Horse

[caj23]

Agree with sentiments above

$1.8m over 5 years is crazy money for a coach

It would be very difficult to knock back

I hope we don't match contract length or $'s or we are opening ourselves up to a huge risk going forward

[dimelb]

Crazy is the word.
Then they'll be running sausage sizzles to pay for their players.

[jono2707]

Maybe it also depends on whether Horse wants to live in Tassie in a few years' time....

[Ralph Dawg]

It's 20 years, not 72.

20 years would be a long enough wait for me!

[Ralph Dawg]

Horse at $1.8m p.a. Is just under 20% if of their footy dept soft cap on one man. And there is a soft cap freeze for up to 4 years.

That’s significantly north (pun intended) of the % of our salary cap the Bud commanded at his highest player payment. I’m guessing Horse won’t increase merchandise sales or membership by his mere presence. Indirectly by infield success (if it occurs with their spud list perhaps, but that’s a punt). And if success doesn’t come and they sack him prematurely, North will owe Horse the full contract unless he negotiates a settlement. Longmire would be almost crazy not to take the stupidly high offer. North are idiotic and irresponsible for offering it. The AFL should be putting similar sorts of stupid restrictions on North as they did to us for Buddy. ie they enter into this ridiculous agreement knowing that if Horse doesn’t see out the contract his wage will continue to be included in the soft cap for the duration of his contract which will also need to include the wage of Horse’s successor. That would help protect stupid clubs like North from themselves. Also, if their deal fails and Horse leaves prematurely and owes a settlement, that any financial bailouts or distributions from the AFL are minus what is owed to the departing coach. Ie North can’t be subsidised by the AFL or the other clubs for their stupid spending.

Just let them fold next time they are in strife. The club is just too stupid to warrant an existence.

You make some excellent points. Can definitely see that if it all went to poo for North, they would get a financial bail out, sent a top coach and football manager a la Lions and finally a whole host of recruiting concessions / high drafts. If we threw the house at Horse and it went bad for us, the AFL would just say you deserve everything you get and if the supporters don't like it or the club folded, they can go support their love child, GWS.

[caj23]

Maybe it also depends on whether Horse wants to live in Tassie in a few years' time....

Tassie aren't getting an AFL team, they simply don't have the population or corporate sponsorship to support it in the long term

Plus if young blokes can't hack living away from home on the Gold Coast, how hard would it to be retain players in Tasmania

[MattW]

No doubt that North's 1.8m offer would probably include (or at least incentivise) taking Blakey senior, and Blakey junior with him.

Zero chance Nick Blakey leaves.

[KTigers]

I really don't think paying a coach a few hundred K per annum more than you'd like to is going to send our club (or any club) into
some kind of death spiral. Most clubs probably feel that way about a quarter of their playing list. I'm certain the Swans will offer Longmire
an amount that's not dissimilar to the North offer. Why? because they can. All the clubs have the same cap for this type of spending.
And because they want to. But if the bloke still wants to go, then let him. Why would you want a coach that doesn't want you?
I'd be extremely surprised if Longmire left to go to North Melbourne.

[0918330512]

Tassie aren't getting an AFL team, they simply don't have the population or corporate sponsorship to support it in the long term

Plus if young blokes can't hack living away from home on the Gold Coast, how hard would it to be retain players in Tasmania

If GW$ can survive with a supporter base of two dozen fans and their pets in a region that prefers thugby, I’d say an Aussie Rules made state will do just fine. Sponsorship dollars can come from Australia (or world) wide. Tassie is an hours flight from Melbourne. If they needed to, a gun marquee player could commute by plane from Melbourne for training and match days should they not wish to live in Tassie. Kids these days spend more time travelling for under age footy in the hope of being drafted.

A Tassie team would have more long term viability than GW$ and the GC$.

In fact, if they guarantee that there would be no further concessions given to a new Tassie Team, just merge GW$ and GC$, relocate them to Hobart & call them the Tassie Tigers.

[dejavoodoo44]

I tend to doubt the $1.8 million figure that is being claimed. Or for that matter, the $1.5 million that was being claimed earlier in the day. Both seem to be just speculation, with no evidence or attribution provided. Just to check, how those figures compare with other coaches salaries, I tried to do a bit of research; but it seems that these salaries aren't released. The largest figure that I could find, was a claim that Roos was on $1.5 million per year at the Demons. However, this also seemed to be evidence free speculation. Counter to this, was a Leigh Matthews article from a couple of years ago, which argued that coaches shouldn't receive over $750,000. While another article claimed, that the top coaches would be on around $1 million.
So, when considering the soft cap of $9.5 million, I suspect that the lower estimates are correct. Especially when taking into account what that cap covers: assistant coaches; fitness, medical and IT staff; player welfare programs, etc. So, to me, $1.8 million is likely to be just a journalist making crap up, or at best, a vested interest, such as Liam Pickering, inflating the numbers involved in the hope of a starting a bidding war.

[caj23]

I really don't think paying a coach a few hundred K per annum more than you'd like to is going to send our club (or any club) into
some kind of death spiral. Most clubs probably feel that way about a quarter of their playing list. I'm certain the Swans will offer Longmire
an amount that's not dissimilar to the North offer. Why? because they can. All the clubs have the same cap for this type of spending.
And because they want to. But if the bloke still wants to go, then let him. Why would you want a coach that doesn't want you?
I'd be extremely surprised if Longmire left to go to North Melbourne.

Given that some of the lower tier coaches are on $350-$450k, I'd be horrified if Horse was on more than $800k, let alone $1.8m

[Markwebbos]

Can anyone enlighten me as to how the soft cap works?

[KTigers]

Given that some of the lower tier coaches are on $350-$450k, I'd be horrified if Horse was on more than $800k, let alone $1.8m

I think even the lower-tier coaches are getting considerably more than that ($350K is only slightly higher than the average AFL player
salary) and guys like Longmire and Clarkson will already be getting more than $1M. Paul Roos reportedly was paid $1.5M a year to
coach Melbourne. I understand these are all big numbers, but it is relative, and there will just be a rough going rate for a very senior
& successful coach, just like there is for all jobs. It's just a bigger number. There is a cap, so it's not like any club can go completely
crazy really. Maybe just take Pridham at his word, he said Longmire can coach the Swans for as long as he likes. And check out
what Pridham does for a day job, believe me he's not going to get all flustered just because Glenn Archer and Wayne Carey had a beer
with a "footy journo" one night in Melbourne.

[Ludwig]

Longmire is the 2nd most in-demand coach in the league. We know he can coach. Regardless of team performance going forward, I can't see Longmire being blamed, even if we go into a poor patch. It probably wouldn't be his fault anyway.

The Swans can offer him a long term deal for just about as long as he wants. I don't think NM can do the same, even if they might offer more money over the next 4 or 5 years.

Once you're making a million a year, other factors kick in and become more important, like uprooting your Sydney family and moving to Melbourne. I'm sure his kids want to stay in Sydney.

I'm also sure that he would like to honour the last year of his contract, which would put him out of contention for a new job next year.

I also feel that Longmire is emotionally invested in bringing on this new group of young players that shows so much promise and take this group to another premiership. It would truly be his team; one he built himself. And if he did, he would be considered among the greatest coach of this era. It's his legacy on the line as well. He doesn't have any investment in the North playing group.

Considering all these factors, a move to North Melbourne looks only a slim chance.

[barry]

Out of interest, what do you think nick Blakey would be worth on the open market right now. In thinking upward of $600k p.a.