CHRIS Fagan says he understands why St Kilda was offended by his comments about its off-season spending but believes the AFL industry needs to discuss player contracts “for the good of the game”.
Saints coach Ross Lyon has also moved to diffuse the rift between the two clubs, saying his club’s complaints about the inequities in the draft are “not personal”.
During the pre-season, Fagan questioned the hefty deals given to Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Tom De Koning, saying he thought the best players in the game deserved the most money.
St Kilda CEO Carl Dilena and coach Lyon bit back hard, fuelling tensions between the clubs that have bubbled away since the Saints criticised the northern Academy and father-son rules.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning, Fagan gave a five-minute explanation on why he was concerned about the Saints’ spending, saying he would have made the same comments had another club done the same.
He proposed an NBA-style max contract, where three players on each list could be paid a maximum salary based on hitting certain criteria such as All-Australian selections and best and fairest finishes.
The two-time premiership coach said he was concerned a handful of players would dominate the salary cap during a time of uncertainty about the game’s long-term financial health.
“I’ve been involved in the game for a long time … and I don’t very often choose to speak out about big ticket issues like that,” Fagan said.
“I’ve watched the trend over the last few years, and this is not just St Kilda, this is all clubs, contracts seem to be getting longer and longer and longer.
“Then along comes St Kilda and decides they want to pay those players the amount of money they did.
“I’m thinking to myself, for the good of the game, is that what we want here? Do we want this sort of marketplace where offers to players become ridiculous?
“I wanted the opportunity to raise that so we could debate that as an industry, so that’s what I did. I think it is important we do that.”
On the same morning Fagan was clarifying his earlier comments as not St Kilda-specific, Lyon was also diffusing the rift between the clubs.
He said the back-and-forth was “not personal, it’s business”.
Ross Lyon before St Kilda’s match against Fremantle in R16, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos
“I don’t think we’re really duking it out,” Lyon said.
“I don’t think it’s about Brisbane. It’s a wider issue that the club has been championing about equity and equal access to early talent. Anyone who really dives into it and has a passion to understand it can understand that. The data doesn’t lie.
“And then there’s the business model. Growing up in Melbourne and following Carlton and the big clubs, we’re asking a lot of Melbourne football people to keep rolling up for 20 years and see the senior side lose consistently.
“What we’re asking of the heartland of football is big. What cost is the inequity to the heartland of the game?
“What’s been said and done has been said and done. We don’t need any counselling.”
Fagan said the implementation of a maximum contract would see the likes of Nick Daicos and Marcus Bontempelli earn the most money.
“There’s no guarantee that money is going to continue flooding into the game,” he said.
“I just think we have to be really careful how quickly things escalate.
‘We should talk about all the issues in the game; the rules, equalisation, academies, all those sorts of things. We need to debate them in a sensible way.
“That’s the reason I raised it. I understand why St Kilda would be offended by that because they are the club that chose to do it.
“I can promise you any club that would have done that would have raised that response from me, whether it was Carlton or the West Coast Eagles or whoever, I would have wondered whether it was good for the game.
“There’s 45 players on a list and I don’t want to see the situation where a large chunk of the money is going to the five or six players at the top of the pile and the rest are missing out.
“It’s a team sport and 23 players take the field every weekend and I think it’s important they all feel valued.
“It’s a complex issue. That’s just where I stand on it and I felt strongly enough to speak about it. I fully understand why St Kilda responded and I’m ok with that.
