The AFL is searching for answers over whether Dayne Beams’ contract settlement with Collingwood was paid outside the salary cap.
Beams, who retired from football last November with two years left on his contract, told SEN’s Dwayne's World that his contract payout fell outside the salary cap.
“Anything that was negotiated with me and my contract was outside the cap, so I actually had nothing to do with anything that went on there,” Beams claimed.
AFL operations boss Steve Hocking was asked about the mystery surrounding Beams’ contract payout.
“I can’t comment on individual cases. I’ll also acknowledge that it doesn’t sit in my area,” Hocking told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“What I will acknowledge is that all of the Collingwood player contracts and every player contract across the competition has to be approved by the AFL.
“It doesn’t sit in my particular area. Andrew Dillon (AFL general counsel) and his team look after this. They work closely with the clubs, and they work closely with the clubs.
“Every player’s contract has to be approved and submitted from the club to the AFL for approval.”
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AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan was also quizzed about the situation, saying that “generally all payments go in the cap”.
“I don’t have any detail around that,” McLachlan told 3AW.
“There may be exemptions or specific reasons or things that sit outside the cap. There are some exemptions. There is a cap, then there’s an overflow for injury allowances and injury payments, so maybe something happened there.
“I don’t know, but generally all payments go in the cap.”
Beams, 31, called time on his AFL career after stepping away from the game indefinitely in December 2019 to deal with his mental health.