Blackwhite wrote:Beenreal, how many magpie players do you expect to stick around and play for the power reserves next year? Wll be intesting to see how many do decide to stick around.
Unless there's a loophole in the rules that allows the Pahhhhhr to pay its 'Magpie contracted players' more than $400 per week, few to none (who are at SANFL league standard) will stick around. No-one but a masochist would stick around for coin a fraction of what they could get at another SANFL club— a decision made even easier when that other SANFL club can
also play them in the league every week if their form warrants it (and not merely while there are injuries among players in the AFL squad who happen to play their position).
But is there a loophole? The following is the relevant rule, at least as expressed in the SANFL
media release:
Top Up players – ‘Magpies listed’ contracted players
• Port Adelaide Magpies to provide a list of 15 players at the start of the season who can play at SANFL league level – contracts to be lodged with SANFL. (18 and above with no age ceiling to apply).
• Such players receive a maximum of $400 per match at SANFL league level, $100 at reserves level.
Most people would read this to say they receive $400 per league match, i.e. a maximum of $7200 per year (Magpies will not play finals in 2014 barring the Pahhhhr sustaining a miraculous injury run), tops. But what's the point of lodging written 'contracts' then? They would be a pretty short contracts. The thing left unanswered by this quote is whether the "contracts" can guarantee a base payment as well as the $400 per match. It's only if they can (and the base payments are more than trivial), that anyone of interest at all will be left at the Magpies from their 2013 roster. That's a lot of players for 6 full-recruiting teams (plus 2 teams with severely curtailed recruiting in Norwood and West) to digest. Perhaps too many— that, and the disillusionment factor, suggests that a number of departing Magpies will go into country footy, retirement or perhaps ammos, rather than bother trying to compete in what will be a crowded market of ex-Magpies looking for new SANFL clubs.
Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:04 pm
