Australian Football League Players' Association To Reject New Pay Deal

Australian Football's "pay war has escalated with players set to reject a heavily front-ended" Australian Football League deal that "would deliver massive gains in year one" but increases of 1% a year to follow, according to Michael Warner of the HERALD SUN. AFL execs gave the AFL Players' Association details of the offer verbally last week, with a "formal document to be tabled within days." The league's proposed agreement is for six years. An initial 20% "boost" would increase the pay of the average player from around A$300,000 ($225,000) to A$360,000 ($270,000). But the AFLPA believes "the much smaller pay increases" in years two to six would result in the players' "current cut of the game's wealth falling over the course of the agreement." Clubs are becoming "increasingly frustrated" by the salary standoff, which comes more than six months after the expiry of the last agreement. Clubs and player agents "still do not know how much players will earn this season, let alone future years" (HERALD SUN, 4/11).