AFL may ease off contract freeze

PLAYERS signing long-term deals in coming months would need to have multiple clauses reflecting potential wage changes after a breakthrough on the AFL’s contract freeze.

The AFL and player union will agree to allow clubs and managers to again begin signing contracts to give players security under the upcoming fixture squeeze.

The agreement on contracts paved the way for the AFLPA agreeing to four-day breaks for the Round 9-12 fixture, set to be released by the AFL as soon as Tuesday.

But the uncertainty over pay involves not only next year’s salary cap but from 2023 onwards when a new collective bargaining agreement will have to be struck.

Forecasting whether the AFL’s salary cap will again rise in what is likely to be a deep recession will be near on impossible for the AFL let alone list managers and player agents.

Those commonly used contract clauses mean player salaries rise or fall in line with the salary cap.

The current collective bargaining agreement has only two seasons to run — 2021 and 2022 — and talks will soon start on whether players are forced into altering that deal given the coronavirus crisis.

The AFL and player union will also have to negotiate a CBA from 2023 onwards in coming years with doubt on those figures after so many seasons of relentless pay growth. If a player in coming weeks signed a new three-year contract it might include a clause that reflected potential pay cuts for 2021 but also the size of the salary cap from 2023 onwards.

When the AFL last brokered a pay deal in 2017 many players automatically secured 20 per cent pay rises due to clauses in their contracts that factored in a potential rise in the CBA.

Greater Western Sydney’s Jeremy Cameron said last week he was keen to sign a new deal once the freeze was removed, with that ban put in place because of such uncertainty about wages in the AFL.

Unlocking the wage freeze would also allow the Giants to lock in coach Leon Cameron.