The great Adelaide kerfuffle
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Dear oh dear, what have you done Adelaide?
This week’s revelation of the Crows supposed rort of the AFL’s equality schemes could not have come at a worse time for the club.
After a heartbreaking yet brave preliminary final loss, there was a feeling that the next few years would be positive for the West Lakes club.
This feeling of hope has been maliciously replaced by a sense of dread and horror.
Revelations that not only did the Crows endorse the long held rumour that Kurt Tippett had that famous ‘help me to my club’ in writing, there are now revelations that they may have paid more than $200,000 of his salary outside the cap.
What makes the last point so staggering is the fact that the Crows could have paid Tippett the $200,000 inside the cap as there was financial room.
But I digress. My main question to Steven Trigg and co. is why?
In a scheme so amateurish that I may have seen it in an episode of Only Fools and Horses, did you honestly think that this deal would not come out?
You risked the future of the Crows for a player who hasn’t really hit his potential.
You also risked not only your reputations, but the reputation and standing of the Adelaide Football Club in the football community.
And for what?
Nothing, except broken promises and a nasty investigation to come from the AFL even though you confessed post-deal.
Essentially, the Crows got up in the rat-race of the new player movement scheme and would do anything to keep their playing stocks intact.
This scandal if proven should surely end the football management careers of Steven Trigg and Rob Chapman.
Trigg is unfit for office if he has authorised such a boorish and deceptive scheme while as the head of the board, Chapman remains liable for failing to investigate the rumours that have swirled around Kurt Tippet’s last contract.
If Matt Rendell got the sack for his words, Trigg and co have surely committed a cardinal sin in their actions.
But it doesn’t end there. More people need to take responsibility.
Questions have to be answered by AFL House as to why this wasn’t investigated earlier despite the multitude of speculation.
Both Kurt Tippet and his manager Peter Blucher need to be deregistered for at least a year while being heavily fined.
In a fraud like this, it takes two parties to tango.
However no matter what is said and done, the football department and Adelaide Crows fans will suffer the greatest.
They will feel the pain that comes from a desperate club entering into a deal that was doomed to fail.
The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments
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October 29th 2012 @ 12:30pm
Lroy said | October 29th 2012 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
Yes it is shocking that in this day and age that a player out of contract has the temerity to declare where he wants to go rather than go were he is told to go… shocking really…….
October 29th 2012 @ 4:08pm
Ian Whitchurch said | October 29th 2012 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Lroy,
In Tippett’s specific case, the AFL has an excellent case of saying in court ‘Its not that we dont want him to change clubs. Its the fact he lied to us on a statutory declaration about his secret side deal’.
October 29th 2012 @ 6:31pm
The_Wookie said | October 29th 2012 @ 6:31pm | Report comment
Secret payments are whats at issue here, not where he wants to go. If the issue was draft tampering alone this would be even simpler to deal with – and its the one area I believe he’d succeed if it went to court. Its the extra 200k outside his declared AFL income thats going to make this pear shaped for him, and its on that basis I believe he would fail in a court challenge against suspension or temporary deregistration.
October 29th 2012 @ 1:43pm
TC said | October 29th 2012 @ 1:43pm | Report comment
Here is a comprehensive article on restraint of trade in professional sport from Roar regular, Wookie:
http://footybusiness.wordpress.com/governance/the-afl-and-restraint-of-trade/
complete with references, it’s as good a write up on the subject as you will find anywhere, especially in the Aust context.
Important to note that the NRL draft was quite different to the AFL draft, and that the courts have made it clear that drafts are not a restraint of trade per se, as long as they don’t go too far and have the interests of the sport at heart.
On top of that, the AFL system is marked by the various rules being agreed to by the players’ association, an important pillar of the whole system.
Lastly, it’s impossible for the vast majority of players to make the case that they have been adversely impacted by the system, with their salaries having increased markedly year on year (although players like Tippett, who are in huge demand, might be able to make the case).
TC
October 29th 2012 @ 8:59pm
Anthony said | October 29th 2012 @ 8:59pm | Report comment
Wasn’t it Trigg who said that Port Adelaide was the shame of SA footy?
October 29th 2012 @ 10:19pm
Brewski said | October 29th 2012 @ 10:19pm | Report comment
This will galvinise the AFL/VIC hating Croweating Crows fans, and lets face it everyone hates South Australians …… just because there is no convict stain on them, they are not better than anyone else ….