AFL contracts are currently in a state flux due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Players have been forced to take pay cuts of 50 per cent in 2020 in a bid to keep the game moving along in such uncertain times.
One player in particular received the rough end of the stick after signing a lucrative front-ended deal with a new club.
According to Craig Hutchison, enormously talented Carlton recruit Jack Martin is the competition’s highest paid player this season after moving from the Gold Coast Suns.
His 2020 earnings may have been slashed but he still sits above all of the league’s handsomely remunerated stars as he is on close to $2 million this year, the first of his five-year contract with the Blues.
Hutchison asked The Sounding Board co-host Damian Barrett: “Here’s a trivia question for you: Who’s the number one paid player in the AFL this year?”
Barrett: “It would be a race between, in the weird way contracts are structured, the two Martins, Jack and Dusty.”
Hutchison: “Yeah, Jack’s number one.
“His contract is almost two million bucks this year, pre pay cut.”
Barrett: “And that’s unfortunate for him because he’s taken that deal as a way to assist the club as much as himself to smooth his total number out over a number of years and this is the year where it’s going to be cut in half.”
Hutchison: “I don’t think that will work for him. My understanding is he’s being paid more this year than the next four years put together.
“That’s an extraordinary contract isn’t it?”
Barrett: “The way it stands on 2020 books, he’s going to lose half that number.”
Hutchison: “I don’t think that’s going to play for him. I think there will be a discussion around how to restructure that.”
Martin has been in impressive form for the Blues, averaging a tick under 15 possessions and more than a goal a game across his first six outings for his second club.
The Blues have used him in a number of ways including as a deep contested marking forward, a high half-forward and an on-baller.