Greedy players should pull their heads in!

[gytre]

What do you think of the AFL Players Association pushing for a 15% pay rise for all AFL players?

The justification is that with the massive new TV rights contract the AFL has signed, the players should be entitled to a big cut. Of course there is a lot of different interests in football asking for money, but the players have certainly decided to assert themselves with this big claim.

Many football experts believe there's still a lot of work that needs to be done at grass roots level promoting the game, especially in the highly competitive NSW and Queensland markets.

Nick Riewoldt, former captain of St Kilda, and spokesman for the AFLPA continues to put up the red herring of how other players of other pro sports in other countries are apparently paid a higher percentage of revenue than what AFL players are. Well, so what? Why should we be using the standards of other countries as our benchmark? Helloooo. This is Australia. Most of our clubs are publicly owned, unlike US ice hockey or gridiron clubs.

Do we want to end up like US sports where club after club has got into financial difficulties and had to be relocated to new cities, partly because of the excessive pay demands of athletes? This is Australia and this is Aussie Rules football. We can't afford that.

I believe the AFL has a responsibility not only to the players, but also the code as a whole. In the USA, the National Football League (NFL) is mostly played only on Sundays and Monday night. Friday night is reserved for high school football and Saturdays are for college football. The US public follows their game at different levels. In Australia, the AFL has games telecast all weekend.

Here in Australia, we have a case of the flowers are blooming but the roots are not in good shape at all. The AFL may be booming, but the other leagues around the country are in poor shape. It is in the long term interests of our game that it be allowed to flourish at all levels. The SANFL is struggling, the WAFL is on its knees and so is the TFL even though Tassie doesn't even have an AFL team. Many country clubs have big debts. NSW and Queensland are highly competitive markets, and Aussie Rules still doesn't have school teams in many NSW schools.

And then of course, some AFL clubs are in financial difficulties too. Eight clubs are believed to have big debts, and a number of clubs are keen to upgrade their facilities and this will require finance.

And why are the players only comparing their pay to other sportsmen in other countries? What about the salaries of some of the other occupations around the place? Should footballers be paid more money than doctors or police or nurses? Are they really of more use to the community? I don't think so!

I think it is high time the greedy AFL players pulled their heads in.

 

[Vinnie Vegas]

The players are now working harder than ever to make it to the top and stay there, and virtually no players do any work aside from playing football.

I think that they deserve a pay raise, but I don't think it should be as simple as raising everyone's salary by 15%. Perhaps change the pay-structuring system to include bigger bonuses for players, or maybe even increase the salary cap.