AFL Statement

The AFL today detailed the summary of Total Player Payment (TPP) earnings across the competition for the 2021 year, which is to be included in the 2021 AFL Annual Report released next month.
 
The summary shows that in 2021, AFL clubs paid a total of $233.9 million in player payments, before deductions allowed for injury allowances, veterans’ list payments, finals incentives and other reasons, increasing 37.53 per cent from the 2020 figure of $170.0 million.
 
The average player salary for a listed player in 2021 was $372, 224 increasing from $259,651, for the 2020 year, with a total of 655 players listed across the competition, not including rookie list players.
 
The information to be listed in the 2021 Annual Report can be found in these files which breaks down the salary ranges for listed players in the competition:

Please note: In 2020, there was a 29.8 per cent decrease in player payments across the competition compared to 2019. This arose due to the 29.17 per cent reduction in payments agreed with the AFLPA as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.