AFL Rich 100: Why the 2021 draft class of Nick Daicos, Sam Darcy, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera will be the game’s richest

Your eyes won’t deceive you when you scan through the list of the game’s highest earners and notice only Finn Callaghan, Jason Horne-Francis and Nick Daicos from the incredible 2021 AFL Draft.

Next year, the others will flock in in droves.

In 2026, Callaghan’s salary will raise to the $1m mark and Daicos’ wage, which is already in seven figures, will also increase.

REVEALED: THE FULL AFL RICH LIST OF 2025

Likely joining them on the 2026 list will be fellow class of 2021 graduates Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (pick 11 in that draft), Sam Darcy (pick 2), Mac Andrew (pick 5), Leek Aleer (pick 15), plus 2021 mid-season No.2 pick Jai Newcombe and potentially rookie draft No.13 Ollie Dempsey.

The No.1 pick of that cohort, Horne-Francis is on a wage around $700,000, a deal that looks a pittance compared to some others around him.

All on new deals starting next year, Wanganeen-Milera will be footy’s first $2m man in 2026, Newcombe’s wage is expected to go past $900,000, Darcy’s could hover around the $800,000 mark and Andrew’s mega 10-year, $11m deal will bring him into the millionaire’s club.

Cats winger Dempsey also begins a new four-year deal next season that isn’t seen as quite as lucrative but would put him on the fringes of the Rich 100.

Aleer is expected to join St Kilda next season on a wage of $750,000.

Taken not long after Newcombe in the mid-season draft, Essendon battering ram Sam Durham just missed the Rich 100 cut-off on a wage of $600-700,000 this year.

Tally it all up and those 10 names will go close to earning $10m in 2026 alone.

Whether the on-field output of the 2021 class ever matches the 2001 ‘Superdraft’ is a question we won’t be able to answer for at least 10 years.

But already, it is pretty clear the 2021 pool will be the richest draft.

The high-earning is obviously helped along by the bigger salaries in the game but the superstar power means contract offers should only continue to soar.

“I think it’s fortunate that its timing is with an increase in the salary cap but I think it’s a perfect storm of highly talented players at the same time,” one player manager said.

It’s not just the superstars in line for pay days.

St Kilda hard nut Marcus Windhager will secure a pay rise this off-season, whether it is at the Saints or somewhere else as he weighs up offers.

Adelaide goalsneak Josh Rachele needs two good months as a mid-forward to force himself into big earner status, Jye Amiss has two seasons of more than 35 goals in his back pocket already and could complete a third with a big finals series.

Paul Curtis had to have been on he edge of the All-Australian squad and projects to be one of the game’s best small forwards.

Tied down by injuries Josh Gibcus is still vaunted by Tiger fans as a decade-long centre half-back.

Despite some growing pains, in context of the development of tall forwards, Jacob van Rooyen is tracking well.

Ditto for Saint Mitch Owens.

Kai Lohmann was one of the players of the finals series last year and his teammate Darcy Wilmot could be that guy this year.

Tom Brown is an early shining light of the Richmond rebuild.

Hawks Josh Ward and Connor Macdonald both fill important roles already in a finals team and have plenty of growth.

Taken at No.11 in the rookie draft by Essendon, Patrick Voss is a difference-making prancing pony at Fremantle right now and will remain an unrestricted free agent for life given he was delisted, giving him strong bargaining power.

And the last man chosen in the rookie draft, Bodhi Uwland, already has a top-two finish in the Gold Coast best-and-fairest.

One draft watcher reflected this week that they called it in the opening rounds of 2022.

“I said that that draft year would be one of the best ever just because of the depth of it and everything, and it’s coming to fruition,” they said.

The 2021 class is one of the first benefiting from the earlier shift in big money for big players.

In the past, players would generally start earning big contracts in their mid-20s.

Giants prime mover Callaghan was 21 when St Kilda offered him $17m over 10 years, leading into this current season.

He turned that down for a four-year contract at GWS of about $4m.

It was about 15 years earlier that Gary Ablett Jr was given what was then deemed a ‘life-changing’ offer he couldn’t refuse to leave Geelong for the Gold Coast, a contract that was well reported to be $9m over five years, a deal that would be similar to Callaghan’s.

No doubt Callaghan is a star now, but he hardly has the runs on the board that Ablett did at age 26 a year removed from his second premiership and first Brownlow Medal.

Given the lean towards long-term deals for most stars, the bell curve of career earnings now looks bigger than the Arc de Triomphe as players stay on big money for a decade of their playing career.

“I think it will just stay higher for longer because of clubs wanting flexibility and to move money around,” a player agent said.

If the players are earning more for longer, what could the 2021 crew have in their savings accounts when they hang up the boots?

Given Callaghan’s $17m offer came only months after Andrew’s $11m contract wowed the league, the bar is rising constantly.

While managers spoken to by Code Sports found it hard to peg career earnings for the 2021 crowd, given there is no salary cap figure in place beyond 2027, the figures are only rising.

To paraphrase Justin Timberlake in the classic film The Social Network, $10m might not be cool anymore, you know what’s cool? $20m.

Darcy is a loyal Bulldog with red, white and blue in his veins but he could genuinely ask for any figure when next at the negotiating table.

You can say the same for Daicos, and both players must be pondering whether they should renegotiate now in the new landscape after Wanganeen-Milera’s $2m-per-year deal.

Horne-Francis certainly should before his six-season deal expires.

Of course, the good thing about draft classes is they roll around every year.

A new group of stars will come through and earn megabucks given wages only grow.

But they will have to be serious earners to top the 2021 class as the richest we have seen.