On Friday, Saints chief executive Carl Dilena said: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fagan questioned whether midfielder Wanganeen-Milera and ruckman De Koning, recruited from Carlton, were worthy of their huge salaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping those numbers we saw last year, via St Kilda, don\u2019t 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\u2019s not the case at the moment,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not an insult to Nasiah. I think he\u2019s going to be a really good player, and how far he goes I don\u2019t know. And TDK has shown a lot of promise for a long time but hasn\u2019t probably played up to expectations, and they\u2019re getting paid extremely well. I\u2019d rather see the better players get all the big money.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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The Saints were a first-round finals exit in Lyon\u2019s first year back in charge in 2023, and have finished 12th in each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Lyon last year created headlines when he referred to the Gold Coast Suns as the \u201cAFL nepo baby\u201d<\/a>, in reference to their academy and draft concessions they had been given by league headquarters.<\/p>\n