Actually bothering to look deeper into that 'Money Ladder' ...

[Steve]

I'm sure many would be amazed what the real story is.

MEDIAN GAMES PER PLAYER*
The higher (generally speaking), the less injuries incurred, hence lower player payments
Western Bulldogs 16.0
Port Adelaide 15.0
Richmond 15.0
Collingwood 16.0
Sydney 13.5
Carlton 12.0
* based on senior lists (ie. not including rookies) as they were at the beginning of the 2002 season

ROOKIES ELEVATED
The more elevated, the higher player payments
Sydney 3
Collingwood 0
Richmond 0
Port Adelaide 1
Western Bulldogs 1

PLAYERS WHO PLAYED 19 OR MORE GAMES IN THE H&A SEASON
The higher the number, the lower the number of players used, hence (generally speaking), the fewer number of injuries, hence lower injury payment costs
Fremantle 18
Western Bulldogs 15
Port Adelaide 15
Richmond 15
Adelaide 15
Collingwood 15
Sydney 11
Carlton 9

Other mitigating factors in relation to Sydney would be the Daffy/Lockett/Schwass situations, a Rookie List of 7 (with 2 being token gestures granted to local Sydney players), and obviously the completely fair COL allowance.

In a nutshell clubs like the Bulldogs, Fremantle, Port Adelaide Richmond and Collingwood ranked lower on that scale (posted below) b/c they had good runs with injury, in the main didn't elevate any rookies, and in the case of Collingwood couldn't spend as much as other clubs due to Veterans List restrictions (which also applied to Hawthorn causing them to rank much lower).

I have a suspicion that payments such as super etc are probably also included in the published amounts, which obviously have a double-whammy effect (ie. 9% of a lot is more than 9% of a little).

And surely the 'brown paper bag' payments by Carlton would knock us off top spot also

______________________
1. Sydney - $7.88m
2. Carlton - $7.56m
3. Brisbane - $7.43m
4. Essendon - $7.06m
5. Kangaroos - $7.02m
6. West Coast - $6.97m
7. Melbourne - $6.87m
8. Collingwood - $6.78m
9. Adelaide - $6.77m
10. St Kilda - $6.68m
11. Richmond - $6.62m
12. Geelong - $6.55m
13. Hawthorn - $6.48m
14. Port Adelaide - $6.48m
15. Fremantle - $6.46m
16. Western Bulldogs - $6.35m

[liz]

Gee Steve - don't let facts get in the way of a good story!

Other things that occured to me when I read that were the high cost of maintaining the reserves team that Sydney had last year - something that was unique to Sydney and the club has already identified and addressed; and the impact of a higher cost of living in SYdney (which I don't think anyone actually disputes) which affects a whole raft of payments.

I suspect the club might have been living outside its means slightly but Ireland has come in and clearly started to take steps to address this. But the spin on the original story was certainly shallow.

[TheHood]

Nice work Steve!

Seriously, how can the media spruik these figures given Carlton's "cash money mate" scheme, which we know to be at least $50k to M Allen?

I have a feeling when the 2003 figures are released, the Swans are likely to be middle of the pack.