Lance Franklin to become a Swan

[CureTheSane]

I'd suggest it is more injury related.
Retires earlier than 9 years? - you'd think that is the end of his contract.
Career ending knee injury in 3 years? - do we have to pay him out if he chooses not to retire?
I'd suggest that it's nothing too detrimental or unexpected.

[Bloodthirsty]

May I join you?

Yes.

[Ludwig]

I'd suggest it is more injury related.
Retires earlier than 9 years? - you'd think that is the end of his contract.
Career ending knee injury in 3 years? - do we have to pay him out if he chooses not to retire?
I'd suggest that it's nothing too detrimental or unexpected.

Yes. This is the logical assumption, but it's not what McLaughlin seems to suggest.

- - - Updated - - -

Did anyone say to Melbourne that if they made a series of poor draft picks and coaching choices, they would have to fold the club because the AFL were not going to assume the risk and bail them out?

Maybe the Swans can take the risk, because like the banks, we are too big to fail.

[On-Baller]

Yes. This is the logical assumption, but it's not what McLaughlin seems to suggest.

Its why they made directors sign agreements, this is the risk we are running, no matter what happens this contract will be followed thru to the letter so that anyone else thinking of offering such long contracts thinks twice about it. I guess the hope is from our side that even if we only get 5 years out of Buddy that the cap will increase enough by those last years that what we still have on the TPP from this deal doesnt seem so significant. Interestingly Andrew Ireland earlier tonight said that theres a chance that within five years the whole system will change anyway and that coaches staff and players will all come under the same cap.

[Ludwig]

If the NBA is anything to go by, clubs that signed stars like Magic Johnson, early on, got more than their money's worth. It worked out very well as the pay scales shot through the roof while these stars had salaries frozen in time. The AFL is going the same way, so maybe we will be okay.

[Meg]

The AFL seems to think that the Swans would obliged to pay Franklin regardless of the circumstances of his playing status, injury, retirement or otherwise. This appears to contradict what Liam Pickering said earlier in the week when he said that if Franklin retires, he doesn't get paid. I wonder what's up.

This got me thinking about a variety of circumstances where a player has his career unfortunately interrupted. I was wondering if Port had to pay John McCarthy's estate for the remainder of his contract and if it had to be included in their cap. What about players that just decide to break their contract because they are sick of football. What about a serious illness that forces a player from playing on medical advice? What if this happened to GAJ? Would GC still have to pay him out?

Suppose Buddy committed a crime and went to prison for the next 10 years. It is possible that some situation could arise where he may never play a game again. Could the Swans be saddled with a $10 mil. payment and perhaps an equal loss in COLA allowance over the next 10 years? It would almost certainly mean the demise of the club. Is this the risk the AFL would ask the club to assume?

If Franklin voluntarily retires - gets sick of football etc. - he won't get paid (as Pickering said) BUT the payment that would have been paid under the contract is counted against our TPP and therefore will not be available to pay to retain or attract other players. As On-Baller has said, this prevents clubs making lucrative contracts, which other clubs can't/won't match, on a 'wink & a nod' basis knowing that the player will retire earlier than specified. However in most (all?) involuntary retirements I think we would be obliged to pay him as well as it be included in the TPP. Not sure about the going to prison scenario! But certainly I'm pretty sure the club still has to pay if he has to retire as a result of injury. As I understand it we had to pay Daniel Bradshaw till the end of his three year contract although he had been forced to retire with a serious knee injury half way through the contract. That is where the biggest risk lies in this deal it seems to me. If Franklin were to get a career-ending injury in the first year we have to pay him, and it be counted as part of our TPP, for the full 9 years. It seems pretty clear the COLA will be discontinued or at least modified so high earning players can't get it from 2015. I suspect the Swans Board have anticipated that and taken it into account in their calculations. They will still have to pay the full amount, whether part is funded by COLA or not. That is made clear in the radio interview that On-Baller has attached. However one thing that I am not clear about is the part of the contract that involves marketing payments (Additional Service Agreements or ASAs). From what Ireland has said some portion of the Franklin contract is covered by an ASA which makes sense. He will be the highest profile player at the club and will be used extensively for promotional work on behalf of the Swans. As I understand it (but am not 100% sure about), ASAs are capped in total by the AFL (currently $613,000 in total I think) but are not part of the TPP (currently $9,130,000 for the majority of clubs). Ireland made that point when he said that the marketing component does not have COLA applied to it. What is not clear to me is whether the club would still have to pay the ASA component if Franklin retired early involuntarily, or if the notional ASA would be counted against the Swans' total ASA cap if Franklin voluntarily retired early.

I am attaching a link to an Age article from March this year that covers some of the issues about TPP and other payments if you are interested.

http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/swans-paid-175m-more-than-havenots-20130315-2g69y.html

[707]

Yep it's all clear as mud.

We blindsided every other club and it's turned out to be all above board. The AFL and Vlad doesn't like that so I reckon the AFL has gone the "you bastards outsmarted our system so we're going to try and nail you with technicalities" route.

Chances are, in the levelling of the playing field exercise that's coming and the passage of time this deal will have seen to be groundbreaking - well I'm hoping like hell it is!

[ScottH]

Buddy comes out as a Blood at 10:30 today @ SCG.

[dimelb]

There are real risks associated with this deal, but I am inclined to think that the club might carry some sort of accident insurance, especially for long-term and high-paying contracts. Others beside Buddy may be included - Sam Reid comes to mind - and I wouldn't be surprised to discover that QBE may be part of the picture. You'd think that such valuable assets would be covered in some form.

[ernie koala]

I can't get my head around the risk here.

Probability would say he won't play for 9 seasons....Most likely 5 or 6...assuming his dodgy, degenerative, knee holds up.

Which means, in all probability, we'll be paying, or at least have included in our cap, Buddies wages for at least a few years.....

If this eventuates, that's going to hurt!

[BillyRayCypress]

The other option that people in Melbourne don't want to consider is that he plays for the full period of his contract.

Goodes is 34 this year so why can't Buddy play till 35? Sure he may miss some time now and again with injury but that is the risk you take with any player as we are finding out with Reid and Mitchell.

[Industrial Fan]

Its really difficult to speculate without knowing the contract mechanisms they have at their disposal.

I would have thought it would be possible to specify very high match payments or bonus based on matches played that would mitigate the risk of him absorbing a huge salary if he wasnt playing.

One thing I cant see us signing up to is $1mil plus of our player payments going as dead money.

[ernie koala]

Its really difficult to speculate without knowing the contract mechanisms they have at their disposal.

I would have thought it would be possible to specify very high match payments or bonus based on matches played that would mitigate the risk of him absorbing a huge salary if he wasnt playing.

One thing I cant see us signing up to is $1mil plus of our player payments going as dead money.

But isn't this exactly what is being said by the AFL....

We will have Buddies wage (around $1.1m per year) count against our cap,regardless of whether he plays or is retired.

Given his age/ no. of games played, and apparently degenerative knee, that is a huge gamble with our clubs medium term situation.

[spiffy-dude]

Hi just signed up becasue i need somewhere amongst other swans fans as its getting out of hand the negative melbourne media hyperbole machine.

I just joined to say that i am really feed up with the melbourne media. Today in the herald sun they are running a story and focusing on every possible worst outcome for us and buddy. They even went as far as to mention if he plays in the IRS and gets injured he we are stuffed.

Why are they doing this? Why can't they focus on the postives? If it was collingwood or Carlton or even Richmond getting him they would have 4 pages going on about how it will make them stronger, it will put footy on the map etc.

But instead they are repeating the same negative things in one article and using emotive language. They are trading short term manufactured rage for what could be a very good thing for football in the northern states which are struggling to gain new support. I guess once the money and new tv deals come in it will shut them up for a while.

Everyone is hoping we fail so they can point fingers and be proved right, so they can tell us "stupid bandwagoners who watch rugby" that they were right. I wish i lived in Sydney where i can enjoy this signing and not have to listen to horrible local media. Its made me depressed to the point where i dont want him at the swans now.

[magic.merkin]

Chin up, read your news elsewhere and take a deep breath.

Hard to say what would have happened if say Geelong snared him. I can't remember any recent deals of this magnitutude in a long while. Our audacity mixed with fear and the sheer size of the contract is obviously going to raise questions. Also panic sells papers, not a swans love fest.