It's about return on investment, especially when you have a salary cap. An average AFL salary is $300,000. If Kersten is in the ballpark of an average AFL player, then a salary around that mark is fair for his skill set. But we only get a return on that investment if he actually regularly plays for the Fremantle Dockers. If he's just playing for Peel, then we would be better off having a very young bloke with (questionable) potential taking home the minimum of $75,000, and use the extra $200,000 elsewhere.
Some clubs will take the view that you are better off throwing money at the Franklins and Fyfes of the world in the hope you get lucky with some picks and rookies on low salaries to balance out the squad. Some of those clubs will throw ridiculous money at Fyfe. I just hope we're not ruling ourselves out of matching over a couple of hundred grand because we have players like Kersten on our list.
I think there's merit in spending money to make sure your 18th - 24th best players are better than the other team's. I'm worried that Kersten isn't in our 24 most likely to be selected.
But I don't really know how good he is.
