Read all about it... (this is what you call loyalty, kids)
From THE AGE (Carro Wilson) 12/10/01
Top Tigers' pay slashed
By CAROLINE WILSON
Eight Richmond footballers, headed by club leaders Wayne Campbell and Duncan Kellaway, have agreed to pay cuts worth $500,000 in total next season in their determination to keep Darren Gaspar at Tigerland.
Not only have Campbell and Kellaway agreed to drop $350,000 between them in 2002 as part of new extended deals to retain Gaspar and Ben Holland, but six of their teammates, including Joel Bowden and Kellaway's brother Andrew, have each agreed to pay cuts next season totalling $150,000.
Bowden, the younger Kellaway, Greg Tivendale, Matthew Rogers, Mark Chaffey and Craig Biddiscombe all responded to a call from Richmond chief executive Mark Brayshaw to each defer $25,000 until 2003 to release the Tigers from a potential salary cap blowout.
In 2000, before Richmond re-signed its No.1 priority Brad Ottens, the Tigers' list was the second highest-paid in the AFL. Had Campbell, Duncan Kellaway and the six others not agreed to the 2002 pay cuts, the Tigers were staring at spilling over next season's total player payments by $500,000, a situation that would have resulted in club champion Gaspar quitting the Tigers for Fremantle.
While Gaspar now has a generous new $2.5-million, five-year deal and is often described in football circles as a mercenary, his decision to remain at Tigerland has cost him $900,000. Fremantle had offered him $3million over five years along with a marketing allowance of $400,000.
Holland, too, will drop $500,000 to stay at Richmond. Adelaide had offered him close to $1.3 million over three years but he has accepted a three-year deal with the Tigers worth an estimated $800,000.
But perhaps the most significant sacrifice has been made by defender Duncan Kellaway, who reportedly received a visit from Brayshaw the day after the grand final as the first of a long list of players asked to take a pay cut. Not all agreed to do so, but Kellaway provided a positive start in a heated and occasionally damaging nine days of meetings.
Kellaway has extended his contract from two to three years with his payments increased by only $60,000 overall in an agreement that will almost halve his earnings in 2002.
But the 28-year-old has told the club he will not accept the final $60,000 should his body not withstand football's rigors beyond 2003. Given the staggering monetary demands of many top players following the new five-year media agreement, it is worth considering the unusual behavior of the Kellaways.
Not only has Duncan offered to return money to the club should he retire early, but younger brother Andrew late last year refused the contract offered to him by the club because he said it was too generous.
The younger Kellaway, having just been named an All-Australian and club champion in 2000, said he did not feel he could justify the new deal, which was subsequently lowered. He is one of the six players who have agreed to a $25,000 pay cut for 2002.
Brayshaw, who would not be drawn on any financial details, agreed that it had been a remarkably stressful time for the club's off-field staff and playing list. "In the end, though, I believe we have seen a great show of unity," he said.
"It's something the board and I were very proud of and it was reflected in Ben Holland's and Darren Gaspar's decision to make sacrifices to stay with the club."
One casualty has been veteran ruckman Brendon Gale, who was not prepared to accept a pay cut to put himself through another pre-season.
Brayshaw refused to discuss last week's angry meeting between himself and skipper Campbell but the pair are believed to have met four days ago and made peace with each other.
"Wayne has worked furiously behind the scenes with club officials to keep Gaspar and Holland, knowing he was doing so at his own cost," Brayshaw said.
Campbell's new four-year deal, which has not yet been signed but includes large finals' incentives, enables him to reap close to $1.2 million but earn about 40 per cent less in 2002 than in 2001.
Campbell is believed to have told the club that Gaspar be retained at all costs and the captain was prepared to significantly reduce his initial asking price as a result.
Of the six other players who agreed to defer payments from 2002 to 2003, Brayshaw said he had been heartened by their willingness to make short-term sacrifices to retain Gaspar and Holland.
"No footballer likes getting a late-night telephone call from their CEO at this time of the year," said Brayshaw. "But there was a genuine urgency within the playing group to make sure we held together a list we believe has the potential to deliver big things down the track."
With Campbell's long but reduced new deal and Nick Daffy traded to the Swans in an agreement that will result in a percentage of the 1998 club champion's contract being covered by Richmond, only two of the famously hefty deals signed in 1999 remain alive next season.
Matthew Richardson, who will earn more than $600,000 next year, and Matthew Knights, who will earn more than $400,000 in what is expected to be his final season, will take up $1.1 million of the salary cap between them.
The Tigers, who have no player receiving a testimonial next season, are believed to have pushed the AFL to allow Knights a farewell season in 2002, which would remove an estimated $100,000 from the club's total player payments.
The AFL refused the request, insisting that such agreements must be included in existing contracts.
Richardson was not asked to take a pay cut but negotiations for a new contract beyond 2002 must surely loom as problematic for the Tigers, given that the 201-centimetre 21-year-old who stands alongside him in the forward line also comes out of contract next year.
The plan to retain Ottens will soon swing into action.
From THE AGE (Carro Wilson) 12/10/01
Top Tigers' pay slashed
By CAROLINE WILSON
Eight Richmond footballers, headed by club leaders Wayne Campbell and Duncan Kellaway, have agreed to pay cuts worth $500,000 in total next season in their determination to keep Darren Gaspar at Tigerland.
Not only have Campbell and Kellaway agreed to drop $350,000 between them in 2002 as part of new extended deals to retain Gaspar and Ben Holland, but six of their teammates, including Joel Bowden and Kellaway's brother Andrew, have each agreed to pay cuts next season totalling $150,000.
Bowden, the younger Kellaway, Greg Tivendale, Matthew Rogers, Mark Chaffey and Craig Biddiscombe all responded to a call from Richmond chief executive Mark Brayshaw to each defer $25,000 until 2003 to release the Tigers from a potential salary cap blowout.
In 2000, before Richmond re-signed its No.1 priority Brad Ottens, the Tigers' list was the second highest-paid in the AFL. Had Campbell, Duncan Kellaway and the six others not agreed to the 2002 pay cuts, the Tigers were staring at spilling over next season's total player payments by $500,000, a situation that would have resulted in club champion Gaspar quitting the Tigers for Fremantle.
While Gaspar now has a generous new $2.5-million, five-year deal and is often described in football circles as a mercenary, his decision to remain at Tigerland has cost him $900,000. Fremantle had offered him $3million over five years along with a marketing allowance of $400,000.
Holland, too, will drop $500,000 to stay at Richmond. Adelaide had offered him close to $1.3 million over three years but he has accepted a three-year deal with the Tigers worth an estimated $800,000.
But perhaps the most significant sacrifice has been made by defender Duncan Kellaway, who reportedly received a visit from Brayshaw the day after the grand final as the first of a long list of players asked to take a pay cut. Not all agreed to do so, but Kellaway provided a positive start in a heated and occasionally damaging nine days of meetings.
Kellaway has extended his contract from two to three years with his payments increased by only $60,000 overall in an agreement that will almost halve his earnings in 2002.
But the 28-year-old has told the club he will not accept the final $60,000 should his body not withstand football's rigors beyond 2003. Given the staggering monetary demands of many top players following the new five-year media agreement, it is worth considering the unusual behavior of the Kellaways.
Not only has Duncan offered to return money to the club should he retire early, but younger brother Andrew late last year refused the contract offered to him by the club because he said it was too generous.
The younger Kellaway, having just been named an All-Australian and club champion in 2000, said he did not feel he could justify the new deal, which was subsequently lowered. He is one of the six players who have agreed to a $25,000 pay cut for 2002.
Brayshaw, who would not be drawn on any financial details, agreed that it had been a remarkably stressful time for the club's off-field staff and playing list. "In the end, though, I believe we have seen a great show of unity," he said.
"It's something the board and I were very proud of and it was reflected in Ben Holland's and Darren Gaspar's decision to make sacrifices to stay with the club."
One casualty has been veteran ruckman Brendon Gale, who was not prepared to accept a pay cut to put himself through another pre-season.
Brayshaw refused to discuss last week's angry meeting between himself and skipper Campbell but the pair are believed to have met four days ago and made peace with each other.
"Wayne has worked furiously behind the scenes with club officials to keep Gaspar and Holland, knowing he was doing so at his own cost," Brayshaw said.
Campbell's new four-year deal, which has not yet been signed but includes large finals' incentives, enables him to reap close to $1.2 million but earn about 40 per cent less in 2002 than in 2001.
Campbell is believed to have told the club that Gaspar be retained at all costs and the captain was prepared to significantly reduce his initial asking price as a result.
Of the six other players who agreed to defer payments from 2002 to 2003, Brayshaw said he had been heartened by their willingness to make short-term sacrifices to retain Gaspar and Holland.
"No footballer likes getting a late-night telephone call from their CEO at this time of the year," said Brayshaw. "But there was a genuine urgency within the playing group to make sure we held together a list we believe has the potential to deliver big things down the track."
With Campbell's long but reduced new deal and Nick Daffy traded to the Swans in an agreement that will result in a percentage of the 1998 club champion's contract being covered by Richmond, only two of the famously hefty deals signed in 1999 remain alive next season.
Matthew Richardson, who will earn more than $600,000 next year, and Matthew Knights, who will earn more than $400,000 in what is expected to be his final season, will take up $1.1 million of the salary cap between them.
The Tigers, who have no player receiving a testimonial next season, are believed to have pushed the AFL to allow Knights a farewell season in 2002, which would remove an estimated $100,000 from the club's total player payments.
The AFL refused the request, insisting that such agreements must be included in existing contracts.
Richardson was not asked to take a pay cut but negotiations for a new contract beyond 2002 must surely loom as problematic for the Tigers, given that the 201-centimetre 21-year-old who stands alongside him in the forward line also comes out of contract next year.
The plan to retain Ottens will soon swing into action.
