Arcassius
Team Chaplain
- Thread starter
- #101
From Tim -
Does the AFL use ambassador payments to lure talent in favour of some clubs over others?
Let me be clear from the start, Tayl0r , I have never dealt with a player who receives any form of 3rdparty payment from the AFL as an ‘Ambassador’, so everything I am about to say is pretty speculative and only based on what I have read or heard – probably like everyone else.
If we wind back to the birth of both GWS and the Gold Coast Suns, I am sure that there was some extra money from the AFL given to Izzy Falou and Karmichael Hunt to help lure them from the NRL. The opportunity to grab two of the biggest stars from the NRL, in the NRL home states of Qld and NSW, would have been too good an opportunity to miss.
And for what it’s worth, I personally had no problem with it.
There was a story that the AFL may have put a very large sum on the table to help get Falou to GWS – around $1m the story went. However, they week after he joined the Giants, it became back page news in the NSW and Qld media… it was suggested that this media coverage would have cost the AFL $19m to ‘buy’ so basically he paid for himself straight away.
Obviously neither worked out and in the case of Hunt, he left a pretty dirty stain on an impressionable group at the Suns… but that’s another story.
I don’t have an issue with the AFL putting a bit of extra money on the table for key players from these two ‘emerging’ markets to help promote the game. However, I guess for clarity we should ask “what extra work (outside of club commitments) do these guys do for the money?” – to make sure the moneys isn’t being used primarily as money outside of the TPP.
I think I read somewhere that the AFL would only give Tom Lynch Ambassador money in the region of $50k. Again, I read this somewhere so not sure how accurate it is. Then I remember reading somewhere else that Scott Pendlebury gets a fair whack of money from the AFL also. Whilst it could well be justified I do ask myself, “Why?”. I think the game is promoted and known about pretty well in Victoria isn’t it?
Having said that, if the AFL have any spare folding for any of my boys, I won’t be questioning it!!
So maybe it has happened in the past in the emerging states but to be honest, I would be surprised for a number of reasons if it was still done. I know it came from the GC Chairperson, Tony Cochrane, but he said in the last 10 years Auskick numbers in the region have risen from 25,000 to 250,000. I don’t have any interest in any other code, AFL is my love, so I do like hearing things like this.
I am all for the start-up clubs to keep continuing and the reality is the AFL will be bankrolling them for many years yet (again, I personally don’t have an issue with this) but, at some stage the other 16 clubs will quite rightly be questioning where the money is going.
Does the AFL use ambassador payments to lure talent in favour of some clubs over others?
Let me be clear from the start, Tayl0r , I have never dealt with a player who receives any form of 3rdparty payment from the AFL as an ‘Ambassador’, so everything I am about to say is pretty speculative and only based on what I have read or heard – probably like everyone else.
If we wind back to the birth of both GWS and the Gold Coast Suns, I am sure that there was some extra money from the AFL given to Izzy Falou and Karmichael Hunt to help lure them from the NRL. The opportunity to grab two of the biggest stars from the NRL, in the NRL home states of Qld and NSW, would have been too good an opportunity to miss.
And for what it’s worth, I personally had no problem with it.
There was a story that the AFL may have put a very large sum on the table to help get Falou to GWS – around $1m the story went. However, they week after he joined the Giants, it became back page news in the NSW and Qld media… it was suggested that this media coverage would have cost the AFL $19m to ‘buy’ so basically he paid for himself straight away.
Obviously neither worked out and in the case of Hunt, he left a pretty dirty stain on an impressionable group at the Suns… but that’s another story.
I don’t have an issue with the AFL putting a bit of extra money on the table for key players from these two ‘emerging’ markets to help promote the game. However, I guess for clarity we should ask “what extra work (outside of club commitments) do these guys do for the money?” – to make sure the moneys isn’t being used primarily as money outside of the TPP.
I think I read somewhere that the AFL would only give Tom Lynch Ambassador money in the region of $50k. Again, I read this somewhere so not sure how accurate it is. Then I remember reading somewhere else that Scott Pendlebury gets a fair whack of money from the AFL also. Whilst it could well be justified I do ask myself, “Why?”. I think the game is promoted and known about pretty well in Victoria isn’t it?
Having said that, if the AFL have any spare folding for any of my boys, I won’t be questioning it!!
So maybe it has happened in the past in the emerging states but to be honest, I would be surprised for a number of reasons if it was still done. I know it came from the GC Chairperson, Tony Cochrane, but he said in the last 10 years Auskick numbers in the region have risen from 25,000 to 250,000. I don’t have any interest in any other code, AFL is my love, so I do like hearing things like this.
I am all for the start-up clubs to keep continuing and the reality is the AFL will be bankrolling them for many years yet (again, I personally don’t have an issue with this) but, at some stage the other 16 clubs will quite rightly be questioning where the money is going.
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