I liked this post from Forty3 on the matter in the Clayton Oliver thread on the Drafts, Trading and Free Agency board.
tl;dr - stop falling for media making up numbers - none of us are in the know.
Do you think the AFL really would overlook clubs flouting the cap?
I realise I’m replying to an old post but I’m fairly sure the media get leaked the number by the agents who leak the base pay plus incentives and match payments.
So yeah contract dollars bandied about by media you probably have to take into account that the player probably has to win the B&F and make the AA side every year to get that number.