Question someone smarter than I may be able to answer.
What's the go with changing current contracts in a POSITIVE way? Can it be done if both club and player agree to it and signed off on by the AFL?
Say we're sitting 2m behind the minimum cap for the year, we're not going to say... "Hey Dec, Sign on for a year at 2m?" to meet that minimum cap.
Could we say, go to every player at the club and offer them a 50k bonus for the year?
TPP amount is the greater of new contract or old contract, this is basically what it means to bring contracts forward. If you have Player A who is on 250k for 2018, 2019 and 2020 for example, you can renegotiate it to be 500k in 2018 and 125k in 2019 and 2020. However, the TPP amount in 2019 and 2020 will still be 250k.
So it is not good for bringing forward someone who has an existing contract. What it is good for is if you have Player B who is on 250k in 2017 and you are renegotiating their contract, you can offer them 500k in 2018 and 125k in 2019 and 2020 so you have the capacity to have more space in future years.
There is, however, a limit that the AFL allows for bringing contracts forward. What there isn't a limit on is offering players new front-loaded contracts.
We will have players coming out of contract this year which we will likely front-load offers in new deals presented to them so we are paying minimal for them longer-term.
The problem is, we are basically attempting to compete in a competition with a player pool that isn't worth the salary cap, it isn't a good situation to be in and we have been in this boat for a few years already. The potential space is irrelevant if you can't lure anyone worthwhile or the younger players you develop never achieve a high enough standard that warrant more money.
Fiddling the books for an advantage is the least of our concerns, creating decent talent is our major concern.