Player Contract Status

[comrade]

The salary cap seems bonkers when you compare a side like the Dogs to North. Both have to pay roughly the same overall to their list, but we have to fit in Bont, Naughton, English, Smith, Macrae, Treloar, Marra, Dunkley etc. Some very overpaid players at Arden St.

[Mantis]

What I take out of this is

- Contracts for Bont, Libba & Vandermeer are underway & seem positively placed

- We've been banking cap space for a while now to ensure retention of key players

- Confirms Jake Niall's (The Age) claim the Dogs have wriggle room in the cap so we could still be active in the player market

- We have a balanced approach to player payments for all players. No One getting overs or under

- Some fringe players could move on.

Nice summary... Sounds like we’re in a pretty good spot and assuming our players don’t get monster deal offers (which will probably happen) we’re in a strong position to keep the list together.

Regardless of salary cap issues I can see a number of fringe players moving on to get further opportunities unless team selection changes through the year.

[jeemak]

I would hate to be in Sam's shoes trying to juggle the salaries.

I think we have to be prepared to lose some good players over the next few years.

This is what a few have said (hello Jeemak) but others have denied:

I think we can all agree we'll all disagree on this one BAD!

[Topdog]

The Dunkley situation will be an interesting one. Early days at the moment but he has found 2019 form so far.

Essendon played it smart by trying to get him whilst playing in the ruck and struggling with form but if he keeps it up this season they won't be able to offer anything less than 2 first round picks.

[Axe Man]

First part of the article is already covered in the thread in Dogs Day, but in the second part Bains talks about Bont's contract:

Dogs expect Bombers – and ‘other clubs’ – to target Dunkley again as new Bont deal looms

Like Dunkley, skipper Bontempelli has had a tremendous start to his 2021 campaign,

Bontempelli flagged pre-season he was comfortable with where talks between his management and the Bulldogs sat, adding there was “no real rush” from either party to strike a deal promptly.

Bains said discussions remained ongoing between Bulldogs list boss Sam Power and Bontempelli’s manager Tom Petroro, declaring the club was confident Bontempelli was “a committed Bulldogs player”.

“He was really strong on wanting to be the embodiment of our focus on starting the year really strongly and to make that the priority and then to come back to these discussions,” he said.

“We’re really confident that we can get something done in the coming weeks and with the start that we’ve got, we’re hoping to get those talks ramped up in a bit more earnest over the next fortnight or so.”

Bains suggested the Bulldogs had been hesitant to hand out long-term deals in recent years, but said he was hopeful the club and Bontempelli would “arrive at a term that is suitable to all”, considering the midfielder’s age, standing in the game, immense talent and leadership responsibilities.

With the AFL slashing the salary cap for clubs last year, the Dogs came to an agreement with their players to find a “happy medium”, according to Bains, and take a list-wide cut. As a result, he said the Dogs were well placed to again be active in this year’s trade period.

But Bains stressed the list management’s main priority in the coming months was to lock away some of the club’s top current talent, such as Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore, Mitch Wallis, Ed Richards and Laitham Vandermeer.

“Even if your salary cap is pretty tight, clubs are always looking with an eye to the future in terms of how they might juggle that. It might mean that they move players out and do what they need to do. So I think it’s just the default approach for most clubs,” Bains said.

“We still do have a bit of room to manoeuvre … It’s been really strong salary cap management. We’ve also had a pretty young list for the last three or four years, so that’s allowed us to ‘future proof’ to an extent in terms of how that salary cap has been managed.

“Things are in a good position to be able to do that, but we’ve got a lot of our own players that we need to recontract and keep. Certainly that’s going to be the priority over the next few months.”

[GVGjr]

He's been in terrific form as well especially now he isn't rucking. The clubs will come calling but we should hold our position again.
Required player and it will taken a special offer before we would consider parting with him.

The message for other clubs is simple, develop you own or take advantage of Collingwood or GWS.

[bulldogtragic]

I don’t want to trade him. But...

If Essendon had pick 5 & 6 (Merrett compo) and they offered it for Dunkley and a future 3rd. Then we’ve picks 5, 6 & 18 and a future first rounder, and around $1,000,000 in cap space after signing everyone up. Maybe more picks and cash if players like Cordy or Richards leave. We’d need a Jong, Lipinski or West step up. Buy a McAsey, small forward and hit the top end of the draft. Not a dire outcome for a stupid ‘overs’ offer.

I don’t want to trade him.

[soupman]

I don’t want to trade him. But...

If Essendon had pick 5 & 6 (Merrett compo) and they offered it for Dunkley and a future 3rd. Then we’ve picks 5, 6 & 18 and a future first rounder, and around $1,000,000 in cap space after signing everyone up. Maybe more picks and cash if players like Cordy or Richards leave. We’d need a Jong, Lipinski or West step up. Buy a McAsey, small forward and hit the top end of the draft. Not a dire outcome for a stupid ‘overs’ offer.

I don’t want to trade him.

No way known they are offering that. They could not sell that to their supporters.

Best case would be something like pick 6 and their 2022 first rounder for Dunkley and our first rounder (hopefully 18) this year. I would say yes to that fwiw.

[bulldogtragic]

No way known they are offering that. They could not sell that to their supporters.

Best case would be something like pick 6 and their 2022 first rounder for Dunkley and our first rounder (hopefully 18) this year. I would say yes to that fwiw.

I’d pass. Look at it a year later maybe.

[bornadog]

I’d pass. Look at it a year later maybe.

Restricted Free the year after?

[bulldogtragic]

Restricted Free the year after?

Ala Jeremy Cameron.

I hope he stays. But I trust Power implicitly to get the best club result.

[Mantis]

Bains says we’ve been reluctant to hand out long term deals, but we’ve recently signed non-marquee type players in JJ & Hunter to 5 year deals which were strange decisions at the time. Given this I’d be happy to give our marquee player & captain any length deal he wants.

[Twodogs]

No way known they are offering that. They could not sell that to their supporters.

Best case would be something like pick 6 and their 2022 first rounder for Dunkley and our first rounder (hopefully 18) this year. I would say yes to that fwiw.

I Wouldn't take less than 2 first rounders for Dunkley. His form has improved to career best, he's still contracted for next year, he offers leadership abilities off the field as well as his on field impact and more than one club will be competing for his services at trade time this year. That's assuming that he'd evven consider an offer from them after the way they led him up the garden park last year and then let him down with an embarrassing offer at the trade table.

If I were Dunks the only plans I'd have for Essendon is pointing to the bulldog emblem on my Bulldogs jumper as I walk off the ground with my Bulldog teammates after we flog them in R21.

[FrediKanoute]

Will be interested in the approach to these guys in 2021:

Ed Richards: 2021
Zaine Cordy: 2021
Mitch Wallis: 2021
Pat Lipinski: 2021

I suspect that they may end up being makeweight players who get released traded whilst they still have some currency to make way for the 2022 guys who need to be re-signed.

I see these guys as prioirties for 2022:

Jack Macrae: 2022
Josh Dunkley: 2022
Caleb Daniel: 2022
Tim English: 2022
Rhylee West: 2022
Bailey Dale: 2022
Alex Keath: 2022
Bailey Smith: 2022
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan: 2022

[jeemak]

I Wouldn't take less than 2 first rounders for Dunkley. His form has improved to career best, he's still contracted for next year, he offers leadership abilities off the field as well as his on field impact and more than one club will be competing for his services at trade time this year. That's assuming that he'd evven consider an offer from them after the way they led him up the garden park last year and then let him down with an embarrassing offer at the trade table.

If I were Dunks the only plans I'd have for Essendon is pointing to the bulldog emblem on my Bulldogs jumper as I walk off the ground with my Bulldog teammates after we flog them in R21.

Yeah it's opportunistic or simplistic for the media to say Essendon will be going after Dunkley again. He's playing better than he ever has and that solidifies our line in the sand on trade value they wouldn't meet. If he continues on this form line he'll be worth what we asked and Essendon being Essendon just won't pay it.

You only have to look at how stupidly they handled the Daniher situation to understand how completely broken their values are.