Without St Kilda’s preparedness to go where no club had gone before, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera may have been running out in Port Adelaide colours against his old mob on Sunday night at Adelaide Oval.
Instead, the Saints stumped up a two-year, $2 million a year contract for the 23-year-old to keep him as both South Australian clubs put in mega offers to lure the former Glenelg reserves premiership player back home.
On Sunday night at Adelaide Oval in the final match of Gather Round, Wanganeen-Milera will line up against the game’s next potential $2 million man Zak Butters, who is set to receive offers in that range from many of his pursuers as the best free agent to consider returning to Victoria since Tom Lynch joined Richmond in 2018 after eight seasons with Gold Coast.
It’s going to be a fascinating subplot to a match that carries such importance for the Saints, who should, on exposed form, win.
That top liners can now consider commanding $2 million a season – which will be about 11 per cent of the salary cap (about the same percentage Lance Franklin earned at Sydney in only the most lucrative year of his game-changing nine-year deal in 2021) – is not just due to Wanganeen-Milera’s quality.
He became the Saints’ identity, and was able to benefit from a confluence of events in the player-movement and salary market.
The reality is that Butters is a more valuable player than his Saints opponent right now and has greater potential to change a club’s fortunes than Wanganeen-Milera, not only because of the way he plays but because he will continue to be at a club with as much talent around him if he decides to join the Western Bulldogs or Geelong in 2027.
Butters doesn’t kick goals, but he starts scoring chains. He has learnt how to handle opposition attention but still play with the consistency of a pendulum swing and can make those around him better.
Despite his salary, Wanganeen-Milera is not at Butters level yet. He is silky, damaging and versatile. But he is also understanding how best to handle a run-with opponent. And he carries a huge load.
His coach Ross Lyon told the truth about Wanganeen-Milera after round three, when he made it clear he was happy with the 23-year-old’s performance, but it was impossible for him to do it alone.
“He has got a lot of improvement [in him]. As he gets more support around him, and we build out more quality, he will just get better and better,” Lyon said.
“We have got a few who need to rise to [the level of] Nas.”
Among those are Mattaes Phillipou, Sam Flanders, Tom De Koning, Mitch Owens, Max King and eventually Alix Tauru and Tobie Travaglia.
One of the measures of successful list management is how many players are playing at a level way above their salary. An obvious one, Darcy Wilson, is in no rush to re-sign, but too few of those mentioned above, through bad luck or form, are playing at a standard higher than their wages reflect.
Even Wanganeen-Milera, who is a star, is not matching what is is expected of someone on that sort of coin.
Butters is playing a million-dollar riff, the level of an elite player, which is what his salary represents.
Both players’ careers spiked after about 75 matches, with Butters’ breakout season coming in 2023, while Wanganeen-Milera stepped into the elite category late last season.
The spike saw Butters signed his current contract – worth around the million-dollar mark – at the end of 2023 with 93 matches and a fourth-place finish in the Brownlow under his belt.
Wanganeen-Milera signed his mega deal after 86 matches and equal 10th placing in the Brownlow (although he should have been ninth after being inexplicably denied the three votes in round 20).
It shows the only real difference in their career trajectory is the money Wanganeen-Milera is earning in his fifth year, compared to what Butters was earning, even allowing for inflation and the TPP increase. It’s close to double.
That’s why it was a blow for the Saints that Wanganeen-Milera had not been locked down in his contract early last year when he would have cost half as much.
Butters moves into his free agency year, three years ahead of Wanganeen-Milera in his career, with an extra 53 games, eight finals, two best and fairests (Butters has won Port’s past three John Cahill Medals) and one more All-Australian to show for it.
He has more support around him than the Saint and has enjoyed it for most of his career, where he has played alongside outstanding players such as Connor Rozee (currently out injured), Jason Horne-Francis, Travis Boak, Ollie Wines, Miles Bergman, Robbie Gray, Dan Houston and Brad Ebert and made three preliminary finals.
He can now make a choice to continue with that support at another club, because if Butters joins the Western Bulldogs or Geelong, who lead the charge, he will be expected to reboot already successful eras, whereas Wanganeen-Milera is the lead man trying to drag a club out of an abyss.
That’s a big task for any player, and one Butters would probably be reluctant to take on, himself, given that’s what would face him if he joined Richmond on a huge contract.
So Sunday night becomes a great watch between “the Engine” (Butters) and “the Architect” (Wanganeen-Milera).
The battle highlights the risks clubs trying to drag themselves off the bottom feel they need to take with contracts to compete.
And the performance of each player should illuminate, momentarily at least, the discussions as to what a player is really worth, and whether paying one player $2 million per season rules a team out of premiership contention, as AFL great Luke Hodge contends.
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