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Sugar and Bryce and everything nice: Why Gibbs is not going anywhere

Roar Rookie
15th June, 2017
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Bryce Gibbs. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Roar Rookie
15th June, 2017
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Speculation is stilling milling in background about whether Bryce Gibbs will leave at the end of the year or not.

Let’s get one thing really straight here, he has two years left on his contract.

But does he want to move? Does Carlton’s surprising season change this at all?

Bryce Gibbs is in stellar form this season. He is ranked number 58 in the AFL’s overall rankings, number two for the club.

If you look at the AFL’s stats for players, you will see that since the start of the season he has been climbing up, with only a few dips. Against GWS he notched up 27 disposals.

Without a doubt Adelaide would want him to join their ranks as they tried to snatch him during the trade period with Kane Cornes stating that he will obviously be in that team this season.

What neither Adelaide nor Cornes understood was that Gibbs had no real impetus to leave Carlton other than media speculation, management query and the biased-one-sided diatribe of an ex-player who categorically does not like Carlton and can never say anything worthwhile about the club.

But will Gibbs go at the end of this season? I don’t think so. Adelaide will have to do something quite extraordinary in order to get him. He is still under contract and if he does decide he wants to leave, then it will have to be on Carlton’s terms and their terms only. Not what Cornes states that Carlton should just by tearing up the contract without receiving anything of significance.

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Bryce Gibbs has a ball

(AAP Image/Joe Castro)

The significant terms would be for a first round draft pick and a high calibre player, anything less and Carlton will once more show Adelaide the door.

With each and every match, Carlton are developing and getting to a point where other coaches are starting to sit up and take notice. Leon Cameron said that coaches must now start taking notice of Carlton, after beating his Giants on the weekend.

Given that Gibbsy moving to Adelaide would enhance his chances of winning a Premiership is in my view fraught with pros and cons and more cons than pros. What if he doesn’t gel with the playing group?

What if he doesn’t jell with the coach? What if he just doesn’t become the player that those in Adelaide want him to be? Given that he is nearing the side of 30, he has to weigh up all of this.

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