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.
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