Originally Posted by
bloodspirit
Thanks for your thoughts, MP. From what you're saying (and I guess this is consistent with what we know about Tom Boyd's and other deals) they do pretty much have to decide now what they think he deserves over the whole next 7 years and so does Cal and his manager - which is tough. I think you're right that there is a bit of a win each way - he gets a healthy contract locked in for him for a long time and irrespective of injury and we get perhaps better rates because we are committing so big and so early.
I'm not too worried about our salary cap. By all accounts it seems that the TPP will increase by more than was anticipated (I've read about $2m p.a.) and that will create more space to pay our players even than offloading Titch. In addition, we have the 4th youngest list which must make it a lot easier to squeeze in our several marquee players. We have made smart investments in a few players e.g. we signed up Rampe up for 4 years before he was all Australian and must have got a good value contract. On the other hand, all the other clubs will get the same increase in TPP and some of them most certainly will have more room to move than we do and will be able to offer larger contracts - but their advantage is diluted by the increase in the TPP. So it's more a question of whether we want Reid and Jones and whether they want to stay. I think it is most likely that we will recontract both of them and I hope that is what we do.
From a player's point of view, I think the best time to sign a new contract is early in the new salary cap regime. Conversely, from the club's point of view it is great doing it before the increase is known (by now it must be almost there so this applies less to Cal's deal). Whereas we have managed most of our long signings (Buddy, Hanners, Parker, Heeney, Rampe - but not Tippo and Reid) before this has fully kicked in. While some allowance has been made for it the increase in salary cap, as I mentioned, seems likely to be greater than anticipated (especially helps with Buddy's contract). Over the duration of the current broadcast rights agreement the TPP won't jump up suddenly as it has this year but will just increase gradually - so I think the club has managed that very well indeed. The next big spike in player salaries, assuming there is one, is most likely to happen after the expiry of the current broadcast rights deal.
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