The Biggest AFL Earners of Today
AFl has been mentioned many times as one of the sports that is up there for paying their players handsomely. However, due to COVID, some can say that AFL players will unfortunately be hit the hardest, due to the AFL having to give massive amounts of pay cuts to their players, to ensure they can keep their heads above the water during this pandemic.
Due to the AFL season having to miss a majority of its play due to the pandemic, you will find that the AFL Odds online are quite bland, however they have started to pick up lately, meaning fans can entertain themselves once again, despite all the chaos.
It has been said that due to the pandemic, the pay cuts are as much as 50%, due to the march shutdown earlier on this year. The salaries that we will include within this article will be before their pay cuts, so if you are wanting to know what they really got, simply cut it by half. Some of the top players however were generously let off with such extreme pay cuts, having only needing to reduce their income by 25% instead.
So, enough with the heavy, let us get right into who came out elite with their paychecks this year, shall we?
Carlton Jack Martin reportedly was set to earn the most out of the list we have here, being that he takes home $1.1 million for this 2020 season alone. However, due to him being the top of the list, he does not need to return the full maximum 50% for pay cuts. Instead he will have a 28% pay cut, due to the games running again from the June period (as quoted from the CNN). However in March it was compulsory that all paychecks get hit with the 50% off.
Other players that made the list include Lachie Neale, who managed to take away $900,000 salary before the pay cut and he also earned an extra $500,000 from the brand endorsements that he was presented with in the season. Max Gawn also went home with the exact same salary and brand endorsement activities, as did Patrick Cripps.
Marcus Bontempelli however, got to take home that much extra, with $950,000 and he managed to bump it up to a cool $1 million shortly after, due to the brand sponsorships that he involved himself in with, outside of his career.
The top earners reported by The Washington Post however, that come in right after Carlton Jack, with his $1.1 million, are the players Jeremy McGovern and Patrick Dangerfield, who luckily managed to go home $1.05 million at the end of the season for 2019-2020. Patrick Dangerfield has always been one of the highest players in the AFL world, with his raw talent and presence for many years at the top of his game.
Surprisingly enough, Jeremy Cameron managed to top all his competition, by going home in 2020 with a total of $1.55 million. Apparently due to having more brand endorsements than that of Patrick Dangerfield, helped to push him up, with an extra 550,000. It definitely does suck however, that they will need to see pay cuts, especially as many have religiously been training in periods where the season has been suspended.
