[ad_1]
AFL legend Leigh Matthews believes North Melbourne’s lucrative appointment of coaching great Alastair Clarkson marks the first big gamble of the soft cap era.
The Roos last week beat out Essendon to land Clarkson on a five-year deal estimated to be worth around $1 million per season. Clarkson is expected to bring former Hawthorn colleague Todd Viney with him to Arden Street as his right-hand man in a coaching development role.
And speaking on 3AW, Matthew forecasted North would be spending around 20 per cent of its soft cap —set at $6.95 million for 2023 — on Clarkson and Viney alone (which would total around $1.4 million).
Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
“In the soft cap era … desperate clubs do desperate things. I reckon North are in a situation where they’re desperate,” he said on 3AW.
“If you want to go for the $1 million coach, you are restricting what you can do with the rest of your football department.
“I reckon North probably did what they had to do, they needed somebody like that, the big name. If it had to cost them $1 million, they paid the $1 million.”
Matthews predicted that the combined salary of Collingwood coach Craig McRae, who he projects is on around $500,000-$600,000 per season, and his senior assistants Justin Leppitsch and Brendon Bolton, who’ve been praised for playing big roles in the Magpies’ stunning rise this season, would be around the same as Clarkson.
The four-time premiership boss thinks new Giants coach Adam Kingsley would be getting paid similar to McRae, highlighting how it’ll also give GWS more money in its soft cap to support him with a good football department.
“Kingley’s got the same background as McRae really — very experienced in the system, this is the first go at senior coaching, but been in the background for 15 odd years,” Matthews said. “Chris Fagan came out of that kind of background a few years ago.”
Matthews added that it’s “interesting how different clubs have different responses” on how to manage the soft cap, questioning whether it’s wise to concentrate such big sums of money.
“Essendon is the club looking for a coach. The fact that they actually had a crack at getting Alastair Clarkson, they must be thinking, ‘if we could get the $1 million proven coach, we would’,” he said.
“But I don’t know how well Essendon or North Melbourne have done their soft cap calculations on if you pay $1 million to a senior coach … whereas I’m sure the Giants have.
“But this is probably the first big $1 million coach being appointed in the era of the soft cap, which is only three or four years old.”
[ad_2]
Source link
