Coaches cost more then money

LUKE Beveridge is concerned AFL clubs will continue to lose talented people to other pathways given the soft cap restrictions.

The cap currently sits 30 per cent below what it did in 2020 as the league looks to save money, with many doctors, coaches, physios and other staff unfortunately slashed.

Those who remained likely took pay cuts while finding they still had the same, if not more, work on their plates.

Beveridge said the “gloss of working for an AFL club in the code has worn off for many” because of this and fears the league will lose good people.

As part of the solution, the Western Bulldogs coach would like to see the wage of the senior coach removed from the soft cap.

“I can’t speak for the other 17 (head coaches) but I have a guilt that the ratio of my pay in the soft cap and it’s too much,” Beveridge told SEN’s Whateley.

“We all took a considerable haircut last year and we understood that, but the ratio is still there, but when you’re thinking about your people and that you’re getting paid a chunk and we’re losing people and we’re talking about small growth as far as the soft cap commitment goes, it still remains.

“I think it’s achievable that you take the senior coach’s salary out of the soft cap.”

In order to keep senior coach earnings in check and to make sure bigger clubs don’t get an unfair advantage, Beveridge proposed an NBA-style luxury tax on their wages.

“You can have your own focused taxes on the senior coach’s wage if you want to,” he said.

“If you want to cap it at whatever and say that if a club is prepared to pay over it, for every dollar you spend you’re taxed 50 per cent.

“I think that’s a good way to go about it rather than doing it on the soft cap as a whole and leaving the senior coach’s salary in it.”

– BY NIC NEGREPONTIS/ SEN