AFL confirms COLA was used to snare Buddy

[Woodie99]

all you are doing is outlining the complete bullshit and utter corrupt use of COLA.

understand this guy.

Say franklin is on $1,000,000 a season. Add 9.8% to this and his end value is 1,098,000 a year

say mills is on $200,000 season. Add 9.8% to this and the end value is 219,600 a year

are you telling me it costs franklin an extra $78,000 a year to live in Sydney than mills does?

count yourself lucky your ******* club got away with it as long as they did mate. The only players that should be getting COLA are rookie listed players who actually need it. Your own clubs fault for getting greedy until people wouldnt cop it any longer.

Franklin's contract doesn't get CoLA

 

[SwampCreature]

Omg, can someone please mash this GIF with cuts of Smith missing the goal

Plz plz oogac

Anyone?

It was pretty much my face at the time

 

[footyboi1]

Not only does the ex chairman not understand how it worked, but neither does the OP.

Anyway, CoLA has been replaced with a rental subsidy. Swans are now "only" getting around 350k above and beyond what other non-nsw clubs.

Isnt the avg wage like $300k now in AFL? why the fk would you rent on $300K/yr...? Not all houses in Sydney are $1m+, do they all have to live in Mosman or something?

 

[Gazza Greatness]

all you are doing is outlining the complete bullshit and utter corrupt use of COLA.

understand this guy.

Say franklin is on $1,000,000 a season. Add 9.8% to this and his end value is 1,098,000 a year

say mills is on $200,000 season. Add 9.8% to this and the end value is 219,600 a year

are you telling me it costs franklin an extra $78,000 a year to live in Sydney than mills does?

count yourself lucky your ******* club got away with it as long as they did mate. The only players that should be getting COLA are rookie listed players who actually need it. Your own clubs fault for getting greedy until people wouldnt cop it any longer.

To add to the hypocrisy of it all is that the majority of top end Sydney players would OWN not rent properties in Sydney, therefore when the time comes to selling they would make more profit selling their property than if they purchased elsewhere in Australia, so efficiently they are financially better off not worse off with their initial higher cost of purchasing property. COLA was a farce and as stated if it should have existed at all then it should have only been for the lower-end paid players.

 

[Olian]

Despite all the Swans denials about COLA, the truth has finally come out from the AFL Chairman himself.

Buddy was poached by the Swans due to COLA.

['"If COLA worked the way I thought it worked, then Sydney were probably out of the equation."']

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-09-10/afl-chairman-disappointed-when-buddy-snubbed-giants-move

The Swans have constantly said that COLA was paid for by the AFL and they got no competitive advantage from doing so.

['But the Swans argue that the cost of living in Sydney remains higher than other states and they were able to afford Franklin and Tippett because of smart use of the veterans' allowance, the retirement of former stars and the offloading of other players.']

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-04/afl-to-scrap-cola

That blatant lie is now out in the open and it is no wonder that COLA has been abolished after the poaching of Tippett and Franklin (which was the straw that broke the camel's back after approximately 15 years of advantage over other clubs).

It is also good to see the AFL Commission is so impartial.

["The best thing that happened, either way, was that he went to Sydney," Fitzpatrick said. ']

I know it's outrageous a guy moves interstate for girlfriend and better pay.

 

[J_Moore]

The per year payments aren't even particularly big with Franklin. It's the length of the contract that is remarkable, and we're going to pay it without the COLA, and have signed most of our high profile players for the next couple of seasons.

 

[Suma Magic]

Isnt the avg wage like $300k now in AFL? why the fk would you rent on $300K/yr...? Not all houses in Sydney are $1m+, do they all have to live in Mosman or something?

I think they get the 15k regardless of their living situation. That hasn't been explicitly stated though.

It's obvious that you don't need an extra $300 a week to rent in room in Sydney compared to Melbourne. But that's the point of it, it's just a diluted cola that helps to overcompensate swans players. It's an attraction and retention allowance to support the Sydney clubs given the importance of success in nsw for the afl.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Isnt the avg wage like $300k now in AFL? why the fk would you rent on $300K/yr...? Not all houses in Sydney are $1m+, do they all have to live in Mosman or something?

I can think of very good reasons. Average and median wage are very different.

A younger up and coming player isn't probably getting that wage until 22/23 - unless they are a gun like Heeney. At which point your average talented footballer (Bird/McGlynn/Laidler/Buchanon) might think they only have 2-5 years left in Sydney before they finish up.

Why invest $900k into a property, pay the stamp duty and then have to sell it in a few years time.

Better off buying in the area you intend to live in long term and remove the property risk.

As an aside, I was passionately against COLA as it "was" implemented. It was nothing but contract loading and not closely correlated to cost of living.

The new system makes for more sense and is how the system should have worked from the start

 

[footyboi1]

I think they get the 15k regardless of their living situation. That hasn't been explicitly stated though.

It's obvious that you don't need an extra $300 a week to rent in room in Sydney compared to Melbourne. But that's the point of it, it's just a diluted cola that helps to overcompensate swans players. It's an attraction and retention allowance to support the Sydney clubs given the importance of success for the afl.

Dirty postmix cola...

 

[bungwahl]

Isnt the avg wage like $300k now in AFL? why the fk would you rent on $300K/yr...? Not all houses in Sydney are $1m+, do they all have to live in Mosman or something?

The Swans are based in the eastern suburbs and the average house price is about ten zillion dollars. Many of the lower paid players rent as they are younger or don't have the job security of the higher paid guys. It's generally cheaper to rent in the eastern suburbs and be close to the club facilities rather than buying something affordable 30km away and dealing with traffic every day.

 

[Olian]

I think they get the 15k regardless of their living situation. That hasn't been explicitly stated though.

It's obvious that you don't need an extra $300 a week to rent in room in Sydney compared to Melbourne. But that's the point of it, it's just a diluted cola that helps to overcompensate swans players. It's an attraction and retention allowance to support the Sydney clubs given the importance of success in nsw for the afl.

Given the Melbourne based clubs pilfered all the decent young players from the Swans in the 90's COLA was introduced in part to negate this.

 

[J_Moore]

Isnt the avg wage like $300k now in AFL? why the fk would you rent on $300K/yr...? Not all houses in Sydney are $1m+, do they all have to live in Mosman or something?

- Yes.
- Because you're a younger player not yet on the average wage.
- Most houses within 30 minutes drive of the SCG would be $1m+. 1-2 bedroom apartments a bit less.
- You don't have to live in Mosman, but if you want to live in Croydon, or Earlwood, or Botany, or Lane Cove (10km radius/30 minute drive from the SCG), in a house, you'll be paying $1mil.


The affordable pocket of the past 'near' the SCG were the SE suburbs north of Botany Bay - pagewood, botany, Malabar, etc.

But in the last 10 years they've done their dash.

 

[footyboi1]

Yes.
Because you're a younger player not yet on the average wage.
Most houses within 30 minutes drive of the SCG would be $1m+. 1-2 bedroom apartments a big less.

Dat livable city

 

[dazbroncos]

And the AFL will roll out the same PR speech regarding all the draft concessions that GWS got after they get their 5th straight flag...

"did we do that" ?

ooops... sorry...

Go Catters

 

[Suma Magic]

Given the Melbourne based clubs pilfered all the decent young players from the Swans in the 90's COLA was introduced in part to negate this.

Officially it was to account for differences in the cost of living.

Unofficially it was to give Sydney extra money so they would have an advantage in attracting and retaining players. It worked so well that it had to be modified.

 

[Andrew Mc]

Isnt the avg wage like $300k now in AFL? why the fk would you rent on $300K/yr...? Not all houses in Sydney are $1m+, do they all have to live in Mosman or something?

Really not sure how it easy it would be to get a loan when you're on a relatively short term contract of 1-2 years. And there's a chance you'll get traded, injured, or anything else. Football careers are short for most. And rookies don't get paid anywhere near 300k. They're the ones getting the subsidies.

 

[Olian]

Officially it was to account for differences in the cost of living.

Unofficially it was to give Sydney extra money so they would have an advantage in attracting and retaining players. It worked so well that it had to be modified.

They lost Rocca, Grant and others who played 200+ games so they had to do something to stop the rot. Money talks and it worked.

 

[bungwahl]

Officially it was to account for differences in the cost of living.

Unofficially it was to give Sydney extra money so they would have an advantage in attracting and retaining players. It worked so well that it had to be modified.

Yep, that's pretty much right. They had to turn Sydney in to an attractive destination club and that's now been done, so the old form of COLA was rightly scrapped.

It'd be so much better if the AFL just blatantly told the truth. Well, it'd cause a lot of melts but it'd be fun.

 

[bungwahl]

So can we close this thread now?

 

[J_Moore]

It's obvious that you don't need an extra $300 a week to rent in room in Sydney compared to Melbourne.

Nah you probably do.

 

[Suma Magic]

They lost Rocca, Grant and others who played 200+ games so they had to do something to stop the rot. Money talks and it worked.

Yeah it was fantastic. A period of sustained success unrivalled in the league. But then other clubs got sick of playing a club with an extra million in the cap and it was rightly modified. I would like to have seen it gone completely, but I understand the importance of success in nsw to the afl administration.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

The Swans are based in the eastern suburbs and the average house price is about ten zillion dollars. Many of the lower paid players rent as they are younger or don't have the job security of the higher paid guys. It's generally cheaper to rent in the eastern suburbs and be close to the club facilities rather than buying something affordable 30km away and dealing with traffic every day.

cant have the swans deal with traffic every day can we. Like every other ****ing person in sydney.

Not too mention that train in the mid morning when no traffic is even on the road

that argument is bullshit.

 

[DrEvil_]

I think you have missed the point of everything I've said so far.

COLA was never tied to housing. COLA was a flat 9.8% loading on every contract, signed off by the AFL.

Does that mean the Swans could offer more than a Vic club? Yes of course - in like for like circumstances they could offer 9.8% more. This was common knowledge and player managers knew their players should be getting 9.8% more by playing for Sydney. But again, it's not the merits of COLA that this thread is disputing, it's the application.

It is exactly the application of COLA that was a problem. Let's say the fair value of player A is 400k, Sydney could offer him 380k and let the COLA to bring it up to 410k. While the intent of COLA was a flat 9.8% loading on every contract, in practice since Sydney gets to negotiate the amount for each contract, it effectively became an extra 9.8% in their salary cap. The only way COLA would work as intended was for every player to get a fixed salary across the league.

We've been through this many times, this is exactly why Fitzpatrick said COLA did not work the way he thought it would.

 

[Olian]

So can we close this thread now?

Yes let's move onto a new thread about the academies.

 

[Suma Magic]

Nah you probably do.

I lived in Woollahra as recently as 2014. My (relatively shitty) two bed unit was worth $550 a week then. So $275 per person.

So say a swan paid $400 a week in rent. That room wouldn't be $100 a week in Melbourne. Or if they paid $500, you can't get a similar room in Melbourne for $200.