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Just the Tipp: Kurt a tease for the Swans

AFL season is getting underway, but Tippett is injured again. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Roar Guru
20th August, 2016
23

60 out of a possible 94. That’s how many games Kurt Tippett has played for the Sydney Swans.

After signing a four-year deal worth $3.55 million in 2012, a deal which made him one of the highest-paid players in the competition, it is fair to assume that the Swans were hoping to get a player who could suit up for more than 64 per cent of their games in the past four seasons.

In these 60 games, Tippett has kicked 128 goals at an average of 2.13 per game.

In the same time period Jeff Garlett, a player who in 2014 was traded for the king’s ransom of picks 61 and 79 from Carlton to Melbourne, has played 69 games and kicked 122 goals at a fraction of the cost.

After paying an annual salary close to $900,000, Sydney definitely didn’t want Kurt Tippett to be compared to Jeff Garlett.

While the true value of a key forward can no longer be determined by his goal tally, the underlying point still remains.

Arriving at the club 74 days after they had won the 2012 premiership, Kurt Tippett has yet to show the Swans and their fans that he was worth the hype.

Tippett, a mercurial but wayward kicking forward at the Crows, was expected to make the leap into a goal kicking, contested marking behemoth. Instead he has plateaued into an above-average ruckman who can provide a solid goal scoring option in the forward line, when healthy.

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Most importantly alongside fellow ‘Bondi Billionaire’ Lance Franklin, Tippett was going to form the foundation of a team which was to usurp the throne upon which the Hawks sit. Sydney were supposed to be the next great dynasty to rule the AFL. Instead they were a red and white smear after being steamrolled by the Hawks in the 2014 grand final.

Possibly the most frustrating aspect of the Tippett era have been the glimpses of brilliance that he teases the Swans and the rest of the competition with. In his inaugural season with Sydney from Round 19-21, he kicked 17 goals. In his first three games pairing with Franklin in 2014, the two forwards combined for 23 goals, vaulting the Swans into premiership favouritism.

But these tantalising flashes of dominance have been constantly interrupted due to nagging injuries.

After being plagued by patellar tendonitis for the bulk of his first two seasons in Sydney, Tippett was finally able to bring some continuity to his game, playing the majority of the 2015 season and the first 12 games of 2016.

His form during this period looked promising as Tippett established himself as the club’s first choice ruckman. However as has been his pattern at the Swans, during the second quarter of the ‘Sydney Derby’ in Round 12, Tippett suffered a significant hamstring injury.

Herein lies the issue with Tippett and the worry for the Swans. After extending his contract through to 2018, the Swans have tied themselves to a 29-year-old injury plagued big man, who relies on his physicality to win contests.

With rumours of midfielder Tom Mitchell considering a move to Hawthorn and young talent Isaac Heeney set to be out of contract at the end of next season, Sydney will need cap space in the coming years. Thus they will be praying Tippett’s body will hold together and his contract won’t become a sunk cost – like another 29-year-old forward whose game is heavily reliant on his body, Travis Cloke.

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However this almost four yearlong narrative is set up for a fairy tale finish within the next six weeks.

As the Swans once again find themselves among the premiership favourites, Tippett returns to the line-up for the first time in two months.

A performance worthy of the near $900,000 price tag will go a long way in seeing the ‘bloods’ lift their fifth premiership and their first since Tippett’s arrival.

But if Tippett falters, his legacy will be one of the flawed crow who could never transform into a beautiful swan.

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