am Bays wrote:The 18-20 years at a SANFL club would be lucky to get $5000 a year especially if they play Ressies games. Thats 40K
The 4 overs 21s can get a combined $70K
AS I said they are getting dangled a minimum $90 K as a base rookie list player carrot.
I get why 21 year olds leave SANFL clubs especially when they are stuck in the churn of ressies footy - be lucky to make $2-3000 a year. Play good SANFL reserves footy can get 10 x that playing country.
As I've said on here ad nauseum, it's a F***ing disgrace how low SANFL/WAFL and Non-aligned VFL club players are paid and the AFL should fix it!
Yes, 100% this.
As it stands, the SANFL Commission and AFL Clubs deem it reasonable to have a cap of $70k for Over 21 and $60k for under 21. Let's call that $17,500 per season for over 21 and $7,500 per season for under 21. That is still peanuts compared to the minimum $90k a rookie AFL listed player gets.
A VFL list consists of 28 primary listed players and 12 development listed players, so translate to an SANFL squad.
28 players on $17,500 per year and 12 players on $7,500 per year, that should be a salary cap of around $580,000. The SANFL salary cap for 2025 is set to be $295,000, half of what it should be.
The SANFL Salary Cap in 2004 was $400,000, in the AFL it was $6.12 million.
The SANFL Salary Cap in 2014 was $360,000, in the AFL it was $9.63 million.
The SANFL Salary Cap in 2024 was $345,000, in the AFL it was $15.79 million.
The SANFL Salary Cap in 2025 is $295,000, in the AFL it is $17.7 million.
What if they acknowledged the contribution of the 24 standalone SANFL/WAFL/VFL clubs to the game of football, not only now, but essentially since the game began and contributed to a significant percentage of these clubs salary caps as a way of compensation and growing the game.
The SANFL Salary Cap in 2025 could be $580,000 and lets say the AFL contribute $360,000 of that for all 24 standalone clubs, the AFL cap could be $17.2 million.
That would at least be a start.