Most of the articles originally mentioned a $7mil/7 year contract. Add Griffen's salary and it's bordering on an $8mil deal.
So if last year was $200K, and Hutchy is accurate and this year he is being paid $1.75mil this year, he's got 5 years and about $5 mil left in the contract.
If we do go nuts with frontloading in the next couple of years, can I ask what protection we have if he walks (ala Griffen) with one or two years out (with only token amounts of the contract left)?
Say by 2018-2019, we've frontloaded heavily, we've shouldered say $6mil of the $7mil contract (with nowhere near commensurate output during that time, with his best years being 24-29 still to come), with two years @$400k-$500k per year left - he says he's really unhappy and won't play for us under any circumstances - other than trading him when we've already paid well over half of his effective salary for those future years, is our only option to force him to sit those seasons out (and get nothing in a trade)?
This is, I'm guessing, the player that this club has invested most in (both real and relative terms) in over 130 odd years of its history. These are incredibly high (premiership) stakes, and it's all nice to think we're being smart by frontloading millions for a player we don't see leaving, but 4-5 years ago, if you had have asked fans and club stakeholders who would be among the most loyal, trusted players at this club to award a heavily frontloaded contract to (who would never, ever, do us over), one of the first names most would have said would have been Ryan Griffen.
One thing that I found a touch questionable with Boyd was when being interviewed after a VFL game last year, his comment was "really looking forward to play out the rest of my contract here" rather than "play here for the rest of my career". I just can't picture any other happy, contented player saying "I wanna play here til the end of my contract". Maybe reading way, way too much into it, but I think as much work/resources need to be put into his headspace (and ensuring he's enjoying his environment) as will obviously be put into developing him as a player.