Sell the Jumper !

[Pessimistic]

I don't have a srong opinion on the Kangaroos in orange (which is close to a real kangaroos actual colour) but did anyone else see the irony in Wayne Carey's comments on 'the game' last night

After defending the orange jumper as being one of the essential things North needs to do to survive he later discussed Koutafides megabucks contract and 'Half Jokingly' suggested he would be ringing greg miller to discuss a pay rise.

While he might be miffed that Kouta will now earn more than him he already gets pretty high money himself.

Perhaps the wage spiral (which the AFL seems to be encouraging) is one of the main reasons that jumpers have to be changed in the first place.

I have a suggestion. Grand Prix drivers get money from the advertising on their clothing so why not define some space on the strip (perhaps on the front)for personal advertising. This in addition to the club's main sponsor. The rest of the jumper etc etc stays traditional.

Wayne carey gets photographed much more than other players, so his advertising would cost more than say, one of the other players. This could go directly to him and his payment from the club could be reduced. Those players not interested in the advertising could adopt the company sponsor or have their name only there. Of course there should be rules about no 'ambush' marketing (eg carlton v tooheys etc)

 

[Anon]

Players get signed up and for some reason they hand over their balls because they don't have to fight for it anymore. So many times I have seen players get big incomes and then lose focus. Clubs are constantly handing out higher incomes and hence suffering by going in the red and in North Melbourne's case 'orange'. It is sad to see this lose, lose battle or spiral as better said. Personally I think players should only be signed up on a yearly basis across the board. I think they should be paid on performance per game and bonuses should be given to players contributing to the club in external events and activities, designed for fans and corporates alike. Clubs should be the ones dictating, not the ones financially suffering just to win one premiership for the fans out of the bundle of other competitors. This is just what I reckon, I don't know, it seems to make sense to me. Oh and to all people who would like to see AFL go international. I like the thought of it too, but fistly I'd like to see AFL go national, THANX.

 

[WCE2000]

i really think it is a shame the way that all sport is heading. Its no longer sport, its a business.
Gone are the days when you just went to the local park to watch your local team. Now you go to Shell Stadium or Optus Oval, Colonial Stadium to see Carlton with sponsorships etc,. all over them.
It would be great if we could just go out and play football and not have to worry about sposorships or anything.
Unfortuanetaly that will never happen.

I reckon what the AFL has to do very quickly however, is name the premiership cup after somebody before a corporate sponsor gets their name on it.
I personally think it should be called the Barassi Cup.
The way sport is heading it wont be long before we have 16 teams competing for the VB Cup or something like that so the AFL i think should name it aftera player before corporate giants start putting their bids in to get their dirty hands on the cup.

 

[Christian]

Pessimistic and Anon,

Carey is worth every dollar that North are paying him. He is the highest paid player because he is the best player.

In your posts, a piece of factual data was missing eg. - all clubs must pay 95% of their salary cap to their players, regardless of their abilities.

Do you seriously believe (on current player lists) Collingwood, St Kilda or Freo players should receive the same amount as the reigning Premiers?

Should Clubs also have the descretion to pay a lower cap eg. 85% whilst rebuilding.

Christian

 

[Guest]

There is a really fine line between keeping the traditions and the over coporatization of the game.

The Kangaroos deal with Orange comm. is in my view perfectly acceptable because it is not selling the guernsey like Carlton did with the M+M's deal.

The Roos are creating an alternate strip with the advantage of getting 250 large, which for a club in dire need of every penny is excellent management.

 

[Anon]

Christian,

Not disagreeing with what 'factual' information you are giving us. What I stated was not 'factual', it was 'conceptual'. Maybe, the rules of player deals need to be changed so the game can grow. As for Carey in your opinion he is a great player. Perhaps to a degree I agree with you. However, I did not ever point the finger at him once for being an overpaid under achiever. Finally, can I ask you a question and can you reply in all honesty:

Are there overpaid under achievers in the league? Did they peak when they signed the contract?

Christian, you tell me you have never seen that happen in AFL, please I would really like to believe you.

I would like to see a restructure in player contracts and payments. I think it can help the game and if you disagree with me, that is fine. You are entitled to do that. I suspect you are a North Melbourne supporter, so let me ask you.

Once you see the jersey change the colour, and players demand a higher cut. Then North responds to their demands and once again North are in the shit financially, and this time they have to shut up shop, will you then support players who were continually fed higher figures and who had NO loyalty?

SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE!!

 

[Shinboners]

In regards to the comments made so far, I think the most glaring example of a team's form dropping once the ink on the contract dried was St. Kilda after their '97 Grand Final. They signed some of their young players onto the big money, partially as a reward, but partially to prevent other clubs from signing them up. The Saints were almost damned whatever they did.

After the '96 Premiership, a number of North players had contracts finishing at the end of the '97 and '98 seasons. Generally, North try to re-sign their best players about halfway through their current contracts. We had a poor '97 and a poor start to '98, and Denis Pagan did make the comment that he felt that some players fell into the comfort zone due to their '96 success and their new contracts. Whether that was true or just a stick to prick the players's pride, only Pagan knows. But by the same token, a few of the high profile North players have had the chance to take the dollars and go to another club. So far, they've accepted less money at North for the chance to play in finals, and hopefully, Grand Finals and Premierships. It seems to me that Essendon and Carlton have developed similar cultures amongst their players. When was the last time either of these two clubs have lost top drawer players?

 

[Pessimistic]

Carey is a good player and is played well.

My point is that he acknowledged that north have to do strange things to survive, but he is quite flippant about asking for even more money.

You could argue that the entire team wore orange jumpers basically to pay Carey for part of the season.

Why couldn't the advertising been just on his jumper (for the whole season) ? That's the one the sponsors are really interested in. The right deal would pay his wages and alloe North to be much more solvent.

 

[Corporate Watchdog]

Pessimistic

There are no degrees of solvency. Either North is solvent or it is insolvent. My betting is on the latter.

You cant be just a little bit pregnant. And the orange boys were left holding the baby yesterday.

They certainly sook like babies. Pagan cant even do the Sheedy thing and praise the opposition when outplayed. Pagan spits the dummy because he knows it is the beginning of the end

 

[sainter]

Christian,

I agree with you 100%.

The rule forcing clubs to pay their players 95% of the salary cap was brought in as a result of the new Enterprised Bargaining Agreement. The AFL are quite happy with it too because they love the idea of forcing Victorian clubs to the wall by increasing costs so much each year.

You are exactly right. A talkback caller said a few months ago that they don't believe that Collingwood should have to pay their players as much as Essendon does. Their point was that with the amount of youngsters on the Collingwood list, they have to pay these players a hell of a lot of money even though they may not deserve it at the respective stage of their careers.

I would put St Kilda in the same category. We have a handful of high-profile players who deserve to be paid hundred of thousands of dollars a year. On the other hand, we have so many young players that we must pay very handsomely in order to fulfill our obligation of paying 95% of the salary cap.

It is no wonder why we are offering ridiculous amounts of money for good quality players from other teams. We may be one of the poorer clubs, but we HAVE to pay as much as the Essendons, Carltons and Adelaides.

And Shinboner,

Through ridiculous management, we had 21 players coming out of contract at the end of 1997. We did well to sign all but Joel Smith (not a popular figure amongst saints fans) and Jamie Shanahan who was unfortunately made a bit of a scapegoat. (Of course, we know whose fault it was, Stan!)

You are exactly right, we were damned if we did and damned if we didn't. If we didn't pay our players more, they would have left. Strangely, it did not seem to make an immediate impact as we were sitting pretty on top of the ladder half way through 1998.

The rest is unfortunately history.