He would have been heavily front loaded wouldn't he? Our list was poor at the time, we had to find avenues to spend on to reach our minimum player payments. I am assuming his contract was likely part of it.
An AFL club with a weak list is a bit like a business with a tax problem. You have to find something to spend money on.
Not worth that money, but when your list is young and low quality, you need to overspend on players to one, get them there and two, meet the minimum player payments.
Worse thing you can do list management wise is up the payments to current players to meet minimum player contracts. Far better to overspend on incoming recruits. Uppin payments of young players to meet the MPP is how teams blow their cap up down the track.
We seem to have space to spend so we must be alright. Adding a few long contracts will likely open up our cap a little.
Our biggest issue is trade currency. Having the players and the picks available to us to get what we want.
Very good reasoned post. Nice to see and read