Would it be a sense of envy that prompted North Melbourne Kangaroos legend Wayne Carey to suggest that $10 million for seven years is too much to pay for Dustin Martin, or does Carey have bona fide concerns about Martin’s value to Carey’s former club?
It works out to $1.428 million per season and it seems like a bargain given the amount of energy Martin must expend for a typical AFL season.
The veterans are often heard to grumble when they see the younger generation earn far more than they did during their playing days, but the escalation of salaries is a healthy sign for a professional sports league such as the AFL.
It happens in every sport. Adam Scott or Jason day can earn in a season what it took Jack Nicklaus a career to bring in with prizemoney. $1.4 million in the U.S. would get you a journeyman in the major sports leagues and the salary that Martin could earn with the Roos is downright paltry when you look at the staggering figures following the names of some of soccer’s big stars.
Martin is going to New Zealand with his manager to meet with his dad in Auckland following The Tigers’ final game of the home-and-away season of the 2017 Toyota AFL Premiership competition against the St. Kilda Saints to have a three-way talk about his future.
Carey says that no AFL player deserves that sort of money, but it still seems like a bargain alongside the value the Gold Coast Titans of the NRL receive for the $1.2 million it lavishes on a mediocre part-timer.
Carey had this to say on 7Mate’s Talking Footy. “It would have to hamper future decisions, like other clubs have found out. Look at all the successful clubs over the last 10 years — Sydney broke that example when they went after Buddy and are the exception to the rule — but look at Geelong and Hawthorn. They don’t have a million-dollar player at their footy club and look at the success that they’ve had.”
Perhaps the Roos should offer Martin what they paid Carey, which could lure Martin to North, so long as the tenure was for 25 years.
