- Jul 13, 2015
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- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
I guess exactly the same way you paid Buddy a million while other Hawks took "unders" and then upped his offer to $1.2m back in 2013 while you were firmly in the window.
In the history of the club no-one has been paid more than about $800k a year. Some of the numbers that get thrown around are comical. We had a LOT of players on very similar money. None of them were getting a lot more than anyone else.
As for our offer for Buddy, it was a bit over $1m but nowhere near what Sydney offered. Him going meant that we retained a heap of our younger stars. Him joining Sydney has seen you lose stars.
Tom Mitchell had a great first 2 years and was picked as a must keep, and managed to negotiate a very big increase in pay which Horse ended up hating. At the end of his contract Horse told him the next offer was going to be a massive pay cut but claimed that he was still a required player. The offer was under $300k a year - so I guess that means he would have even qualified for COLA.
Hawthorn offered him very nice money (but again nothing like the money which has been said in earlier posts) and he was very happy to go.
And we love having him. By far our most consistent player and until last Friday the only one holding our midfield together.