Clarkson backs Kennett on TV cash

RustyHawk

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Clarkson backs Kennett on TV cash
08 January 2006 Sunday Herald Sun
By JACKIE EPSTEIN

HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has urged the AFL to prop up poorer clubs with the new TV rights cash bonanza.

Backing his president Jeff Kennett who insisted the lion's share of the money be pumped into clubs rather than players' pockets, Clarkson said it should be a priority to make each club viable.

The AFL will be injected with $780 million from 2007-2011 after the Seven and Ten networks trumped Nine in the bidding war.

"There's still clubs in the competition that struggle to meet their bottom line every year," Clarkson said yesterday.

"It would be good if the first thing that the league and the competition would do is address the profitability of all clubs. That would be a great thing for our footy league.

"The players are remunerated pretty well out of the game. Certainly, compared to what they were seven or eight years ago, it's already been a pretty significant escalation of player payments."

Clarkson hailed the deal as extraordinary and said he would have been happy with either consortium.

Back this week after a Christmas break, he was pleased his players had returned fit and healthy. Beau Dowler, the No.6 draft pick, took part in a swimming session at Kerferd Rd beach and is progressing well after fracturing his pelvis.

Beau Muston is also recovering well after having knee surgery six weeks ago.

"We've been really pleased with what (Dowler's) been able to do," Clarkson said.

"He's running now and hopefully, if he continues to progress at this rate, then he'll play a fair amount of footy for us this year.

"Somewhere around draft time they were wondering whether he'd play any footy in 2006. We're confident that he'll be able to get a fair amount of footy out of this season.

"(Muston) is going well. We'll just be patient with him and give him whatever time he needs, but we're expecting that he'll play footy this year.

"We've nearly got every guy up and going and our players are in really good nick this time of year.

"We've been going since October and our preparation is spot on. If we had to run triathlons we'd be in good nick, but the game is footy and the competitive footy starts in earnest in February, so that will be the test for us to see how much we've improved from last year."

I gotta agree with the TV cash, it has to go to the clubs & to grass roots football including country & strong suburban leagues.

The players are already well rewarded, certainly in comparison to those who say work a 9-5 existance. I would think players would be better off ensuring they get a decent final payout at the end of their careers to help them ajust to a new life on a lot less money (in most cases). Im sure Nick Holland would appreciate some sort of retirement package spread over 2 years to compensate him as he goes from $500,000-600,000 pa to $0.

If the cash is used correctly we can build all clubs financially by becoming debt free and have investments earning income for the leaner years that are bound to come to each club.

Also, good news about the 2 Beau's
 

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Gary Shadforth

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#2
Alastair Clarkson said:
"The players are remunerated pretty well out of the game. Certainly, compared to what they were seven or eight years ago, it's already been a pretty significant escalation of player payments."
What the well paid players should understand is that AFL clubs are generally built on glass roofs... that is, fairly large teams of unpaid volunteer workers. Without them many AFL clubs would collapse, quite frankly. Hence so would our code.
RustyHawk said:
I gotta agree with the TV cash, it has to go to the clubs & to grass roots football including country & strong suburban leagues.

The players are already well rewarded, certainly in comparison to those who say work a 9-5 existance. I would think players would be better off ensuring they get a decent final payout at the end of their careers to help them ajust to a new life on a lot less money (in most cases). Im sure Nick Holland would appreciate some sort of retirement package spread over 2 years to compensate him as he goes from $500,000-600,000 pa to $0.

If the cash is used correctly we can build all clubs financially by becoming debt free and have investments earning income for the leaner years that are bound to come to each club.

Also, good news about the 2 Beau's
Agree entirely RH.
 

Rob

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#3
Gary Shadforth said:
What the well paid players should understand is that AFL clubs are generally built on glass roofs... that is, fairly large teams of unpaid volunteer workers. Without them many AFL clubs would collapse, quite frankly. Hence so would our code.
Is that really true? Take away the people that cook the sausages at training and I would have thought that all AFL clubs had professionals working at every meaningful level of the club outside the board of directors. Did you have anyone/any club in mind?
 

Scribe

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#4
RustyHawk said:
I would think players would be better off ensuring they get a decent final payout at the end of their careers to help them ajust to a new life on a lot less money (in most cases). Im sure Nick Holland would appreciate some sort of retirement package spread over 2 years to compensate him as he goes from $500,000-600,000 pa to $0.[/I]
Ummmm...I think players who have a 10+ year career as an AFL footballer should have plenty of spare time throughout the year to set themselves up for life after footy. To suggest one dollar should go to 'retirement packages' for 30-year olds is absolute lunacy. Why on earth would we want to pay more money to players who no longer play the game after some of them have been earning 6-10 times the average yearly income at the age of 20 something?:eek:

Using your example, Nick Holland has several article clerkships lined up for him once he completes his law degree, thanks to a glut of VAFA and suburban clubs seeking his services. Further, if he's been prudent and already invested a proportion of his football earnings, he'll have a healthy share/property portfolio to fall back on in the event he's only paid $40K during that 'hellish' first year. Remember, Richard Loveridge was able to become a partner at Freehills 5 or 6 years after retiring from footy. I'm sure the likes of Nick Holland will not need to benefit from your suggested mis-direction of the AFL's largesse. ;)
 
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