Scott Pendlebury offers mixed opinions on the contracts of AFL players like Nick Daicos
The AFL’s The best players don’t get paid enough.
This is according to the former Collingwood Captain Scott Pendlebury, who has lined up for some of the game’s biggest names who ‘can’t live normal lives in Melbourne’.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Scott Pendlebury delivers a powerful message to the AFL heavyweights.
Analysis, local football and biggest moments: Seven and 7plus are home to football shows for every fan. Stream them all for free 7plus >>
“I still think the players and coaching staff in our game are grossly underpaid,” Pendlebury said ball magnets.
“Everyone will say, ‘You get paid so much as a player’, (but) Nick Daicos, Dusty Martin – like they can’t have a normal life in Melbourne. You have nowhere to go.
“They say, ‘Well, you get paid $250,000.'”
“I think if you’re a good player in the AFL over a period of time you have to reward these guys because we don’t want rugby, cricket and all these sports to outperform their salaries on their best players because that’s when we lose kids to this sport.
“That’s what I’m thinking. I’m getting shot; ‘Players are greedy blah blah’.”
Daicos has reached a level of notoriety as a young player not seen since Bailey Smith and may even have surpassed the Western Bulldogs midfielder after just 33 games.
The 20-year-old is the favorite to win the Brownlow medal in just his second year in the league, having put in a string of compelling performances earlier in the year.
It made him one of the greatest He’s an underpaid player in the game’s history considering his performance is on par with a $1M player, but as a player on his first contract, he’s not allowed to earn more than $250,000, including bonuses.
But with such fame comes a wholly disproportionate amount of attention to the lack of privacy, for which Pendlebury believes he and the rest of the competition’s elite players deserve compensation.
“Even at dinner last night, every other person came to Daicos,” added Tom Mitchell, founder of Ball Magnets and teammate at Collingwood.
Pendlebury is also puzzled by the percentage of AFL earnings players receive under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Speaking to Australian NBA star Josh Giddey, who joined him on the podcast episode, Pendlebury explained the discrepancy.
“In the NBA, you have 51 percent of the revenue you bring in. We’re 28 percent of sales,” Pendlebury said.
“I think the AFL executive team is the highest paid people in the game, which is fine, but there’s no other league in the world where the executive team is paid more than the players.”
The AFL CEO’s salary was previously public knowledge, but since outgoing boss Gillon McLachlan’s $1.74 million salary for 2016 was released, it has ended up behind closed doors.
Based on the AFL’s Total Player Payment (TPP) documents, the average salary for an AFL player is just over $400,000.
Pendlebury also thinks the NBA’s contract modeling makes more sense than the AFL’s.
“People (in the AFL) can get contracts for like 10 years, which I think is ridiculous,” the AFL statesman said.
“To get a good player, it’s like, ‘We’ve got to offer him nine years.'” It’s like that destroys your (salary) cap.
“In the AFL, the 30th-ranked guy in the league can make the most money, a lot more than anyone else because you traded for him.
“The way contracts (the NBA) are structured is based on rewards. (There are) certain tiers that you can achieve by making the (All-NBA) first team, second team, etc.
“I think all first-timers should sign four-year contracts because otherwise after two years they’re like, ‘I just want to go home’.”
