They signed him to a large deal knowing his injury history, just like we?d be doing with English. It?s the risk a club takes offering long term deals.
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I agree with hujsh that concussion deserves it's own set of rules. I know that it is generally repeated concussions that are the issue but I imagine these things are difficult to predict and any player could be one bad concussion away from retirement.
With physical injuries it's extremely rare that a one off injury would force retirement. It is generally things like multiple ACLs or repeated soft tissue injuries that force players out and those guys aren't usually on long deals as their potential retirement is much more foreseeable. The clubs do need to bear some responsibility if they are offering these extra long term deals. Perhaps we need a US model where a certain amount of the contract is guaranteed.
I reckon that we should probably keep our powder dry on whether big money contracts paid out to retired players should have to count against the cap personally.
I think there should be some relief available, but it should be based on a percentage situation where maybe a 40 or 50% cap relief.
However that should also have some impact on other aspects such as total football spend. The respective clubs also need to find the money themselves for any outside the cap.
Yeah no issue with a split for me
With what we have learned about concussion and how it might impact careers I'd hate to see any club hampered by a good intention contract. I mean if a club signs a dud player for 5 years at big bucks then so be it but if you sign someone and concussion stops their career I'm more open to something like a 50/50 split
Didn't we get the Boyd contract off the books once he retired?
article -
Western Bulldogs reveal premiership hero gave up $2 MILLION when he retired
On a night where the Western Bulldogs honoured Tom Boyd with life membership, the club revealed the 2016 premiership hero handed back $2 million when he walked away from the game earlier this year.
I believe when a career is ended for medical reasons that the player's contract should be paid out and not included within the salary cap, but don't believe concussion deserves special consideration. The player with 4 ACLs deserves the same right to the payout.
But what happens if after a couple of years, the player recovers and returns to play?
I hadn't heard about Boyd giving any money back to the club either, I thought he had just told them to tear up his contract and that he wasn't interested in the contract getting paid out.
edit: I do believe that if a player's contract ends due to injuries then it shouldn't be completely within the salary cap if it can actually be proven that it was the injuries that caused it. A player getting too old and slow to keep on going due to soft tissue injuries is something that happens, traumatic brain injuries or completely shredding a knee is a pretty sudden stop to a career.
No problem with Brayshaw's contract being paid out with half of it being within the salary cap, not so much if we ended up signing a player to a long term contract and we ended up regretting it a year in.