On Friday, Saints chief executive Carl Dilena said: “The market system dictates behaviour and prices. Historically, northern clubs have paid the biggest contracts in the history of the game, but now benefit from talent-access concessions which have flipped the script.”
Fagan questioned whether midfielder Wanganeen-Milera and ruckman De Koning, recruited from Carlton, were worthy of their huge salaries.
“I’m hoping those numbers we saw last year, via St Kilda, don’t become a reality. I saw that as a bit of a danger for the game. I think the best players in the competition deserve to be paid the most money and that’s not the case at the moment,” Fagan said.
“That’s not an insult to Nasiah. I think he’s going to be a really good player, and how far he goes I don’t know. And TDK has shown a lot of promise for a long time but hasn’t probably played up to expectations, and they’re getting paid extremely well. I’d rather see the better players get all the big money.”
Saints president Andrew Bassat defended the splurge in an interview with this masthead last month, as his club seeks to rise from the mid-table mire it was stuck in.
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The Saints were a first-round finals exit in Lyon’s first year back in charge in 2023, and have finished 12th in each of the past two seasons.
Lyon last year created headlines when he referred to the Gold Coast Suns as the “AFL nepo baby”, in reference to their academy and draft concessions they had been given by league headquarters.
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