Matthew Lloyd has broken down the unique way Geelong pays its players that has contributed to the club’s enormous success over the last decade and a half.
The Cats have stars on every line and were a dominant premiership winner in 2022, yet the club has been in the trade market for numerous players this year.
It goes against the equalization measures across the AFL competition that has typically seen teams in contention struggling to manage a bursting salary cap, but the Cats have attracted stars to Kardinia Park on far less than what they could earn elsewhere on the lure of team success.
Discussing Jordan De Goey’s contract situation after the latest revelations, Kane Cornes suggested Geelong was the “only club” that fits for the Magpies star if he were to leave the Pies.
But Lloyd, whose brother Simon is Geelong’s GM of football, suggested De Goey would earn far less down the highway.
“In terms of Geelong, it looks like Joel Selwood will retire (based on the reaction), De Goey would be a pretty nice replacement, Tanner Bruhn will come cheaper,” Lloyd told AFL Trade Radio’s The Early trade.
“The thing about Geelong is they’re really strong on the way they pay players. They have a system in that they wouldn’t want Jordan De Goey walking into their football club and being paid more than Tom Stewart, they wouldn’t have a system where he’s walked in and paid more than Mark Blicavs.
“You have to come and you’ll be offered a wage that’s less than what he’s being paid at Collingwood or St Kilda, so he’d have to come and play for less or stretch out his contract over a longer period to play for less because they don’t overpay.”
Tom Hawkins is rumoured to be on a far smaller contract than what he’s worth, while Patrick Dangerfield, Isaac Smith and Jeremy Cameron are just three believed to have come to the club on less than the market rate.
But as Lloyd notes, the Cats were in the market for Jacob Hopper and are the favoured to land Bruhn and Ollie Henry.
“It’s why they’ve just won a premiership and they can still pitch for Hopper and Ollie Henry while all these are clubs are scrambling, Geelong are in a position to sit back and say, ‘who do we want to take in this situation after winning a premiership’?” he continued.
“They have a scale that if you hit 30… you don’t play for that much more than base payment… it’d be embarrassing putting up the Geelong wages (compared to) the Gold Coast wages and many other clubs.”
Geelong’s premiership team on Saturday featured nine players over 30 years old and seven recruits that had previously played for other clubs.