The club that nearly poached Michael Voss in 1995

Brisbane legend Michael Voss has revealed the inner workings behind the contracts that held him at the Lions through the 1990s.

Voss, one of the game’s greatest ever players, played 15 seasons in the AFL for the Brisbane Bears / Lions, remaining loyal to the club despite a number of serious offers from rival clubs.

Few have the credentials to match Voss' almighty record; A Brownlow Medal in 1996, a three-time premiership captain leading the Lions to a three-peat from 2001 to 2003, two Leigh Matthews Trophies, five All-Australians including two All-Australian captaincies, five club best and fairest awards, four AFLPA Best Captain award and an inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame...

But before all the recognition, Voss was very nearly poached from the Bears' grasp by none other than the Collingwood Football Club.

“I never had too many offers because I was very comfortable where I was,” Voss said on AFL Trade Radio.

“But the two distinct periods of time that I remember was the first one - the end of the 1992 season. I only played seven games of football in my first season.

“I was in year 11 in school and Collingwood came knocking. We didn't have mobile phones then, so you actually had to be home to actually accept a call. My dad got a phone call from a third party, let's just say from the Collingwood Football Club, and the offer at that particular time to move over the next three years was $100,000 a year.

“Now, why that's significant is because I wasn’t on a massive amount of money over that period of time. It was about $500 for a loss and $1,500 a win. So, it used to get me a Big M and Cherry Ripe at school at lunch break.

“But the contract that I signed was $20,000 base. I was looking over this yesterday, and it looked like it was $1,500 a game. And then club championship, I sort of threw that in there as well, and that sort of covered off the 94/95 season.

“So that was my two-year contract. If I played 20 games, I got a $30,000 base. So that actually got increased. ‘If’ I played over 20 games, so very heavily incentivised.

“So, the $100,000 was interesting. My dad never actually told me though of the contract. It just shows that he's not a very good negotiator at all.

“And Shane O'Sullivan (long-time Carlton administrator), ironically, was the guy who I think started the conversation around some of these contracts at the Lions before he obviously moved on. But that was the first one.”

Over the course of his two-year deal with the Bears, Voss transitioned from a young prospect to an elite performer, working his way into the side before a breakout season in 1995.

After winning his first best and fairest in '95 at just 20 years of age, the Sydney Swans came knocking.

“The second one was Sydney, and it was at the end of the 1995 season where Sydney came and sort of said, ‘Look, you know, we want you to come to Sydney’,” Voss continued.

“I ended up signing a three-year contract (to stay at the Bears). ‘96, ‘97 and ‘98. Let's just say it was a lot more than what is actually in this one as well.”

1996 season was an all-timer for Voss who won the Brownlow Medal and his first All-Australian.

Did he seriously consider moving to Sydney in '95?

“No, that was the one that I probably entertained the most. I hadn't really established myself as a player. I'd only really sort of just broken through," he replied when asked by Josh Gabelich.

“I won a best and fairest in 1995, so I just sort of started to really get myself going as a player and probably that was noticed by Sydney, and the offer was quite significant through that period of time.

“I could have very easily ended up there, but I just loved where I was, I loved where I lived, I had my family, I loved the football club, the players I played with.

“That all sort of gets pitched to you in what the future looks like. We obviously ended up playing in a prelim final in 1996. So rather than sort of getting into the specifics of that, that base payment started to increase to $37,500.”

During his negotiations over his deal to remain a Bear, Voss asked to throw in an incentive that very few thought would pay dividends.

It most certainly did.

“In ’95 I won the best and fairest, I think I earned somewhere in the vicinity of $52,000 in total, including bonus for the year. Then it escalated from there and started to go up,” he continued.

“At the end of my negotiation of 1995, I walked back into Andrew Ireland's office, I said, ‘Mate, if you could just do me a favour, I’m really happy with what you've given me. But can you just put a Brownlow Medal bonus in there for me? Just a clause in there for me’.

“And ironically, it was one of the better things that happened because obviously in 1996, I ended up winning the Brownlow Medal. So I was able to activate the bonus.

“I don't think anyone sort of thought that I was actually going to go win the Brownlow the following year. Or maybe I'm not giving Andrew enough credit. Maybe he thought, ‘Well, if you go and earn that, you deserve to get the bonus’.

“That was my ‘96, ‘97, ‘98 contract.

“They were really the only two opportunities and the only actual two times that I came out of contract. Otherwise, it sort of became that rolling contract that I was always just happy to go to.

“Ironically, that 1998 contract, we finished dead last at the end of that year. Then Leigh Matthews comes in at the end of 1999, and obviously our fortunes changed.

“It sort of shows you just how far things have actually come.”

Listen to the full discussion with Michael Voss and Josh Gabelich on Trade Radio's The Trade Exchange below: