Player and AFL industry sources said the $55 million contractually owed to the men would be paid to all players who were on club lists from 2017 until 2019 and also in 2021.
The money is due to be paid into the men’s players’ retirement funds,with the amounts for each individual player based upon years of service,rather than the size of their contracts with clubs.
The amounts due to those who have played for a long time,such as Shaun Burgoyne,Luke Hodge,Scott Pendlebury and David Mundy is significant.
In dollar terms,$55 million is nearly equivalent to the full salary caps of four clubs.
Sources familiar with discussions between the AFL and the AFL Players Association over the past two to three weeks said the AFL proposed handing a significant share of the $55 million to AFLW players,as the league and players seek to strike a new pay deal that is expected to increase women’s pay substantially. Sources said AFLW players had backed the stance taken by their male counterparts of keeping the money separate from the women’s deal.
The money owed was the result of a collective bargaining agreement that covered 2017-2022,which was renegotiated in 2020 and again in 2021 due to the pandemic. The players had their pay cut by about $100 million in 2020,but the view of the AFL bosses is that the players fared better than anyone else in the game financially during the worst of COVID and that the (men’s) players should be prepared to give some of that $55 million owed to the AFLW - an outcome that would save the AFL and clubs millions.
The players’ view is that they took a 30 per cent pay cut in 2020 to help the competition,a further cut of 10 per cent in 2021 and that they are owed the $55 million only because the competition and clubs fared better than their forecasts.