasons of a six-year deal that began in 2018 as the club was beginning to rebuild, while his cross-town rival, Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern, was also a potential million-dollar earner, according to industry sources.
The figures were part of an AFL release which revealed that AFL clubs paid $233.9 million in player payments in 2021, with the average player salary for a listed player reaching $372, 224. There were 655 listed players across the competition.
Carlton’s Patrick Cripps is the highest paid Blue but sources said his pay packet was not $1 million in 2021, with the club adding former Giant Zac Williams and ex-Bomber Adam Saad to the line-up and Charlie Curnow in the middle of a lucrative multi-year deal.
Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy was in the first year of his seven-year deal with the Magpies that is expected to earn him more than $900,000 per season. Players in that category can sometimes earn $1 million a season when clubs spread their total contract across the salary cap paying more in some years and less in others, however sources said the Magpies list was too tight to carry a player on
seven figures a season.
Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron and Patrick Dangerfield are understood to be below the $1 million mark, with other key players Tom Hawkins, Joel Selwood and Tom Stewart in the line-up.
Western Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli and Melbourne’s Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca both signed long-term deals last year that will place them among the highest earners in 2022, while Giants co-captains Stephen Coniglio and Josh Kelly are pushing towards the million-dollar range.
Franklin will fulfil the final year of his game-changing nine-year deal this season with the Swans unable to alter its terms due to the fact he joined the club as a restricted free agent. Long-term contracts had become fashionable before COVID-19 hit, with some clubs still prepared to take the punt on attracting recruits, or on their marquee players. Hawthorn, Franklin’s original club, is the only team to resist the trend.
There were 158 listed players who earned more than $500,000 in 2021 and 497 listed players who earned under that figure. One player earned between $700,000-800,000 without playing a match in 2021.
The bounce back in the football economy led to 44 players earning more than $700,000, an increase from just 10 in the COVID-ravaged 2020 season, when each team played 17 matches.
In 2020, there were just two players who earned $1 million or more in the COVID-shortened season.
There were more players earning $1.2 million or more in 2012 (four) than there were in 2021 (three), with the highest-paid players earning between $1.2-1.5 million per year for the past decade.
Gross total player payments in 2021 are yet to return to the levels reached in 2018 and 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic ripped revenue holes in the league, forcing the collective bargaining agreement to be renegotiated and a hard cap to be placed on football departments.