Dale Thomas is officially a Carlton player after Collingwood announced they would not be matching Carlton’s offer Wednesday morning, allowing the 26-year-old to link up with his former coach and father figure Mick Malthouse.
Carlton offered Thomas a four-year contract reported to be in the vicinity of $700,000 a season, just under $3 million in total, a figure that if Collingwood decided to match would see him just behind Scott Pendelbury and Travis Cloke as the club’s most expensive players.
An accolade that almost seems laughable given the fan favourite’s recent form.
Over the past two seasons the former No. 2 draft pick has been severely hampered by persistent ankle injuries preventing him from taking part in Collingwood’s 2013 finals campaign and playing only five games last season.
Carlton are understood to be satisfied with specialist medical reports on Daisy’s ankle, however, offering a four-year deal and reports indicating the Blues will give pick No.11 in the national draft as compensation to arch-rivals Collingwood could in fact be a disastrous decision.
The Blues have also allowed tenacious goal scorer Eddie Betts to leave Visy Park and join Adelaide on a four-year deal, in order to free up room in their salary cap to sign the 2011 all-Australian.
Betts has continually performed for the Blues kicking 290 goals in 184 games, as opposed to Thomas, who although rarely plays up front, kicked 121 goals in 157 games.
Carlton’s catalyst for success this season was its quick small forward’s Betts, Yarran and Garlett linking up to dramatic effect.
It’s hard to see Carlton doing the same amount of damage without Betts up front and possibly giving away pick No. 11 in favour for yet another wing-man is baffling to say the least.
It’s taken the Blues almost four years to fill the void left by Brendan Fevola, trialing Jarryd Waite and Andrew Walker, in 2012, as the key tall forward up front, but both have struggled with consistency averaging 1.3 goals a game for Waite and a dismal 0.3 goals a game for Walker since they both began their careers with Carlton.
The Blues have followed premiership winning sides Collingwood and Hawthorn in flooding their forward line with small forwards and it has begun to pay dividends.
However, the Blues decision to ship out Betts leaves a gaping hole in their forward structure and with little room left over in the salary cap, the expected option to donate Collingwood a first-round draft pick would seem to do nothing but harm their goal scoring prowess.
Ultimately, Collingwood seemed resigned to losing the creative forward throughout the 2013 season, after they withdrew their initial offer during the season and instead last month offered him a revised performance based deal.
In a statement on Collingwood’s website, Collingwood National Recruiting Manager, Derek Hine said it wasn’t in the club’s best interests to hold onto Thomas.
“On balance, given the injury issues at play and the offer put to him by Carlton, we didn’t think it was appropriate to hold Dale.” said Hine.
Hine added that he hopes Thomas will be back fully fit for 2014 and would return to the club where he made his name one day.
“He has been a fine player for Collingwood and a popular person around the club. His ankle has obviously caused him some problems over the last year or two but we hope he finds his way back as a player and, in retirement, makes his way back to the Westpac Centre at some stage.” said Hine.
Collingwood fans took to social media site Twitter to voice their dismay at the news their favourite son would be crossing the thin blue line.
@garriejames said “My son put his framed @DT_13 poster on Gumtree. Someone offered $5 because they wanted to burn it.”
@KatyCatLara said “Dale Thomas should probably update his Twitter profile…he no longer has the right to claim he belongs to the world’s greatest team.”
In an interview with the Herald Sun Carlton legend Anthony Koutoufides said Carlton’s problem lies in the midfield and the acquisition of Thomas certainly improves this area.
“It depends on his injury, but if you are talking Dale Thomas at 100 percent, he would be an amazing inclusion to the team. You always look for finals players, and that’s what he is. They are the ones you want as part of your team. We are a quick side but we do need pace and you can’t get enough quality midfielders.”
With players like Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Robinson, Carrazzo, Mclean, Armfield, Scotland, Tuohy, all of which can play in the midfield and are very quick, it’s hard to see why Kouta believes Carlton’s “needs” Dale Thomas.
In an interview with the AFL Thomas admitted it has been a difficult decision to leave the Pies but he was looking forward to the next stage in his career.
“It’s obviously really tough…. I’ve had a great time at Collingwood and I thank all the supporters, they’ve been fantastic. Obviously now they probably won’t be supporting me but I’ve had a great ride, some wonderful times and obviously winning a premiership [but] look forward to this next chapter.” said Thomas.
If Thomas can return in 2014 and find the form that made him a fan-favourite with the black and white army, Carlton’s powerful midfield will become even stronger.
But that gaping hole up forward still looms as a huge problem and all eyes will be on the national draft on November 21 to see if Carlton will use their second-round picks to fill the void with another small forward.
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