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Collingwood are hoping to avoid renegotiating AFL player contracts, including star ruckman Brodie Grundy’s seven-year deal, but concede it remains uncertain in the coronavirus crisis.
With the 2020 AFL season still up in the air, all clubs including heavyweights Collingwood, are under huge financial pressure.
The current total player payment figures for each club under the salary cap is just over $13 million but there are discussions about whether this will be cut to $10 million for 2021 and beyond, forcing a reduction in individual salaries and/or player lists.
Magpies chief executive Mark Anderson said there was no certainty that this would be the case.
“That’s a good example where we need the answers and we don’t have them yet nor are expecting them yet,” Anderson told ABC Grandstand on Sunday.
“But we will need those answers as you look at what does our list number look like and the what’s the salary cap within that look like and how do we work through all of those ramifications and contracts.
“In the crisis moment we’re living through, there’s just so much complexity.
“There’s more questions than answers in some areas and player contracts and list size is a key one of those.”
All Australian ruckman Grundy signed a long-term deal late last year reportedly paying $1 million a season.
But the Magpies’ financial squeeze will only intensify with the contracts of fellow stars Jordan de Goey and Darcy Moore as well as skipper Scott Pendlebury set to expire.
Anderson said the club hoped to honour current contracts but didn’t guarantee that would be the case.
“The reality is that we’ve got contracts in place with all of our players, and we’ve made commitments,” he said.
“The whole dynamic with all players across the league might change so it’s a hypothetical question but in putting pen to paper we committed and Brodie committed and that doesn’t change.
“The principle that a contract is a contract is absolutely a fair one we would all want to respect and play out
“The great unknown of this whole scenario though is that we’re in a totally different world as well.”
Meanwhile, young Magpies forward Jaidyn Stephenson said the enforced break would give him time to make up lost ground after his pre-season illness.
Stephenson missed Collingwood’s Round 1 win over Western Bulldogs but told Nine he wasn’t surprised by his omission.
“It wasn’t really a shock to me – I was expecting it,” Stephenson said on Sunday.
“Obviously, I didn’t have the greatest of pre-seasons with the glandular fever pre-Christmas, and then I came back and probably did only four weeks of full training with the group.
“I also had to withdraw from the Wangaratta match against Richmond due to some personal reasons.
“But I think I was doing everything right and I was on my way and hopefully would have been in the side very shortly.”
Stephenson said he was fully recovered and had moved home to spend time with his family and train in a make-shift gym there.
© AAP
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