Opinion Is Buddy's nine year contract finally coming back to haunt the Swans?

Is Buddy's nine year contract finally haunting the Swans?


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Cotchins Hair Piece

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Mar 6, 2019
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Swans had one free kick from halfway through the first quarter to early in the fourth quarter in the 2016 GF.

Not to mention a couple of ticky tack 50m penalties against them.

One of the most disgraceful umpiring performances that completely overshadowed the result.
It was brutal and hard to watch. The AFL went in with a plan and executed it.
 

Alex09

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Good luck with that.

Are there any other imaginary premiers on your list?
No, that's the only one. If Bulldogs fans can really get any satisfaction out of that "win" then good luck to them.
 

MF

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If you look back at posts from when the deal was announced you'll find most people never expected him to play for 10 years. The deal was structured that way to make sure we landed him.

Even without a flag the deal was worth it IMO. He's been great for the game in Sydney, we've been a powerhouse for most of his contract and I've loved watching him and will have plenty of highlights to watch again for years to come.

Very similar to what Lockett did for the club.
 

BlueandGoldforever

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What I found strange is that Buddy missed most of last season and then the Swans played him in the last home game even though they were no chance of making the finals. That never made sense to me seeing as he was contracted for 2020 and 2021. Why did they take the risk of playing him in a match with nothing to gain? I did suspect that they knew he had a serious injury or something else and his time with the club on the field in 2020 and 2021 was going to be very limited.
 

Alex09

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Jesus. Do you like to go round to homeless vans and piss in the soup?
The pissing in homeless soup that is going on is bagging the swans and buddy for not being a success due to the lack of a flag. The 2016 result was out of their hands, but I will drop it, it wasn't the dogs fault.
 
May 6, 2009
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The real problem with buddy's contract is how much it affects the swans ability to rebuild.

It's not as simple as saying- swans are bottoming out, so it doesn't matter if buddy is maxing out their cap, because the rest of the list are kids and wouldn't get the extra cap space buddy is using up.

The saints haven't had any star players worth paying big coin to for years and years while rebuilding which has meant we've struggled to meet the 95% cap floor.

But rather than overpaying our own unproven kids just to meet the 95% minimum while bottoming out, we've been using the extra cap space to pinch elite young talent from other clubs with moderate overs offers.

(steele, carlisle, freeman, butler, jones, howard)

The swans will lose much of their ability to rebuild via the draft AND trading because of buddy's money- they are gonna have to do it primarily through the draft.
It's gonna take them longer than it otherwise would have to rebuild due to buddys money
 
The swans will lose much of their ability to rebuild via the draft AND trading because of buddy's money- they are gonna have to do it primarily through the draft.
It's gonna take them longer than it otherwise would have to rebuild due to buddys money

What if we rejig Buddy's contract now that our list is mostly young'uns?
Same total amount, but bring forward some of it so that it has less impact in 2 or 3 years time when our young'uns will be ready for a flag tilt?
 
May 6, 2009
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What if we rejig Buddy's contract now that our list is mostly young'uns?
Same total amount, but bring forward some of it so that it has less impact in 2 or 3 years time when our young'uns will be ready for a flag tilt?

There's simply too much money left on buddys contract for that to work.
There's only ~500k between paying 95% of the cap and 100%.
Shuffling buddys remaining money around isn't going to make much of a difference in terms of your ability to trade in any elite youngsters from other clubs.

Plus the whole point of it is that you accelerate your rebuild AS you are doing it- not all right at the end.

As I said, we for instance used the spare cap space to dangle carrots in front of lots of elite young talent , and a few of them took the bait (steele, freeman, carlisle early days- jones, butler, howard later stages).
This was in addition to bringing them in via the draft.

Buddy's money is stopping you right now and for the next few years being able to compete financially to chase guys like caldwell etc that are highly rated young prospects that may be on the market.

It's not about buddy's money stopping you from signing superstars (because you b m don't need superstars right now), it's the fact that's it's stopping you signing potential future guns
 
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There's simply too much money left on buddys contract for that to work.
There's only ~500k between paying 95% of the cap and 100%.
Shuffling buddys remaining money around isn't going to make much of a difference in terms of your ability to trade in any elite youngsters from other clubs.

Plus the whole point of it is that you accelerate your rebuild AS you are doing it- not all right at the end.

As I said, we for instance used the spare cap space to dangle carrots in front of lots of elite young talent , and a few of them took the bait (steele, freeman, carlisle early days- jones, butler, howard later stages).
This was in addition to bringing them in via the draft.

Buddy's money is stopping you right now and for the next few years being able to compete financially to chase guys like caldwell etc that are highly rated young prospects that may be on the market.

Macca, Kizza and Hanners were 3 of our top 5 highest paid.
We locked in Mills & Heeney on extended deals more than 2 years ago.
We have plenty of wriggle room.
 
May 6, 2009
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Macca, Kizza and Hanners were 3 of our top 5 highest paid.
We locked in Mills & Heeney on extended deals more than 2 years ago.
We have plenty of wriggle room.

Yeah but imagine the wiggle room you'd have without budwahs cash.

You might be swinging your arms around a little right now with cap space... but without buddy you'd be running around doing cartwheels in an empty aircraft hanger.

The ability to be really aggressive in targeting LOTS of young elite talents (as opposed to 1 or 2 choice targets) is what bud is costing your rebuild.
 
Yeah but imagine the wiggle room you'd have without budwahs cash.

You might be swinging your arms around a little right now with cap space... but without buddy you'd be running around doing cartwheels in an empty aircraft hanger.

The ability to be really aggressive in targeting LOTS of young elite talents (as opposed to 1 or 2 choice targets) is what bud is costing your rebuild.


I'd rather have Budwah and salary cap constraints than plenty of cash and no Budwah.
 

MVille Swan

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In the last twenty years we have brought in three big names (and salaries) into the club. Hall, Tippett & Franklin. And you could argue
Hall only got really good after he arrived here. So I'm not convinced it's in Sydney's DNA to bring in big name recruits all that regularly.
Most trade weeks you'd barely know we are even present. I think we missed one finals series between 2003 & 2018, made five GFs
and won two in that period. Clearly we were in the mix for a long period. So considering all that, and never having high draft picks,
did we even think we were missing out on someone else, or another way of recruiting, by bringing in Buddy and his big pay packet?
I don't think so. All of the clubs actions suggest they were happy with how things were going recruiting wise. Right now we are
5-and-9 and could win another one or two this year and i think the club is pretty pleased about how the very young crop is coming
along and finals next year is a decent possibility.
 
Aug 11, 2006
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What if we rejig Buddy's contract now that our list is mostly young'uns?
Same total amount, but bring forward some of it so that it has less impact in 2 or 3 years time when our young'uns will be ready for a flag tilt?

• An explicit acknowledgement that the long-term specific financial commitment over the nine-year agreement will apply to the Sydney Swans FC’s Total Player Payments (TPP) for each of the nine years, regardless of how many years Franklin is available to play for the club.

You could hand him his final 3m dollars today, but it's still not going to free up any salary cap space for the next few years.
 

• An explicit acknowledgement that the long-term specific financial commitment over the nine-year agreement will apply to the Sydney Swans FC’s Total Player Payments (TPP) for each of the nine years, regardless of how many years Franklin is available to play for the club.

You could hand him his final 3m dollars today, but it's still not going to free up any salary cap space for the next few years.

That just says that we have to count his whole contract whether or not he is playing.
It does not say we can't rejig what he gets in each individual year.
We could pay him $1 in the final year of his contract, as long as it all adds up to the total amount.
 

Horaceg

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33 years old with recurring hamstring injuries (a definitive sign of the body giving in). He missed half the season last year with a hamstring injury and it was only the second time in 17 years that Sydney had missed the finals. Big Bud still has two more years to run on his nine year contract after the 2020 season. The AFL have made it clear that regardless of a retirement announcement, the Swans will still have to pay the back-ended deal and it will count towards their salary cap in their intended respective years. Also, Sydney have not won a flag while Buddy has been a Swan.

So, is this infamous nine year contract finally coming back to haunt the Swans?

2014 - $700,000
2015 - $700,000
2016 - $1.2 million
2017 - $1.2 million
2018 - $1.2 million
2019 - $1.3 million
2020 - $1.4 million
2021 - $1.5 million
2022 - $1 million

Total - $10.3 million
I think they knew it would, Buddy has been awesome for getting people excited about the game in NSW. Let’s hope the time off this year extends him to the natural conclusion of his contract And we get to see more of his talent.
 

PJays

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This will probably hurt the Swans over the next 2 years.

It was a risky move, an all-or nothing gamble designed to maximise the Swans premiership window. But it was always likely to bite them eventually. Very few players remain at a high level at 35 years old.

If theyd won the 14 and 16 grand finals- and they were a $1.60 favourite in both- then it wouldn't matter. Buddy would probably be considered the GOAT. Or at least the undisputed GOAT of the past 40 years. And the Swans would be the undisputed greatest club of the last 20 years.

Funny thing was Buddy actually played well in 2014 but his team mates didn't show up.

Just like if the Saints had won in 09 and 10 instead of losing in 2 of the tightest grand finals ever, Lyon would be considered one of the GOAT coaches and the great debate of this generation would be Clarkson vs Lyon.

One or two moments, or one or two games makes all the difference.

But back to the question, yeah, Swans at $2.5mil over the next 2 years, hard to see Buddy justifying that kind of money. You never know, Riewoldt and Richardson both reinvented themselves in their 30s and had great seasons. But more likely, Swans fans find themselves looking forward to 2023 when the cap space clears.
 
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