Opinion AFL Average Salary (or more) and who is on it - AKA Salary Cap for dummies

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I hope Lobbe's contract was front loaded, however, I have a sneaky suspicion that it may be the opposite. Must offload.
 

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Banking of Salary Cap underspends continues during the 2017-22 CBA.

13. Payment of Total Player Payment and Additional Services Agreements
(a) Each AFL Club must expend no less than 95% of the combined annual Total Player Payments and Additional Services Agreements limits in Football Payments to Players on its List in each relevant year.
......
(e) AFL Clubs may spend over 100% of the combined Total Player Payments and Additional Services Agreements limit (Combined Limit), if in any of the preceding three years the Club has spent below 100% of the Combined Limit.

(f) The permitted amount of overspend will be tied to the level of underspend in the relevant preceding period. For example, if a Club was $500,000 below the combined Total Player Payments and Additional Services Agreements limit in 2017, and paid 100% of the Combined Limit in 2018 and 2019, the Club would be entitled to spend $500,000 above the Combined Limit in 2020. If a $500,000 overspend was not made in 2020, the Club has lost the right to overspend in 2021.

(g) It is agreed that the overspend amount is to be capped at a maximum of 105% of the Combined Limit in any given year.
 
Some interesting figures have been thrown around re player salaries over the trade period. The AFL average salary in 2017 will be around $371k and will be $389k by 2022 for AFL primary listed players. See this AFLPA graphic released after CBA was signed.
http://www.aflplayers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CBA_Infographic_2017.pdf

As per my OP that means about 15 players would be on at least $371k+ in 2017. My guess of which 15 is

Robbie, Boak, Ryder, Dixon, Ebo, Jacko, Hartlett, Lobbe, Chad, Ollie, Broadie, Westhoff, Jonas, Pittard, and Hombsch.

Monfries and White might have been on lower base/higher match payments and incentives in their contracts which could have meant total payment of around $370k if they played 22 games.

I've read Impey was on $400k this year at Port after he was traded, but I just dont see that he was that good to get paid that much. I cant see the club having paid Impey as much as some of the 15 players above. Polec would also be on better money than Impey was in 2017.

So Jacko comes out of my 15 and Rockliff, Motlop and Watts would get slotted in. As I wrote in another thread, in 2018 we will be paying over 100% of the cap as we didn't have the automatic CBA increase % clauses in player contracts, so we paid well less than 100% in 2017. We will probably have a problem at the end of 2018 unless some of our longer contracts into 2019 were frontended and 2019 payments have a decent drop off for a few high profile guys. Check contracts list at
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/contracted-players.627140/#post-15612616
As I wrote in the 2017 trade and free agent thread on how we can afford Rockliff, Motlop and Watts
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/thre...-of-free-agents.1177826/page-22#post-52711953

A couple of people have said we didnt have an automatic CBA salary cap percentage increase clause in most of our players who signed on for 2017 before the new CBA cap amount was known. If that's the case and we only paid say 96% of the cap of $12.445m in 2017 $12.594m in 2018. So there is $500k if that gap is carried forward from 2017 to 2018 before any free agent is paid.

Letting Jacko go probably saves $600k

Then there is the ASA's The Additional Service Agreements which used to be 10% of the salary cap in the previous CBA but now are between 8.5% to 9.0% during the life of this CBA and a minimum 95% has to be paid. In 2018 the ASA cap is $1,093,187. That doesn't have to be spread over all 45 players. Any payments have to be of commercial value, but that can be spread over 4 or 5 or 6 players and you don't have the same players each year. So there is potentially $200,000-$250,000 available to be paid to 1 or more of the players we bring in.

And then there is banking of Salary Cap under spend. From the 2017-22 CBA. So potentially we have an underspend of $500k before an free agent comes in so we can spend that. We can overspend that $500k in 2018 so there is $1mil. Jacko goes that makes room for another $600k and then if we are smart about the way we use ASA's there is potentially another $200k to $300k so there is a total of $1.8mil~$1.9mil that can used to pay 3 high profile free agents.
 
Caro wrote an article about our cap issues last night and now dumping Lobbe's $500k contract I'll put what I wrote in a couple of posts in here as it's relevant and helps make sense of what we are doing re using the Cap rules.

How Bombers set up Port Adelaide spending spree
...But now comes the silver lining. Anyone wondering how a club criticised for a plethora of supposedly crippling rich, long-term player contracts could afford the experienced trifecta of Tom Rockliff, Steven Motlop and Jack Watts only has to look back to the war chest created by the Essendon saga. Because the Bombers covered a significant chunk of the Ryder and Monfries contracts in 2016, Port was able to bank more than $1 million of its total player payments over successive seasons. Added to that was the fact that the majority of big player contracts — including the rich Charlie Dixon deal — did not factor in TPP increases achieved in the new pay deal. Not to mention at least another million dollars freed up with the recent departures of Jackson Trengove and Jarman Impey — probably the first Port player in Hinkley's time to ask to go home. No wonder Port has for the past 18 months angrily denied suggestions of salary cap pressure......
http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/...-adelaide-spending-spree-20171018-gz3oqc.html

That was poorly written by Caro or she is innumerate like most sports journos.

Caro makes it sound like all the $1mil plus came from the Essendon saga and not paying Monfries and Ryder. Which it wasn't. We paid Ryder and Monfries 3 months base salary before the CAS ruling. So we saved about $600k but as we had to pay at least 95% of $10.37m cap + $1.022m ASA's and given we have no idea what share of the ASA's Ryder and Monfries were getting in 2016 we could only salary cap bank about $500k rather than the full $600k. I doubt the AFL let us pay less than 95%. And we would have paid 95%~96% of the $12.42m cap + $1.061m so there is another $540k~$675k underspent in 2017 by not having automatic CBA % increase amount clauses in the player contracts for 2017 and beyond.

From rules Clause 13 of the CBA listed above;we can over spend up to the following amount in
2018 5% x ($12.594m + $1.093m) = $684.3k
2019 5% x ($12.758m + $1.126m) = $694.2k
2020 5% x ($13.013m + $1.159m) = $708.6k

obviously over the 3 years we are limited to the total underspend in 2016+2017. But we allowed to overspend the 2016 underspend amount by 2019 and the 2017 by 2020.

Having regard to removing Lobbe's salary from 2018 and 2019, we can overspend in 2018, 2019 and 2020 because of underspends in 2016 and 2017. This now probably will mean we don't have to over spend by more than 1 or 2% in 2018 instead of the full maximum 5% we are allowed, if we kept Lobbe. The Lobbe trade is about taking out monies off 2018 and 2019's cap so that we can renegotiate with the guys coming out of contract in 2018 and 2019 with greater flexibility and allow to over spend the 5% on them and not a dead weight of Lobbe. these are whose contract finishes at the end of 2018 and 2019.

2018
3 Jake Neade
13 Todd Marshall
16 Oliver Wines
21 Jared Polec
25 Logan Austin
28 Willem Drew
30 Joe Atley
33 Darcy Byrne-Jones
39 Justin Westhoff

2019
1 Travis Boak
4 Patrick Ryder
5 Matthew Broadbent
9 Robbie Gray
14 Billy Frampton
15 Karl Amon
17 Tom Clurey
20 Chad Wingard
23 Matthew Lobbe
26 Riley Bonner
32 Dougal Howard
36 Jack Hombsch
42 Thomas Jonas
46 Sam Gray
Click to expand...

When I was in Shangai in May I heard several people give Chris Davies a big wrap on how good an operator he is. This sort of forward planning and using the banking rules, concentrating on top 30 picks in 2016 and going for free agents in a weak draft, including trading out Rd 1 2017 to get an extra rd 1 pick in 2016 confirms what people told me about our very own George Costanza. :) And Cripps has played his role well in tandem with Davies.
 
Haha I think back to when KT was on the Bigfooty podcast and was asked about our cap issues by Portia and Macca19 and the answer he gave was slightly contorted and made it sound like we were close up against the cap like everyone else and was non committal about the Ryder and Monfries salary savings being banked. he played a beautiful dead bat and gave no hint of what we had set in motion.

Beautiful stuff by the casual one.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Some interesting figures have been thrown around re player salaries over the trade period. The AFL average salary in 2017 will be around $371k and will be $389k by 2022 for AFL primary listed players. See this AFLPA graphic released after CBA was signed.
http://www.aflplayers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CBA_Infographic_2017.pdf

As per my OP that means about 15 players would be on at least $371k+ in 2017. My guess of which 15 is

Robbie, Boak, Ryder, Dixon, Ebo, Jacko, Hartlett, Lobbe, Chad, Ollie, Broadie, Westhoff, Jonas, Pittard, and Hombsch.

Monfries and White might have been on lower base/higher match payments and incentives in their contracts which could have meant total payment of around $370k if they played 22 games.

I've read Impey was on $400k this year at Port after he was traded, but I just dont see that he was that good to get paid that much. I cant see the club having paid Impey as much as some of the 15 players above. Polec would also be on better money than Impey was in 2017.

So Jacko comes out of my 15 and Rockliff, Motlop and Watts would get slotted in.
Click to expand...

Would Westhoff still be on decent coin, don't know why but I just assumed a player would slide down the pay scale once they start getting annual renewals only and isn't in demand from other clubs.

Pittard also gives the impression he couldn't care less what he gets paid so wouldn't be surprised if he is getting paid unders.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
"The amounts reported include the additional services agreements - the capped marketing payments that clubs can make to players for appearances and work for sponsors and alike."
Click to expand...

How do bonuses come into the cap?

Say player x is on $500k but can't make it out of the maggies, for argument sake Lobbe. Then you have Houston and Sam Gray that perform above expectations and for argument sake are on $150k.

Is there a portion in their contract that is subject to KPIs which allows the club to say "Sorry Lobes, you didn't meet your targets this year so you only get base of $400k and the $100k we had allocated for you goes to Dan and Sammy"

I asked a similar question in a different topic but didn't get an answer
 
Vagabond0 said:
How do bonuses come into the cap?

Say player x is on $500k but can't make it out of the maggies, for argument sake Lobbe. Then you have Houston and Sam Gray that perform above expectations and for argument sake are on $150k.

Is there a portion in their contract that is subject to KPIs which allows the club to say "Sorry Lobes, you didn't meet your targets this year so you only get base of $400k and the $100k we had allocated for you goes to Dan and Sammy"

I asked a similar question in a different topic but didn't get an answer
Click to expand...
All football related payments which aren't given specific listed exemptions are included in the cap. Bonuses aren't exempted.

Exemptions include relocation expenses, some injury payments, any finals match payments and finals allowance payments, finals prize money payments from AFL, COLA payments, rookie base payments, etc.

See post 17 of page 1 of this thread for full exemptions.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
All football related payments which aren't given specific listed exemptions are included in the cap. Bonuses aren't exempted.

Exemptions include relocation expenses, some injury payments, any finals match payments and finals allowance payments, finals prize money payments from AFL, COLA payments, rookie base payments, etc.

See post 17 of page 1 of this thread for full exemptions.
Click to expand...

Cheers so I'm reading that as when we hear these figures for salaries being splashed around that's base and the clubs have a seperate percentage of their cap which they can use for incentives.
 
Vagabond0 said:
Cheers so I'm reading that as when we hear these figures for salaries being splashed around that's base and the clubs have a seperate percentage of their cap which they can use for incentives.
Click to expand...
The media tend to quote the maximum amounts. When I hear Jacko was on $700k I know his base payments were in the $550k to $600k range.

This trade period when you hear player X as been offered a salary of $3m for 4 years I read that as approx the maximum he will get paid without any AFL prize money in there.

It is the Additional Services Agreements that are the real tricky part of understanding a players fully paid amount. This ASA amount can be paid by the club and or by club sponsors. In the 2012-16 CBA it was set at 10% of the salary cap and during the 2017-22 CBA it goes from 8.5% to 9.3% of the cap amount over the 6 years. This ASA's amounts don't have to be spread over the 44 players. They have to be commercial in value but it could be spread over only 5 to 10 players. Like the salary cap, the ASA's cap have to be paid at least 95% of the this cap.

You also have independent ASA's which are defined in the CBA and outside the ASA cap but the way associates are defined in the CBA, it's hard see how you can get true independent ASA's of any value.

The AFL ruled that Judd's ASA with Vizzy for a reputed $250k a year as an environmental spokesman was independent and therefore outside of the ASA cap, but Eddie complained for years that they wouldn't clarify with him how that agreement was independent. He wanted to find out so he could get his players on some independent ASA's and help attract players.
 
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RussellEbertHandball said:
The media tend to quote the maximum amounts. When I hear Jacko was on $700k I know his base payments were in the $550k to $600k range.

This trade period when you hear player X as been offered a salary of $3m for 4 years I read that as approx the maximum he will get paid without any AFL prize money in there.

It is the Additional Services Agreements that are the real tricky part of understanding a players fully paid amount. This ASA amount can be paid by the club and or by club sponsors. In the 2012-16 CBA it was set at 10% of the salary cap and during the 2017-22 CBA it goes from 8.5% to 9.3% of the cap amount over the 6 years. This ASA's amounts don't have to be spread over the 44 players. They have to be commercial in value but it could be spread over only 5 to 10 players. Like the salary cap, the ASA's cap have to be paid at least 95% of the this cap.

You also have independent ASA's which are defined in the CBA and outside the ASA cap but the way associates are defined in the CBA, it's hard see how you can get true independent ASA's of any value.

The AFL ruled that Judd's ASA with Vizzy for a reputed $250k a year as an environmental spokesman was independent and therefore outside of the ASA cap, but Eddie complained for years that they wouldn't clarify with him how that agreement was independent. He wanted to find out so he could get his players on some independent ASA's and help attract players.
Click to expand...

Cheers.

No way I'd even try and get my head around the ASA, independent or otherwise.

I've just always accepted that clubs can get around things by "introducing" players to investors or employers that help bring in alternative incomes.

I suppose that's why you write rules... helps people work out what they can get away with.
 

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Vagabond0 said:
Cheers.

No way I'd even try and get my head around the ASA, independent or otherwise.

I've just always accepted that clubs can get around things by "introducing" players to investors or employers that help bring in alternative incomes.

I suppose that's why you write rules... helps people work out what they can get away with.
Click to expand...

"Hecha la ley; hecha la trampa." (Old Spanish saying)
 
Can we just rename this "the celery thread" please? ;)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Haha I think back to when KT was on the Bigfooty podcast and was asked about our cap issues by Portia and Macca19 and the answer he gave was slightly contorted and made it sound like we were close up against the cap like everyone else and was non committal about the Ryder and Monfries salary savings being banked. he played a beautiful dead bat and gave no hint of what we had set in motion.

Beautiful stuff by the casual one.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it was casual KT who casually put the idea, that our celery cap was near bursting point, into Damian Barrett's shell like. Damian then became the unwitting purveyor of the rumor, giving us the element of surprise.
 
AFL-Player-Salaries-infographic_FA2.jpg
 
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-02-22/player-payments-revealed-millionaires-on-the-up
A RECORD nine players earned more than $1 million last season as the rich got richer under the new collective bargaining agreement. Six players were in the AFL's exclusive millionaires club in 2016, while the previous record was eight in 2012 when player incomes were inflated by the additional salary cap space initially afforded to expansion clubs Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. The AFL released its official salary and TPP figures for 2017 on Thursday, revealing that two players earned more than $1.2 million.

Lance Franklin is understood to have been one of the competition's highest-paid players last season, with Tom Boyd, Scott Pendlebury, Nathan Fyfe and then Gold Coast teammates Gary Ablett and Tom Lynch widely believed within industry circles to have also earned seven-figure salaries. It is likely some of 2017's millionaires are on contracts wherein their average yearly salary is less than $1 million, but their deals were front- or back-ended last season to top seven figures. Sources contacted by AFL.com.au identified Brisbane captain Dayne Beams and Essendon tall Michael Hurley as players that could fall in this category.Richmond captain Trent Cotchin and teammate Dion Prestia would also have been among the AFL's top earners in 2017, although Dustin Martin won't top seven-figures until his new contract kicks in this season.

Stars such as GWS spearhead Jeremy Cameron, Adelaide captain Taylor Walker, North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein and Bomber Cale Hooker are also understood to have fallen short of the millionaires club. Eleven players earned between $900,000 and $1 million last season, with one of them not playing a senior game – believed to have been West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui.

Under the CBA introduced last year, the salary cap rose by 20 per cent, but total player payments increased by 13.24 per cent to $231.4 million and the average player salary rose by 14 per cent to $352,470.

Much of that increase was absorbed by the competition's elite. The number of players earning over $800,000 more than doubled, rising from 14 in 2016 to 29, while 139 of the competition's 707 senior-listed players earned more than $500,000, up 46.3 per cent on 2016's figure (95). It was not until 2000 that a player's salary first topped $500,000. The number of lower salary earners also shrank markedly. Players earning $100,000 or less fell by 54 per cent (38, down from 70 in 2016) and those earning $200,000 or less fell by 25 per cent (191, down from 255).

There was little movement, however, among the competition's middle class. Despite the increased salary cap, more than half of the AFL's players continued to earn between $200,000 and $500,000 – 377 players fell within this bracket in 2017, marginally up from 368 in 2016. Remarkably, the number of players earning between $300,000 and $500,000 remained exactly the same – 237

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-02-22/player-payments-revealed-millionaires-on-the-up
 
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I've already mentioned it elsewhere, but Walker being in that realm of coin is a fabulous result for the rest of the league.

Insane overs for his output and personal situation. Where's he gonna go? BH19?
 
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