Updated June 20, 2017 11:51:18

Photo: Players stand to earn a 20 per cent pay increase in the first year of the new deal. (AAP: Julian Smith)

So AFL players are set to do what cricketers and rugby league players can't yet do: sign off on a new pay deal.

But unlike their industrially-battling brethren, this deal has seen nothing like the same animus, despite that fleeting talk of a strike a few months back.

So what are the main points about this deal?

Show me the money

The players look set to get a massive pay rise of 20 per cent in the first year. After that, there would be incremental pay rises for the next five years — 1.2 per cent in 2018, 1.3 per cent in 2019, and 2 per cent in each of the last three years till 2022.

The announcement could see the number of AFL millionaires double in an afternoon.

There were six players already earning more than $1 million this year before the new collective bargaining agreement deal was signed. That figure will now rise.

There were eight players earning between $800,000 and $1,000,000. Any of those who were on $840,000 will now move into the million-dollars-a-season bracket.

Share of the pie

While Cricket Australia has, until now, gone to the barricades wanting to scrap revenue sharing, and the NRL is resisting the share being increased, the AFL has never had it.

The difference is, when players came demanding it, it looks like they have come up, comparatively swiftly, with a compromise.

Photo: Booming broadcast rights means AFL players could be sitting on a cash cow. (AAP: Ben Macmahon, file photo)

All eyes will be on how much the AFL has conceded. It is believed they have come up with a compromise model, whereby some of the revenue share is fixed after which players will receive a smaller percentage of unforeseen AFL and club revenues.

Given the booming broadcast deals, this alone could be a huge cash cow.

Free agency

Photo: Gillon McLachlan has given an in-principal agreement to lifetime free agency. (AAP: Julian Smith)

The AFL has been considering a range of models on this, with AFL boss Gillon McLachlan giving an in-principle nod to lifetime free agency for players who have served eight years at one club.

Other models put forward have been free agency for players who have served a total of eight years with multiple clubs and four-year free agency for players earning on or under the median AFL wage.

No matter what the outcome, if the AFL can wave a signed deal in the air today or anytime soon, it can bask in the glow of once again beating other sports to the punch off-field.

Topics: australian-football-league, sport, melbourne-3000, australia, vic

First posted June 20, 2017 11:41:53