No, and the sad thing is that the opposite (back ended deals) were arguably the start of a quarter century plus malaise that continues to this day.
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If there is one thing that Essendon excels at it is making payouts to terminate the terrible contracts it made.
May as well put a huge billboard along the Tullamarine freeway advertising free money at Essendon.
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just ben simmons him get ready to learn abers buddy
I love how they say āMcKayās friendsā have backed that version of events as support itās true. Because Iām sure they were in the meeting with Ben and Rosaā¦.
That space isnāt free in 2026. It becomes free for next season.
With the Free Agency rules, if we delist him, we canāt just account for the contract value in one year. We have to account for it every year for the duration of the contract.
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$400k p.a for the next 3 years is nothing. We have more of an issue in finding players to pay to meet cap requirements
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Yes but we can negotiate it to be included in the 2027 cap.
Iām sure that would be acceptable to the AFL to help set us up for future years.
some werenāt too far off the mark though.
one of the main questions around him was that heād only held up and played ok footy for one season.
yes other stronger clubs saw value in him too, but only to a certain level of interest, they were never going to pay him the money we did.
Re fixing him or attempting to if another club is just going to attempt it, just remember aaron francis didnāt really do anything in a better environment up at sydney.
mckay isnāt going to get any better, heās not going to turn it around he simply does not have mental aptitude for football, it is what it is, but wasting any more time on him let alone another 3 years where not only are you taking resources away from others, as well as time that could be spent on other players or finding a replacement, you run the risk that his malaise infects other players.
if we got rid of stringer cos we didnāt want players being tainted by his off field behaviour, we canāt keep a guy whoās seemingly apathetic nature towards his core employment.
you canāt have what 40 players all pulling in one direction and not expect even just 1 to make it harder for them to have to drag him along, biding his time esp when you could have 2-3 of those types already (parish, ridley etc ).
at some point we just have to exercise the demons and poor deals from the past, and not tie one hand behind the new coaches back and expect him to work miracles.
he is 29 in 4 odd months, he simply in football terms is not going to exceed what he is right now, his football mould is already set, this is all he will ever be as a footballer.
Money for players salaries comes from AFL - so itās just using up your salary cap
Dud always had the excuse of player developmentā¦.ie look over there
No you canāt. That is mis-reporting. You can only do that if the player retires. If McKay wants to get to another club - and given the fuss his management team is making that seems a certainty - then heās not retiring.
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I hope whoever gave him No 32 is no longer working for the club.
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it was meant to be 31
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Pretty fair assumption at this point.
The problem is you canāt trade a player if you have told him you will delist him is a trade canāt be organised. Why would any team trade for him if the know he is going to be delisted? We can deny it all we like, but if McKay, or his manager, tell any interested clubs that that is what he has been told, then they wonāt give us anything.
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There can be reasons. It might impact their FA compo pick/s. Or even just to lock in their player sooner. Or as good will (ie āplease give us pick 90 to save us $600kā).
Clubs (by a certain point) have a pretty good idea of how many picks theyāre going to be using - and any picks after that are effectively worth nothing to them.
Only ever going to happen (obviously) for āhalf a pack of chipsā deals.
Just leave him on the list.
Tell him he either plays or he can ā ā ā ā ā ā ā retire
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Do whatever we have to do so he never wears red and black again. End of