If the whiteboard from the Holden Centre can be believed, Collingwood has a TPP problem.
According to the whiteboard seen by reporters yesterday, one of the recommendations from their internal review is to "Review and repair Total Player Payments (TPP) model over the next 12 months".
This is not a surprise. Collingwood have traded heavily for young talent such as Treloar and brought in mature age picks like Wells and Maybe on big contracts. They still have some premium older talent too.
In May Chris Pelchen predicted their challenge in The Age:
"As a result, the mature-age players brought into the club are 'walking the plank' and expected to help the coach survive or go down with the ship.
"If they had maintained a strong approach to 'growing their own' and using their Total Player Payment space on developing players rather than spending it on older recruits, then I would argue they would be in a better position.
"The amount that Collingwood has paid on these experienced players. It's a natural effect that attracting mature-age recruits will increase a club's TPP spending, so it must be done both strategically and selectively.
"It's one thing to stretch your TPP space when playing in grand finals or being in the window of success – but to overestimate the value of your player list, or worse still, to overestimate the value of opposition players, is a real mistake.
"Teams like Hawthorn, Sydney or Geelong would have all had understandable TPP challenges in recent years but the Magpies should be several years away from having similar problems.
"Multiple draft picks and increased spending have been allocated to secure opposition players against maintaining a stronger draft focus and building a 'war chest' of TPP space for the retention of youth."
It places the Pies in a difficult position. Clearly they need key position talent to help Moore up forward. Yet they can't afford it.
It's early days in terms of the Mayne and Wells contracts so an early reprieve is unlikely. Any major talent acquisitions will now be viewed suspiciously by the AFL and the media.
According to the whiteboard seen by reporters yesterday, one of the recommendations from their internal review is to "Review and repair Total Player Payments (TPP) model over the next 12 months".
This is not a surprise. Collingwood have traded heavily for young talent such as Treloar and brought in mature age picks like Wells and Maybe on big contracts. They still have some premium older talent too.
In May Chris Pelchen predicted their challenge in The Age:
"As a result, the mature-age players brought into the club are 'walking the plank' and expected to help the coach survive or go down with the ship.
"If they had maintained a strong approach to 'growing their own' and using their Total Player Payment space on developing players rather than spending it on older recruits, then I would argue they would be in a better position.
"The amount that Collingwood has paid on these experienced players. It's a natural effect that attracting mature-age recruits will increase a club's TPP spending, so it must be done both strategically and selectively.
"It's one thing to stretch your TPP space when playing in grand finals or being in the window of success – but to overestimate the value of your player list, or worse still, to overestimate the value of opposition players, is a real mistake.
"Teams like Hawthorn, Sydney or Geelong would have all had understandable TPP challenges in recent years but the Magpies should be several years away from having similar problems.
"Multiple draft picks and increased spending have been allocated to secure opposition players against maintaining a stronger draft focus and building a 'war chest' of TPP space for the retention of youth."
It places the Pies in a difficult position. Clearly they need key position talent to help Moore up forward. Yet they can't afford it.
It's early days in terms of the Mayne and Wells contracts so an early reprieve is unlikely. Any major talent acquisitions will now be viewed suspiciously by the AFL and the media.