Cost of living battle

Deledio takes aim at AFL over COLA

THEY may be enemies this weekend, but the Giants and Swans have a far greater foe — the bean counters from Melbourne.

As fierce as the Sydney rivalry is, the derby clubs are united in despair over the AFL’s lack of recognition for the realities of life in one of the most expensive cities on earth.

Respected GWS Giants veteran Brett Deledio has reignited the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) firestorm, taking aim at the AFL for so flippantly ditching the support it used to offer interstate players who relocated to Sydney in the wake of the Lance Franklin trade deal.

So incensed was the AFL by Sydney’s stunning poaching of the game’s best player, it responded to campaigning from Eddie McGuire and other Melbourne club heavyweights and immediately slashed the $800,000-a-year COLA assistance for the Swans and Giants outside the salary cap.

Deledio is not crying poor; rather he is speaking out on behalf of younger male and female players — and the clubs — who he believes are being unfairly disadvantaged.

He says he has lost money on rent every week since he moved his family north to sign with GWS, even though the outside perception at the time was he was leaving Richmond after 12 seasons for a cash grab.

Deledio, a 259-game star who has experienced football life on both sides of the border, blasted the AFL’s short-sightedness.

“I think it’s ridiculous that there’s not more support in terms of cost of living, just because it’s just so expensive to live up here,” Deledio said.

“For what you get and what you pay is just chalk and cheese. In terms of rent, in terms of property size, plus there is everything else that goes with it. The cost of living up here … I’ve witnessed it first-hand. I thought it was nothing. I thought it was a bit of a throwaway line.

“It’s not about the guys that are on top dollar, it’s more about the young blokes who are having to scrimp and save. (Young guys saving) isn’t a bad thing, but there could be more support. It was taken away a little bit too quickly given one exploitation.”

At the start of the season, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan dismissed private claims from the Giants and Swans that the lack of a cost of living allowance hindered their ability to fight against the “gohome factor” for interstate players who don’t want to stay in Sydney.