And someone likely loses their job whether the two players pay or not as it still hits the soft cap. Given Richmond is one of the giant clubs with masses of back office staff it could be anyone, not just a coach.
It is those that are in back offices, or employees of the many other businesses that derive income from sport that I am very concerned about. I know that some only see the players, but it not just about the players, it is about the whole vast number of people that derive all, or part of their income from sport.
When the AFL season was halted about 80% of support staff staff were stood down including both back office staff as well as assistant coaches, physios etc. If the season had not been resumed this would have become more. With it having been resumed a number of people have been re-employed. Budgets have been slashed for 2020, and so many have not been. Though soft cap budgets for 2021 will still be radically be below what they were in 2019.
Beyond those employees there are all the other staff not employed by the clubs that were also stood down (and again some will now be back at work) due the season having been suspended. The groundskeepers, suppliers, ticket staff, door staff , security staff, physios, merchandising staff, retail staff, manufacturing staff, media staff, Foxtel staff, etc. The players are only a small fraction of all the jobs involved.
If you take a company like Foxtel, subscription and other revenues there is very much dependant on sport. With no, or limited, sport more and more individual subscriptions lapse, move to Netflix etc. With no sport all those very valuable commercial subscriptions (ie in pubs etc) get chopped, or reduced too. This is why the workforce of Foxtel has been decimated. If the AFL, NRL competitions etc had not have been resumed then vastly more people would have been stood down that have so far been.