Travis Cloke still hasn’t re-committed to Collingwood beyond this season, and Lance Franklin’s contract could be the key to getting him on board.
With an offer from Fremantle of $5 million over five years on the table, Cloke and his management team consisting of his father, David Cloke, and Ralph Carr at RCM Sport have stalled on the Collingwood offer – however, they are close.
Initially looking for a 5 year deal, Cloke has said he will explore four years at a higher salary. Triple M Commentator Nathan Brown spilled the beans of just how close they are on the weekend.
It is believed that Collingwood’s offer is $750,000 per year for the first two years, with an increase to $850,000 in the 3rd and 4th year. Travis wants $850,000 per year. A mere$200,000 difference, which would equate to around $100,000 after tax.
It has been reported many times that there simply isn’t any wiggle room to move in the salary cap. So just how could they get through this impasse, and how does Lance Franklin factor in to this?
When Lance Franklin’s contract was up for renewal two years ago, Hawthorn knew he’d expect a high salary. In the process of building on their premiership win, Hawthorn and Franklin’s manager Liam Pickering got creative.
Pickering went to work finding deals for Franklin that could be counted outside the salary cap, and got Hawthorn to sign off on these. These included deals associated with the Additional Services Agreement (ASA), which is an extra amount of money for clubs to pay players for their involvement in marketing and promotions. In regards to Cloke’s situation, this is most likely tapped out, but that doesn’t prevent Cloke from sourcing deals outside of the club.
A club’s sponsors are protected if their deal is worth more than $250,000 per year. This still leaves many categories and options available to Cloke, such as Fast Food, Grooming and Hardware.
If the AFL and Collingwood do not approve of these deals there are still other options.
Firstly, a team option of a 5th year based on Travis hitting targets. This is a win-win for both parties. Everyone knows five year contracts can be deadly, and this gives Collingwood the option to keep him on at a fair price. This option could be decided by either long term or final year targets.
Another alternative is a renegotiation based on a change in the AFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The review of the current CBA would fall just before the 4th year of Travis’ contract. Over the next three years there is an average increase of about 5.5% in TPP. In Year Four the proposed increase is only 3%. In addition the increase in the ASA is only 3% in Year Four compared to 13% the year before.
Based on these proposals, a change in the CBA is likely. As it stands, the parties are probably working off the conservative estimates, so a clause denoting a revise if there is an increase in the TPP or ASA could prove a deal clincher.
With Collingwood needing to re-sign many more talented players such as Harry O’Brien and Dayne Beams, Collingwood are going to have to sort this out soon at the risk of damaging the negotiations with the other players.
Image: theage.com.au
