Is it time for the AFL to bring back the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for Sydney and GWS?
New Swans co-captain Callum Mills and CEO Tom Harley have outlined the struggles, as the average house price in the city pushes towards $1.4 million.
COLA was scrapped following Sydney’s recruitment of Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett in successive years.
Mills “absolutely” believes COLA is necessary for players drafted by the Swans, who are simply disadvantaged in the renting market compared to those drafted elsewhere.
“The hard part is you’re talking to a Melbourne audience that haven’t necessarily lived in Sydney,” Mills told SEN Breakfast.
“Once you move up here you realise just how expensive rent is and that’s the massive factor to it all is literally the rental factor.
“A lot of blokes coming up here in the first year and paying double to what you hear from other clubs.
“It is a tough thing and especially with the go-home factor, there’s not many Sydney (local) AFL players out there so once you have the cost of living, missing home and all that, it definitely is a tough place.”
Swans CEO Harley admits the club uses every dollar in the salary cap to help their players in the housing space.
“It is extremely expensive, at the same time it is an extremely beautiful and prosperous place to live as well, but getting your foot into the property door is becoming more and more challenging,” Harley told SEN Mornings on Thursday.
“As far as reinstatement of COLA, I won’t even go there, I think it’s incumbent on us as a club to really maximise those opportunities which are really here in Sydney when you play your football up here, whilst clearly acknowledging that getting into the housing market is a challenge.
“As far as our salary cap goes, we’ll exhaust every cent that we’ve possibly got and in a lot of instances that’s to be competitive in housing.
“We’re looking at the opportunities in Sydney as much as the pricing barriers, but the facts are the facts and I’m sure when you take the emotion out of it and look at it for what it is, it’s undeniable.”
Kane Cornes believes it’s “ridiculous” that the Swans don’t have additional resources to help keep young players.
“It was scrapped after Tippett and Franklin, they haven’t won a premiership since then, it’s the biggest housing boom since 1989, and this is completely unbiased, I’ve got no dog in this fight, but the facts are the facts,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.
“You look at Sydney house prices and rent for that matter, $1.5 million for the average house in Sydney, it’s $677,000 in Adelaide, it’s $1 million in Melbourne and about $700,000 in Brisbane.
“They lose George Hewett and they lose Jordan Dawson and they’re paying 100 per cent of the salary cap every year to keep these players.
“Is it ridiculous to think there shouldn’t be an allowance? I think it is (ridiculous) for Sydney not to have a bit more money in their salary cap and their soft cap.
“Speak to Dean Cox who has gone from Perth to Sydney as an assistant coach, what he’s got to pay for rent for his family. It’s a nightmare.”
David King however feels the competition must be kept equal across the board from a salary and soft cap perspective.
“I do (have sympathy for the Swans), but only for those that are going to struggle to make ends meet,” King said.
“I find it hard on one hand to pay the cost of living allowance and then see them sign Lance Franklin to a 10-year, $10 million deal. I find that difficult to balance out.
“The simple answer is for the AFL to purchase real estate and allow those on the absolute bottom rung to stay there free of charge.
“The players that are losing money on the way in are winning it on the way out with their real estate investments. You can’t just take it one way.
“You can’t have an unfair competition. I don’t think you can give them COLA over and above other states.”