Gold Coast list boss Craig Cameron has admitted the Suns have paid ‘overs’ in order to retain young talent at the struggling club in recent years.
The Suns have never made the top eight and have regularly lost developing players to stronger clubs.
To combat the issue, Cameron admitted the Suns have payed larger contracts in order to entice players to stay, when they may not have earned the money.
“I think that’s true,” Cameron said on SEN's Dwayne's World when asked if the club had a situation where they were paying ‘overs’.
“There’s a dual part to this. One is I think the northern market teams have a unique scenario around the retention of players.
“Plus we have a number of really early draft selections and the truth is regardless of whether you’re on the Gold Coast or Melbourne, they demand a lot more money in their third and fourth years, probably before they’re actually producing that on the field.
“We’ve had a number of those selections since 2016 and at some point, it does start to bite you, there’s no doubt.”
Gold Coast essentially traded midfielder Will Brodie and pick 19 in the AFL National Draft to Fremantle in return for just a future second-round pick, highlighting the lengths the Suns are willing to go to get salaries off their books.
Brodie only managed 24 games in five seasons at the club but was reportedly on an inflated contract to encourage him to stay early on.
Darcy Macpherson is another Sun who the club has reportedly looked to trade to avoid paying his contract for next year and free up salary cap room, but there are no takers to date.
However, players being courted by other clubs is an aspect of the game that is not going away, and the Suns admit they have to “find a way to live with it”.
“We’ve got to live with it, we’ve got to have a strategy … it’ll be different to what happens in the southern markets, we can’t play the same way as the southern markets do in terms of their trade and contracting,” Cameron said.
“Part of that is making guys comfortable and happy in the environment that they’re in and having on-field success will be a part of us being able to normalise our contracts.”
Top 10 draft picks Ben King, Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine are all coming out of contract in 2022, as next season shapes as a crucial campaign for the Suns if they are to retain the young guns.