When I made up the above Under 22 team, it reminded me of the days when we had the Under 19's to have a look at kids, and hand pick the best of them to play reserves.

Some kids were that good, they bypassed the Under 19's and reserves altogether as 16yo like Buckley and Sheldon.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Is Flynn on a 6 or 18 month contract?

I don't know what he's been offered but MSD's are rarely given more than 6 months.
You can see why that's the case moreso with LTI replacements, moreso than list spots open since the draft.
18 month requests by candidates are also made to deter clubs they dont want to go to

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

plat Flynn at HBF ,got that hawks left footer feel about it Amon type

We should've drafted Sellwood if we were going to fill that position.
Knowing us, that'd be something we'd do though.

Six months. At least, that’s what he nominated.

Rookies can be extended to a fourth & fifth season, depending on the number of games played.

Maximum list size before SSP & MSD replacements is 44 players. There must be at least 36 on the primary list. So, maximum rookie list (A & B inclusive) is eight players.

Current rookie deals:

Cincotta - 3rd year, can’t be extended. Will be upgraded
O’Keeffe - 3rd, can be extended.
Lord - 2nd, eligible for one more. Already signed.
Carroll - 2nd*, likely passes the games limit, so eligible for two more.
Monahan - 2nd, eligible for at least one more.
White - 1st, likely passes the games limit, so eligible for two more.
F.Young - 1st, eligible for at least two more.
Charleson - 1st, eligible for at least two more.
Duffy - 1st, eligible for at least two more. Guaranteed at least one more.
Evans - 1st, eligible for two more.

* Technically his first.

_________________
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

This is a great starting point when looking at salary caps, and attempting to work out what our 2025 spend is.

White and Young are LTI replacements and their salary isn't included in salary cap. Both on $85K plus $4K per game.

Factor in the following on your Table of players 1-44

Rookies Base Salary is $85K and $4K per game
Draft picks 1-20 Base Salary is $105K plus $4K per game
Draft picks 21-40 Base Salary is $95K plus $4K per game
Draft Picks 41+ Base Salary is $90K plus $4K per game

Its not much is it? Given we have nearly have numbers to make a full team with players under 22yo, its no surprise we have cap room.

Now add into your table Contracted players. There's 3 Levels. Low End paid (200-400K), Good players (400-700K) Stars (>700K)

You should be able to get to a bottom line.

Now, factor in Front loaded contracts like Williams, Cripps, Harry and Charlie.

Salary Cap is $17.5M
95% SC or $16.25M is the minumum we must spend each year.
I'd be surprised if your total exceeded the 95% threshold, and any shortfall is made up by more front loading.

Interesting fact: The difference between 100% and 95% SC is $875K. How much was Houston again?

Now consider Austin can save 5% each year for up to 5 years ie banking SC
5 years x $875K = $4.375M. If you don't use it, you lose it.
ISo, after 5 years savings and you don't spend it on a new player, more front loading will happen.

Draft Picks vs War chest for FA or both?

If we don't have picks or players to trade, obviously we can't trade for players.

If we don't have picks to trade, which we don't at this minute, we can target FA's with our "war chest".

[url]If we had the money for Houston what happened?[/url]

We had the choice to trade for Houston when Austin remarkably manufactured 2 first round picks or we use those picks in the super draft.

Our biggest issue in previous years was thought to be injury, and Austin decided to delist all injury prone players out of contract, with Gov and Williams next on the chopping block.

Austin believed our list was the 2nd best in the AFL. He thought adding quality player(s) from the Super Draft would hold us in good stead with the upcoming compromised drafts (Tassie Team), rather than going with Houston who was turns 28 in 2025. Carlton also had the money to keep TDK at the end of 2025, from SC savings, or, by giving up Marchbank, Martin, Cuningham, Kennedy and Owies. Saints hadn't even come into the picture with their unprecedented offer of $1.7M for TDK at the time.

Rather than giving Port a first round pick, Austin turned 2 first round picks into pick 3 for one of the top 3 players bound to become 10-15 year star players. Houston had only 3-4 years left in him.

Nothing to do with money/ cap constraints. We had the choice, and we made ours, for Jagga to shore up our future.

We also needed later picks (Port would ask for) for Ben & Lucas Campo and upgrade of Boyd to Primary list. We got lucky that O'Farrell lasted to pick 40, and Ben and Lucas weren't bid on till later in the draft. Our Draft Trade period was given an A in the media, despite not going for Houston.

Work it out for yourself. Jump onto an Excel spread sheet and seek your own clarity.

Generate your own table re salary cap with the abovementioned numbers and add any numbers you know. There's plenty of hints above as to what contracts cost and which have been front ended. Lets just get one thing straight. We only have Cripps on a Million bucks. There is $5M difference between the Carlton offer and the Saints offer of $1.7M. The TDK offer from Carlton is not 1.1 but matches Cripps. That's what we do know. TDK in 2025 is paid similarly as Cerra and Saad's rate. Next year, he might or might not be with us as a Million dollar player. Why? because its his choice and we CAN afford a Million, without having to let go Harry Charlie Cripps Weiters or Walsh. That was never the plan.

You will struggle to over 95% of the Cap.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

WE had the players for the so called "Modern Game" before Williams did his ACL and we were flying in the preseason of 2022:



B: McGovern Weitering Docherty
HB: Saad Marchbank Williams............Boyd

Nothing cumbersome about that backline. WE covered the loss of Jones who wasn't playing AFL due to Covid protocols

Williams Saad and Docherty were flying from the backline and giving us line breaking run

What happened?

Marchbank did his his ACL
Weitering got injured shoulder
McDonald injured back
Williams injured his achilles.
Doc went to a wing
Young took Marchbanks spot

Its not like we are stupid and had no idea of the running game. Injuries derailed us, year after year

And our forwardline:

HF: Cuningham McKay Martin
F: DeKoning Curnow Durdin .........Kennedy

What happened to them?

Cuningham ACL
Martin calf

WE have the spine, and we need to put the running muscle around them

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

we can't afford to upgrade the running muscle around them. too top heavy old sport. 37 expiring contracts need to be replaced with another 37. it will be like for like.


the inescapable truth is our top 6 or 7 paid players are the most expensive top 6-7 in the entire comp. time to scale some of that down and spread the weatlh.

ie if we move two of our highest paid players - harry and cripps lets, say.

we replace those 2, with 5 players in the very capable and physical peak 25-28 years old bracket.


imo, 5 players would breathe life into our system, create genuine competition for playing spots and we'd be following a much more fiscally responsible and successful template to winning a flag.

if we don't renew walsh and tdk (we shouldn't) we can turnover near half of our list. and that is a war chest to be excited over.

next step is to allow wright to replace voss, and play a more modern and sustainable brand of footy.

then the next and final step is to count our flags. bcos they're coming.

1. Less than half of those 37 contracts will be turned into new players.

2. That inescapable truth… isn’t.

_________________
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

how does that work? we running out half a team in the reggies?

Only took me a few minutes to check a few top teams best 7 players ( mind you, that's a third of a team), and you look at the Pies, and they are paying $250K Grundy's salary and $200K of Treloars, so they have to count in the top 7.

I agree with your point 2.

1. Cripps 1000K now 750K front loaded
2. Harry 900K now 750K front loaded
3. Charlie 900K now 750K front loaded
4. Weiters 900K
5. Williams 900K now 600K front loaded
6. Walsh 800K now 700K front loaded
7. Cerra 650K
8. Saad

Contracted they amount to $5.8M/ $17.5M
Managed down to in 2025 $5.1M/ $17.5

TDK can walk
Williams will be gone end of 2026

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Hey @gork, how do I explain the obvious to this bloke without using the term ‘re-signed’ because he’s definitely going to read it as resigned.

_________________
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

Whatever ity takes, this is what I want.

If it means Harry to Sydney, and TDK to Saints, so be it.

Who the fk will be our No1 ruckman, and who will given him the chop out?

Getting 5 decent players must include a ruckman and Fwd/Ruck, and 3 mids or whatever. They better be good. Good luck.
Saw Port do this and they went backwards despite the 5 imports. Haw\ks got Battle and Barrass and the Hawks backline is now struggling, Masimo isn't the player he was and who Ginnivan went to sleep after the first quarter, and has recently been dropped.

I do trust Wright tho.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

37 contracts implies a lot of flexibility for List Manager.
Last year we were forced to move on Kennedy and Owies because we didnt have many contracts expiring.
There's new better players out there we can bring in,by turning over only 7 of them a year.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

hope we cross paths one day. lets see if you're all that.

Bang on with salaries. Problem is posters refuse to listen and only interested in pushing ajenda. Cap isn’t an issue.

i'm so confused. and crusader would rather be a douche, than explain anything. i've never given a rats about list numbers, rookie contracts and all the X's and O's of a team. bcos really ... who could care to understand what category A or B or rookie lists even means.

i just watch the 22 on gameday produce goose eggs, look at the top 5 or 6 in the reggies coming thru, (and usually at that point with cfc) i just despair.

i thought there are 44 spots on an afl list. and you're saying 37 contracts are up. does that not mean we have to replace that 37 with another 37 players?

i can't see how there's flexibility there?

also ... how can you kow for sure williams was front loaded for 900k over 5 years, and he's only taking 600k now? i've seen it reported twice he's on 940-1 mil this season and the same next?