Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
How exactly did Tom Boyd earn over $1 million in 2019 if he walked away from his contact?
Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
The number of million-dollar players in the AFL is back up to nine with two players earning in excess of $1.2 million in 2019.
The group of million-dollar earners is headlined by Richmond star Dustin Martin, Docker Nat Fyfe and Swan superstar Lance Franklin. Sources said Geelong skipper Joel Selwood and the Bulldogs' emerging champion Marcus Bontempelli were also paid more than a million dollars in 2019, while Selwood's teammate Patrick Dangerfield is right on that mark and believed likely to be a sixth player.
West Coast's Jeremy McGovern is also potentially in that bracket, given that he averages more than $1 million a season in his five-year contract, with a query on whether he was slightly below for 2019 only.
Glamour forward Franklin earned $1.3 million in 2019, which will rise to $1.4 million this year and almost $1.5 million in 2021, the second-last year of his ground-breaking, nine-year contract with the Swans.
Dangerfield crossed to the Cats from Adelaide on a deal worth close to $5 million over six years but he had rises in the total player payments built into his contract, which boosted his pay over the course of the deal.
Official figures released by the league show that nine players eclipsed the magical seven-figure mark last season. The group had contracted to six in 2018, from nine in 2017. The number of million-dollar earners fluctuates because highly paid players are sometimes on front-ended or back-ended contracts.
Collingwood's skipper Scott Pendlebury, like Selwood, had been paid on a fixed percentage of the club's salary cap for some years. Sources suggest that Pendlebury, who just signed an extension and took a significant cut, was paid marginally below $1 million in 2019, but will play for far less this year and in 2021.
One player earned more than a million dollars without playing an AFL game. The Age has confirmed that this player was not Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell, with Tom Boyd - who did not play after retiring in the course of 2019 - mooted as the other player potentially to make that amount, including any pay-out, despite not playing. Boyd turned his back on the final two years of his contract.
Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, one of the game's most consistent superstars, was not paid above $1 million in 2019. Jeremy Cameron of the Giants averages slightly over a million and is due a huge deal this year, but sources suggested that he was under the $1 million mark in 2019, as the Giants moved money around to fit under their always-bursting salary cap.
Some of the nine players paid over a million would have contracts that are front- or back-ended, meaning that they are not necessarily averaging that seven-figure amount over the course of their contracts.
The trend in the AFL has been for very long-term contracts, such as the seven-year deals signed by Magpie ruck Brodie Grundy, Richmond's Tom Lynch and Dylan Shiel (Essendon).
Last year was the fifth consecutive season that an AFL player earned at least a $1 million.
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Axe Man you have highlighted the area where it explains how. He was paid out 2019 and had 20/21 remaining.
Here's an excellent article from the time the deal was struck:
https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/to...b477456363e85d
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jeemak
That article doesn't really deal with what I am getting at. My understanding (which appears to be incorrect) was that Tom basically just left everything on the table when he walked away in May. He kept what he had received to that point and that was it. This now suggests that we paid him out for 2019 and he just walked away from the final 2 years of his contract.
Looking a bit further:
Quote:
Tom and his manager Liam Pickering met with the Club this morning and reached a friendly resolution of all contractual matters. That resolution included that Tom’s payment in 2019 be reduced and that payments previously agreed for 2020 and 2021 be cancelled.
I understand he may have been due to receive something like $1.2 or $1.3 million in 2019, but if he still received over $1 million his 2019 payment obviously wasn't reduced as much as I (and I dare say many others) thought.
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Axe Man
That article doesn't really deal with what I am getting at. My understanding (which appears to be incorrect) was that Tom basically just left everything on the table when he walked away in May. He kept what he had received to that point and that was it. This now suggests that we paid him out for 2019 and he just walked away from the final 2 years of his contract.
Looking a bit further:
I understand he may have been due to receive something like $1.2 or $1.3 million in 2019, but if he still received over $1 million his 2019 payment obviously wasn't reduced as much as I (and I dare say many others) thought.
No, that article is crap and I posted it ironically because of its crap content and how silly it now looks.
His 2019 salary was always going to be captured in the salary cap, he had ongoing medical requirements associated with and resulting from AFL football, so without having really thought about it to now it makes sense.
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Wow. If Bontempelli is a million dollar man what is his next contract worth?
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Quote:
Originally Posted by
azabob
Wow. If Bontempelli is a million dollar man what is his next contract worth?
Give him two
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Quote:
Originally Posted by
azabob
Wow. If Bontempelli is a million dollar man what is his next contract worth?
More than twice what anyone else's is worth.
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Quote:
Originally Posted by
azabob
Wow. If Bontempelli is a million dollar man what is his next contract worth?
He's the marketing face of the club and the captain so his contract may well be below $1m, but he'd surely be getting more of the $500k outside-cap marketing allowance than any other player. Plus match payments.
Given he just won his second B&F there are bonus a clauses to consider as well. He probably earns over a mill but some of that would be 'extras' he earns in a variety of ways.
Re: Million-dollar men: Nine AFL players topped $1 million mark last year
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mofra
He's the marketing face of the club and the captain so his contract may well be below $1m, but he'd surely be getting more of the $500k outside-cap marketing allowance than any other player. Plus match payments.
Given he just won his second B&F there are bonus a clauses to consider as well. He probably earns over a mill but some of that would be 'extras' he earns in a variety of ways.
He has won three Sutton medals to date.
