- Oct 18, 2011
- 11,076
- 30,411
- AFL Club
- St Kilda
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- St Kilda, Ocean Grove Collendina Cobras
If there is an grain of truth to this, there was an added roadblock, that because of Covid no longer exists.
people forget that Jack Lukicious (or however it is spelt) signed on at the same time.
From memory their initial contract was superseded by a new three year contact, the first year being 2020. The reason Lethlean told Kings dad to take it was because the AFL stumped up 150k a year in 'Ambassador' money for the both of them.
As you say the AFL were desperate to keep the young guns at GCS. The catch was that if they requested a trade in any year prior to the end of the contract, that had to pay that years Ambassador money back. So if one asked for a trade at the end of 2020 they would forego the 150k Ambassador money for 2020 (obviously the rest for the remaining two years would be null and void). If they left in 2021, they keep the 2020 but forfeit the 2021 150k.
So by the grace of the generous AFL, just with these two players the GCS gets a leg up of 300k outside the cap every year.
Who knows who else gets "Ambassador" money at GC.
So the AFL felt confident that both were locked in. Too smart, back slaps all round.
Then some kent ate a bat in Wuhan around the time the AFL were being too smart by half. Come 2020 and the AFL is looking at 500 mill in revenue out the door. This means that Ambassador money is now the responsibility of the clubs who have the players contracted.
So at least 300k is out the GC cap from two players that they hadn't accounted for. Now doesn't sound like much, but there is also talk that wages will be cut to 70% of pre covid.
Maybe the once in a lifetime offer is no more, and the Saints can cover the 'Ambassador' money in a bigger contract. After all they could do something with Max's contract, I am sure the kent's have the same bank account.
I think the AFLPA knows because the Section 42 of the CBA specifies that the details of all Ambassador Payments made to ANY player at ANY club must be provided to the AFLPA every year.