That just shows how much money there really is in the CSL or Middle East. Our best players will be playing in crap leagues to the detriment of our national team. Sainsbury should have taken the Middlesbrough offer and Milligan should have been in a decent Europe league too.

It's what their players now want to know too. 

Have told this story here before - but one of the most entertaining conversations I've had since coming to Australia was with three Hawthorn players just after Shane Crawford's latest contract had been announced, around 2000-2001ish...  His deal was apparently breath-taking and spectacular, and showed just how rich the AFL was - then I noted how much a friend of mine was getting - at the bottom end of the EPL.  They had never heard of the club, or of the player, and couldn't believe that a squad member in the EPL could earn more than their very own superstar.

Your friend doesn't happen to be Steven Fletcher, does it?

Genius!

AFL might have had a chance in China 100years ago.
A sport where players try to bounce an egg shaped ball,when a round one is available and used in a similar sport for decades in Ireland would have fitted a country that used chopsticks when spoons and forks were available.
But China now love Football,so AFL is just a weird curiosity...bounce egg shaped ball..?...hmmm ..weird.

to be fair they are kinda like that in western sydney

This. 

To keep half the league afloat? 

It's like that for the whole of NSW and qld. 

Yep. They've almost pissed away $200 Million on the Suns and GWS alone since 2011.

that is very true, i must admit i dont know too much about queensland but afl is foreign here

the funny thing about GWS is their merch looks exactly like the uniforms that staff at sydney trains wear so sometimes i see a staff member of sydney trains and want to stab them and then realise they are not a gws fan because no one is

You're about 12-13 years out.

My mate had just signed a 10k/week deal, which was about $25k/week at exchange rates back then.  I think Crawf had just signed a $1m/season deal...  So the best in the AFL was earning less than a relative unknown, at an also-ran club in England.  First question they asked was "how much would Kewell be earning?"

It's could be even more combined if other reports are to be believed. Some have put it at 90 million for Suns and 140 million for gws. 

Whenever I'm on the Coast i am offered Suns tickets lol

LOL.

Just spat my coffee over my monitor.

bahahahaha

It's funny coming from Sydney, to hear all this crap about AFL, it's just a niche sport in Sydney.
At least with the NRL, they know they are not the biggest.

You've got no idea how ridiculous it is. Compare the coverage the Swans get in Sydney. Then to put into perspective how much of a 'niche sport' it is. They are fast becoming one of the biggest clubs in the AFL.
Due to A: Good Business(signing large sponsorships with companies like Qatar Airlines which in turn puts Victorian noses out of joint - how can a club from Sydney be more popular than heartland clubs?) and B: Doing whats best for them and not filing into line behind the VFL dictatorship run by the big VFL clubs.
Both of these are quickly turning them into one of the most disliked clubs in the AFL circles.

Would you pick up on that in Sydney unless you were a Swans fan?

WOW, there are people like this still around.

What a bunch of insecure parochial losers.

Same with the NRL

My question is, where does all there 1 billion dollar tv money go?

The FFA are working miracles with a measly 40m dollar deal at the moment, imagine if they had access to even 500m deal.

There must be some serious middle men in the ALF and NRL

Who do you think voted Pauline back into the Senate??

I'm a proud Melburnian but these AFL zealot bogans are little(if @ all) better than ISIS, imo.

What our current crop of socceroos are earning looks small compared to what the golden generation was earning ten years ago.

Topor makes the top 25 ay, I remember when he used to play in Canberra lol.

Looking at that list, is there little wonder why the majority of our national team defenseline all moved to China.

Looking at those numbers you can understand why Sainsbury made the move to China. What would he have been on at PEC Zwolle?? $200K to $500K?? (In 20014/15 season no PEC Zwolle player earned more than $300K).

Bwahahaha 

Watch this space when that small distraction called the WCup comes and goes and watch the CSL & their League 1 offers take all the best Aussies with the exception of a couple .

I refuse to believe people could be so naive and sheltered