Geelongs salary cap - Does it need questioning?

Jan 19, 2008
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Might get banned for this but whatever

For 20 years now, Geelong have had a unmatched ability to recruit and keep players. They are quite simply untouchable in this respect. Gary Ablett and his 2 mill aside, no one has ever been squeezed out of this club for salary cap reasons despite simply having the best list over this time period. All the while this has happened they have been able to still poach players at the same time, time and time again. Im pretty confident that if I market valued the current Geelong list, they should be about 30% over the cap

The question is. Do they have the greatest list management team in the country? or do we need to dig a bit more deeper below the surface?

Some considerations:
  • Yes the list management team is very good, the club is very well run.
  • We don't pay high salaries, we do play lesser lights more than you think. The players know this and understand this, so therefore we don't have well you pay that hack 600K why not me problems. This is also means we don't get many players leaving for more money, it is usually for more opportunity to play seniors.
  • We also delist players pretty fast if the club thinks they are not up to it.
  • When players do leave we usually try hard to get them to where they want to go. This is a positive factor if you are a professional footballer.
  • A lot of footballers are from country areas and this is a club where they can live regionally but still easy to get to training.
  • Houses are cheaper. Things are cheaper in general.
  • You can live in Victoria and go surfing every morning.
  • The club consistently plays in multiple finals a year - players value that.
  • We win more than we lose.
  • Even with all that, the big city is only an hour up the road unless you go in peak hour.
  • We also get linked with every single potentially available player every year whether true or not.
 
Feb 23, 2009
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Ill do it shortly but do want 1 quick question

Patrick Dangerfields salary?

He would/should be on 950k
Your problem is you are equating average salary to actual salary. He might already have been paid the bulk of his salary and might be sitting on 600k a year now, or it might be the opposite, the actual number in 2020 being high or low doesn't really tell the story because if he's high someone else will be low and vice versa.
 

Doashuey

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Sep 13, 2017
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Speculation is its closer to 800k.

But honestly I don't know where this is coming from, Geelong isn't a team stacked with huge talent on massive contracts.

We have Danger, Selwood, and Hawkins as the only three players i feel would be on large money.

The rest i feel would be mid range to low contracts.

Duncan
Blitz
Guthrie
Dahlhaus
Ablett (wouldn't be on anywhere near as much as you think)
Rohan
Stewart
Tuohy

but i mean look at West Coast

Kennedy
Darling
Natanui
Gaff
Cripps
Hurn
Kelly
McGovern
Shuey
Yeo

That's quite a list you have there, certainly more top heavy than geelongs, how do you guys manage to keep under the cap.
Hurn, NN and Kennedy wouldnt be on high end $s mostly because they have signed short end of career contracts. In Cripps case, he is handy but not A grade and paid accordingly. That still leaves a bit of money on the table there with Gaff, Gov, Yep, Shuey. The 6year 5M wild guess at Kellys contract by some media tart during the height of last years trade period would be complete and utter shizen. He was very keen to get to WC as we all know, the club paid Geelong big bickies to trade him out but I would be very surprised if he is on any more than 650-700k/annum for the simple fact we probably didnt have the cap space and Kellys decision was less about $s more about family and success.
You point regarding Geelongs list is valid- you dont have too many top end contracts there but plenty of mid table contracts. Doesnt strike me as being in danger of being over the cap.
 
Hurn, NN and Kennedy wouldnt be on high end $s mostly because they have signed short end of career contracts. In Cripps case, he is handy but not A grade and paid accordingly. That still leaves a bit of money on the table there with Gaff, Gov, Yep, Shuey. The 6year 5M wild guess at Kellys contract by some media tart during the height of last years trade period would be complete and utter shizen. He was very keen to get to WC as we all know, the club paid Geelong big bickies to trade him out but I would be very surprised if he is on any more than 650-700k/annum for the simple fact we probably didnt have the cap space and Kellys decision was less about $s more about family and success.
You point regarding Geelongs list is valid- you dont have too many top end contracts there but plenty of mid table contracts. Doesnt strike me as being in danger of being over the cap.
Oh I don't think West Coast is over the salary cap, I just didn't like that the poster was throwing completely unfounded aspersions at Geelong so I thought I'd throw a few back.
 

Saint

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How many of their list are either returning home (specifically to Geelong) or were on the outer when recruited?

I can't think of players other than Dangerfield and Ablett whose club actually wanted them to stay when Geelong got them.

Henderson, Steven, Rohan, Dahlhaus all were traded/given away for not much and wouldn't be on big contracts. Tuohy was probably in a similar boat, wanted out of Carlton at the time.

Motlop, McCarthy, Caddy and some others (many delisted and picked up elsewhere) also left the club including Tim Kelly who's probably on more than anyone at Geelong other than Dangerfield. Hawkins and Selwood have probably never really tested their value as they're home grown and still chasing cups.

Don't forget, Dangerfield went to Geelong for success and to live in Moggs Creek. Both of which tend to make me think he's probably taking unders in terms of payments. Doesn't cost a lot for property in Moggs Creek.
 

Duskfire

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 30, 2007
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Who is earning the big $$$ at Geelong?

Dangerfield, Selwood and Hawkins. That is it.

And ultimately it is the reason we struggle in finals, we just don't have enough top end talent.

Yup. The way people talk, its as if Geelong have a crazy amount of top earners. Two of their best midfielders this year were Menegola and Guthrie, neither of which are exactly commanding million dollar contracts. I am not sure why they have salary cap queries, when there are other clubs with bigger names?
 
Sep 27, 2008
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How many of their list are either returning home (specifically to Geelong) or were on the outer when recruited?

I can't think of players other than Dangerfield and Ablett whose club actually wanted them to stay when Geelong got them.

Henderson, Steven, Rohan, Dahlhaus all were traded/given away for not much and wouldn't be on big contracts. Tuohy was probably in a similar boat, wanted out of Carlton at the time.

Motlop, McCarthy, Caddy and some others (many delisted and picked up elsewhere) also left the club including Tim Kelly who's probably on more than anyone at Geelong other than Dangerfield. Hawkins and Selwood have probably never really tested their value as they're home grown and still chasing cups.

Don't forget, Dangerfield went to Geelong for success and to live in Moggs Creek. Both of which tend to make me think he's probably taking unders in terms of payments. Doesn't cost a lot for property in Moggs Creek.

Was Tim Kelly on that much at Geelong? They picked him up in the draft so he would have been on the same money as most draftees, no more than 200k.

He would be on a lot more money at West Coast but he wouldn't have been anywhere near that sort of money at Geelong I wouldn't have thought.
 
Jan 19, 2008
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Was Tim Kelly on that much at Geelong? They picked him up in the draft so he would have been on the same money as most draftees, no more than 200k.

He would be on a lot more money at West Coast but he wouldn't have been anywhere near that sort of money at Geelong I wouldn't have thought.

Yeah he was on draftee wages - but we had cleared the space to make a big offer to him which we have not spent.....Stevens is v cheap and Jenkins costs nothing which is who came in last year.
 

Shadow89

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Might get banned for this but whatever

For 20 years now, Geelong have had a unmatched ability to recruit and keep players. They are quite simply untouchable in this respect. Gary Ablett and his 2 mill aside, no one has ever been squeezed out of this club for salary cap reasons despite simply having the best list over this time period. All the while this has happened they have been able to still poach players at the same time, time and time again. Im pretty confident that if I market valued the current Geelong list, they should be about 30% over the cap

The question is. Do they have the greatest list management team in the country? or do we need to dig a bit more deeper below the surface?

Says the team paying Gaff, Shuey, Darling, Kennedy, McGovern, Yeo, Nic Nat all exorbitant amounts - and still luring Kelly back last year on 650+ (another star player we lost). Have a look in your own backyard mate.

Players accept unders because we never grossly overpay anyone - with the captain always being the highest paid, and only a handful of others commanding over 500K. Every other player would be on similar wages, causing there to be no disgruntlement that comes from wide disparity in wages between different players - see GWS, Essendon, Adelaide and GC as recent examples.

Players never come to Geelong expecting a massive payday. They come here bexause we have a history of success, we're not in the Melbourne 'bubble', we have a good culture and care for our players - many of the same reasons I would have thought players stay at WC/go back home to play for you guys.

What an odd thread.
 
Last edited:

Shadow89

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Was Tim Kelly on that much at Geelong? They picked him up in the draft so he would have been on the same money as most draftees, no more than 200k.

He would be on a lot more money at West Coast but he wouldn't have been anywhere near that sort of money at Geelong I wouldn't have thought.

It's more what we had set aside for him (rumoured to be around 800K to entice him to stay) after his initial basement contract ended. That money is still there, plus retirements of Ablett and Taylor coming
 
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