Midfield Woes: Instant fix

[SplitRound]

How come the f##ken tin rattlers can afford 9 mill for 9 years for Kelly. The f##ken AFL must be sponsoring them.

To quote myself

Baby's First Trade and Draft Period 2017 Edition

How can these poor clubs afford to keep taking our players?
Because there’s a salary cap, and the AFL ensures every club has enough money to pay the salary cap. Rich club, poor club, everyone has the same ability to pay players. It wouldn’t matter if Warren Buffett gave Essendon all of his money, we still wouldn’t be in a better financial position than Melbourne or St Kilda as far as ability to provide lucrative contracts.

That’s not entirely true. There are still plenty of deals done with players with third party financial arrangements. Warren Buffets fortune would provide
a range of ‘other’ opportunities when attracting and keeping star players.

Yeah. Direct financial arrangements would mostly be covered by the ASA, but networking, investment opportunities, etc are definitely something that clubs can use to differentiate themselves. Just not officially.