The Bowes salary dump will have the most far-reaching consequences of any trade of the recent player movement window and will fundamentally re-shape how trade periods are run in the future.
Effectively,Geelong was given pick No.7 as an incentive if they took Bowes,who was contracted for $825,000 per year for two more years,off the Suns’ books.
Geelong was able to bring Bowes in and renegotiate a new contract with him,thereby spreading his big contract out over a longer period of time. So,the Cats will only have the new four-year terms of Bowes’ contract in their salary cap.
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Clubs have argued for,and the AFL will now consider,a change that would require a club in Geelong’s situation in future to have to keep the $825,000 from a Bowes-type contract in their salary cap for two years,not the smoothed out contract amount they are actually paying him.