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An interesting article from Crikey.com.au about the highest earning players in each club, from about a month ago:
AFL LEAGUE TABLE OF TOP CLUB EARNERS
When Crikey set about estimating the earnings of the highest paid player at each club, player salaries in AFL unlike soccer and major US team sports, are strictly confidential and kept in-house by clubs for obvious reasons of trying to keep its player list happy. But players talk, media digs and speculates, and last but by no means least, player agents know the market they help drive. So at the end of our investigations, we found little disagreement as to which player is the highest paid relative to club, although as you will see in our table there are at least three clubs where two players share the highest spoils. In the following figures for each player, it’s an estimate based on both his salary and likely share of a club’s Additional Services Agreement (ASA) whereby they can pay marquee players additional income from what amounts to a marketing pool. This year’s ASA is set at around $440,000 per club.
In so far as these are best estimates after conducting my straw poll, in most instances they would be accurate to within $50,000.
AFL 2004: top player salaries club by club
Anthony Koutoufides (Carlton) $900-000 to $1,000,000
#Aaron Hamill (St Kilda) $800,000
Michel Voss (Brisbane) $700,000
James Hird (Essendon) $700,000
Nathan Buckley (Collingwood) $650,000
Shane Crawford (Hawthorn) $650,000
Chris Grant/Luke Darcy (Western Bulldogs) $550.000-600,000
Ben Cousins (West Coast) $550,000-$600.000
Matthew Richardson (Richmond) $550.000
David Neitz/Jeff White (Melbourne) $550,000
Glenn Archer/Anthony Stevens (Kangaroos) $550,000
Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide) $500,000-$550.000
Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle) $500,000
Ben Graham (Geelong) $500,000
Barry Hall (Sydney) $500,000
Warren Tredrea (Port Power) $450,000-$500,000
# Aaron Hamill is understood to have been on $800,000 for this season originally but it is now likely to be less after extending his contract for another four years which should see this figure reduced via "smoothing" out payments over the next four seasons.
Anthony Koutoufides now infamous contract was originally estimated to be backended to the tune of $1.2 million this year before taking a pay cut. It’s understood he is still eligible for at least $1 million in the final two years of his contract. The massive problems of top clubs like Brisbane and Essendon in retaining player lists in recent seasons has seen the likes of Voss and Hird also making salary sacrifices. Brisbane faces a particularly tough time beyond this season to keep its list intact, while ladder leader St Kilda is already coming under pressure with its band of young guns.
You can bet some clubs are already eyeing off and looking ahead to exploit the Saints abundance of young talent as it comes on the market in the next two seasons. So now it’s the Saints turn to be cherry picked and it is going to be tough to keep everyone financially happy when compared with the kind of money other clubs can afford to offer them? Welcome to the big time St Kilda where success comes at a definite cost even if Brisbane has yet to pay it. After spending recent seasons as a consistent free-loading bottom feeder at the other end of the pool, now they’re swimming in the deep end with the big boys the worm will be turning for sure.
How appropriate then that this season may yet be distinguished by the emergence of St Kilda as a long-term premiership candidate that perfectly illustrates all that’s best about the AFL competitive balance ethos. That despite the previously impregnable looking Saints now starting to look vulnerable in its last two games, the club still graduates with flying colours in absorbing the AFL’s best lessons, even if it took an awful lot of losing to become such a winner!
http://www.crikey.com.au/columnists/2004/06/12-0001.html
AFL LEAGUE TABLE OF TOP CLUB EARNERS
When Crikey set about estimating the earnings of the highest paid player at each club, player salaries in AFL unlike soccer and major US team sports, are strictly confidential and kept in-house by clubs for obvious reasons of trying to keep its player list happy. But players talk, media digs and speculates, and last but by no means least, player agents know the market they help drive. So at the end of our investigations, we found little disagreement as to which player is the highest paid relative to club, although as you will see in our table there are at least three clubs where two players share the highest spoils. In the following figures for each player, it’s an estimate based on both his salary and likely share of a club’s Additional Services Agreement (ASA) whereby they can pay marquee players additional income from what amounts to a marketing pool. This year’s ASA is set at around $440,000 per club.
In so far as these are best estimates after conducting my straw poll, in most instances they would be accurate to within $50,000.
AFL 2004: top player salaries club by club
Anthony Koutoufides (Carlton) $900-000 to $1,000,000
#Aaron Hamill (St Kilda) $800,000
Michel Voss (Brisbane) $700,000
James Hird (Essendon) $700,000
Nathan Buckley (Collingwood) $650,000
Shane Crawford (Hawthorn) $650,000
Chris Grant/Luke Darcy (Western Bulldogs) $550.000-600,000
Ben Cousins (West Coast) $550,000-$600.000
Matthew Richardson (Richmond) $550.000
David Neitz/Jeff White (Melbourne) $550,000
Glenn Archer/Anthony Stevens (Kangaroos) $550,000
Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide) $500,000-$550.000
Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle) $500,000
Ben Graham (Geelong) $500,000
Barry Hall (Sydney) $500,000
Warren Tredrea (Port Power) $450,000-$500,000
# Aaron Hamill is understood to have been on $800,000 for this season originally but it is now likely to be less after extending his contract for another four years which should see this figure reduced via "smoothing" out payments over the next four seasons.
Anthony Koutoufides now infamous contract was originally estimated to be backended to the tune of $1.2 million this year before taking a pay cut. It’s understood he is still eligible for at least $1 million in the final two years of his contract. The massive problems of top clubs like Brisbane and Essendon in retaining player lists in recent seasons has seen the likes of Voss and Hird also making salary sacrifices. Brisbane faces a particularly tough time beyond this season to keep its list intact, while ladder leader St Kilda is already coming under pressure with its band of young guns.
You can bet some clubs are already eyeing off and looking ahead to exploit the Saints abundance of young talent as it comes on the market in the next two seasons. So now it’s the Saints turn to be cherry picked and it is going to be tough to keep everyone financially happy when compared with the kind of money other clubs can afford to offer them? Welcome to the big time St Kilda where success comes at a definite cost even if Brisbane has yet to pay it. After spending recent seasons as a consistent free-loading bottom feeder at the other end of the pool, now they’re swimming in the deep end with the big boys the worm will be turning for sure.
How appropriate then that this season may yet be distinguished by the emergence of St Kilda as a long-term premiership candidate that perfectly illustrates all that’s best about the AFL competitive balance ethos. That despite the previously impregnable looking Saints now starting to look vulnerable in its last two games, the club still graduates with flying colours in absorbing the AFL’s best lessons, even if it took an awful lot of losing to become such a winner!
http://www.crikey.com.au/columnists/2004/06/12-0001.html
