Our Position: AFL CBA offer

By Matt Finnis

The first thing to say about the AFL’s revised offer to players is that it is clearly significant in a financial sense. We’ll be examining this detail over the coming days before receiving feedback from players on next steps.

It’s important to underline that players have always had very clear aspirations about what they want to achieve in this negotiation. And, consistently, players have said that it isn’t all about the money.

AFL players will be considering this offer against the principles they enshrined in their claim.

These include the commitment of the AFL to a real partnership with the players and the creation of a legacy of ongoing support for current and future players once they leave the game.

Players won’t be rushed into making a call on this proposal.

We want the best deal for current and future players, not the quickest deal.

On a positive note, there are a number of areas of common ground between the players and the AFL, such as increased payments to rookies.

While there has been a lot of focus on the dollars, the proposal still does not give players a chance to share in any extra revenue they help generate over the course of the deal. Despite claims to the contrary, share of revenue arrangements are a well-accepted method of ensuring professional athletes share in the success of their codes. And that they are treated as genuine partners in growing the game.

These arrangements are good for players but, more importantly, they are good for their respective sports. NFL owners would not have recently entered into a 10 year revenue-sharing deal with their players if they didn’t think it was a good deal that operates effectively.

There are other aspects of the AFL’s proposal that warrant careful examination. For example, the AFL is asking players to sign over their digital media rights – something that has significant value which will only grow over time. It’s something the AFL has not put to us before.

But in the end it’s not up to me. It’s up to the players to decide and they will be doing that over the coming weeks.