{"id":63993,"date":"2024-05-23T09:06:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T23:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=63993"},"modified":"2024-05-23T09:17:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T23:17:42","slug":"tools-of-the-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2024\/05\/tools-of-the-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools of the trade."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re heading into round 11 of the 2024 AFL Premiership Season.<\/p>\n<p>For football journalists like Sam McClure who don\u2019t watch football, that means we\u2019re in week 11 of the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>The real stuff starts on October 7: the trade period.<\/p>\n<p>Journalists like Sam, who have no insights in what is happening on the field and prefer to let us plebs in on big secrets like <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sezlloydy\/status\/1792507458931573219;;;;\">West Coast not selecting Harley Reid (never let this clip die).<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This clip gets better the more games he gets under his belt <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/j0A0m85Fqs\">pic.twitter.com\/j0A0m85Fqs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sez (@sezlloydy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sezlloydy\/status\/1792507458931573219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Or Dustin Martin leaving Richmond\/football in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/richmond-superstar-dustin-martin-is-considering-his-future-in-the-game\/news-story\/23277079d6fc7a53c0d7e0d3febd8f77\">2022<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/are-you-fair-dinkum-14m-dustin-martin-trade-call-dumbest-argument-ever-heard\/news-story\/9a6ccac013833e8d63bfeacc9dd97f06\">2023<\/a>, they\u2019ve started warming up for the real stuff.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;He just can&#39;t be at Richmond next year.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Sam McClure&#39;s big call on Dustin Martin.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/9FootyClassified?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#9FootyClassified<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Channel9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Channel9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MTIU3tG1x6\">pic.twitter.com\/MTIU3tG1x6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Footy on Nine (@FootyonNine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyonNine\/status\/1665710117566955521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/sport\/afl\/revealed-saints-massive-offer-to-make-weitering-one-of-the-richest-players-in-the-afl-20240514-p5jdj6.html\">He recently reported in his column The Scoop for <em>The Age<\/em> that Jacob Weitering was set to be offered a contract by St Kilda that would pay him $1.5m annually over 8 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other journalists have gotten in on the act as well, with speculation about Will Hayward running rampant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/au.sports.yahoo.com\/will-hayward-in-massive-development-from-circling-afl-clubs-as-swans-battle-to-keep-ace-052544669.html\">These reports suggest that clubs like Adelaide and Carlton are in the hunt for the Swans\u2019 tweener forward offering money between $550,000 and $800,000 per season over 5 years.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThey still want to keep him, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will the Swans get a first-round compensation pick if free agent Will Hayward leaves the club? <\/p>\n<p>Watch Gettable now: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0HcGACTV1W\">https:\/\/t.co\/0HcGACTV1W<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H0RWMNwosG\">pic.twitter.com\/H0RWMNwosG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gettable (@gettable_afl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gettable_afl\/status\/1791000390739370047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not going to delve into the wisdom of offering an oft-injured key defender an 8-year contract, or the value of the tweener type forward that Will Hayward is.<\/p>\n<p>Both are good players and could be worth a long-term investment.<\/p>\n<p>What I am going to say is that the talk of the money and the contract in general is totally irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing matters without the context like the state of a team\u2019s salary cap, or the structure of the deal and how it might impact the salary cap.<\/p>\n<p>In the AFL we have none of that, so these numbers are pure pie in the sky.<\/p>\n<p>They are put out there, partly, to engineer reductive discussions about how footballers provide no social utility and make 10x what nurses make.<\/p>\n<p>In a league like the NFL, the money truly does matter because we have all of the context.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/19089\/dak-prescott\">Take the Dallas Cowboys and their quarterback Dak Prescott.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dak Prescott on his contract situation: \u201cI know my business will take care of itself. Just controlling what I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why has be been able to be so patient?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t play for money. \u2026 I\u2019ll leave that to the business people to say what it\u2019s worth, what they\u2019re supposed to\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Gtg6SvVxNa\">pic.twitter.com\/Gtg6SvVxNa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jon Machota (@jonmachota) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonmachota\/status\/1793364653026025793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>We know that Prescott signed a 4 year, $160m deal in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>He was guaranteed $95m at signing, got a $66m signing bonus and basically \u00be of that deal was guaranteed by roster bonuses that he would certainly get as the starting quarterback of the team.<\/p>\n<p>We also know that in 2021 he accounted for $17m on the Cowboys\u2019 salary cap before his cap number moved to $19.7m in 2022, then $26.8m in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Now in 2024, the last year of his deal, he is a financial albatross counting for $55,455,000 against the Cowboys\u2019 cap.<\/p>\n<p>The Cowboys have gone through the offseason with Prescott accounting for 21% of the cap on his own, which has meant that they haven\u2019t added any pieces to a team that is close but not quite there.<\/p>\n<p>Why does he count for this much?<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a free agent at the end of the 2024\/25 NFL season and is due for an extension.<\/p>\n<p>If and when the Cowboys extend him, they would certainly move money into later years and restructure a significant portion of that cap number into signing bonus money.<\/p>\n<p>By doing this they could prorate that money over later years to smooth over the financial burden of having a quarterback like Prescott.<\/p>\n<p>The Buffalo Bills, for example, constantly restructure their quarterback Josh Allen\u2019s contract so he does not count for as much against the salary cap.<\/p>\n<p>Doing that means that the team has flexibility in building the roster around their quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>There is more to say about the Prescott situation and Cowboys\u2019 mismanagement, but the point of this column isn\u2019t to call Jerry Jones cheap. It\u2019s to point out that in the AFL we have no context.<\/p>\n<p>What does $1.5 million for Weitering actually mean?<\/p>\n<p>Is it the average annual value of the deal that St. Kilda have allegedly offered to Weitering?<\/p>\n<p>Is the money front or backloaded?<\/p>\n<p>What is the structure of the contract otherwise?<\/p>\n<p>Is it a true 8 years or are there outs?<\/p>\n<p>Does all of it count against the cap?<\/p>\n<p>How does the cap even work in this sport?<\/p>\n<p>Is the money tied to a cap that will spike dramatically in the coming years or is it a fixed rate?<\/p>\n<p>These are all questions that we literally can\u2019t answer, so debating the wisdom of the Saints allegedly making that offer to Weitering is useless from a financial perspective.<\/p>\n<p>So, what can we get from these two reports?<\/p>\n<p>The Weitering report reads like an advertisement for St Kilda\u2019s \u201cwar chest\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>McClure is playing (a dramatically oilier) Don Draper for St Kila\u2019s financial wherewithal.<\/p>\n<p>The Saints and Ross Lyon can\u2019t come out and say specifically \u201cwe have money and we\u2019re ready to use it\u201d, but they can tell Sam or some other journo with whom they have a cosy relationship to tell everyone \u201cthe Saints have money, and I\u2019ve come to believe that they\u2019re ready to use it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, it\u2019s impossible to know whether Will Hayward is worth $800,000 per season because we don\u2019t know what $800,000 means in the confines of an opaque salary cap and contract structure.<\/p>\n<p>We do know that Hayward probably wants to stay in Sydney but would presumably like more than what Sydney is offering him, so it\u2019s in his interests to leak that other clubs are offering him significantly more money in case Sydney is able to free up some extra cash to throw his way.<\/p>\n<p>These reports, especially at this point in the season, are advertising for somebody.<\/p>\n<p>The question is always, who.<\/p>\n<p>Let me leave you, reader, with three things to keep in mind as you read and get annoyed by these columns designed to annoy you (which work on me constantly):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Debate the player not the money. We know the player, we can\u2019t know the money.<\/li>\n<li>Ask who leaked the story.<\/li>\n<li>Read between the lines and decide who benefits most from that story being public.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These stories have value for us fans, but it\u2019s not in the words. It\u2019s in what lies between them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Like what you read from our hard-hitting columnist?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Follow\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guywholikesspo1\"><b><i>@Guywholikessport<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>\u00a0on Twitter or check out his\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/guywholikessport.wixsite.com\/guywholikessport\"><b><i>FULL BLOG HERE\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":63994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8298,344],"tags":[29,8614,8377,3311,8260,3094],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-63993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-rules","category-guywholikessport","category-sports","tag-afl","tag-afl-2024","tag-afl-trade","tag-aussie-rules","tag-guywholikessport","tag-opinion"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"23\/05\/2024","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63993"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=63993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}