Crows cop another trade lesson from Carlton as McGovern walks out without a fight
THE Adelaide Football Club has again failed to play hardball with its Victorian opposition, showing it is not willing to call the player’s bluff and take them to the brink.
SO, another contracted player has walked out on Adelaide and gone to the club of his choice.
It all seemed so easy. So much for making Carlton pay over the odds for Mitch McGovern, as the Blues made the Crows pay for Bryce Gibbs. So much for playing hardball.
Adelaide essentially get pick 13 in this year’s draft and a 23 year old mature-age rookie in Shane McAdam.
Did they even ask for Carlton’s first pick in the draft?
Did they demand Carlton find a top ten pick before they would even look at the deal? Did they call Carlton’s bluff and stall till the last minute? Guess not.
Yet the slight consensus of informed opinion seems to be that the Crows emerged with the better deal. All that Victorian hype which downplayed McGovern’s talent, durability and potential seems to have worked.
However, it was more than the deal that was important. At some stage the Adelaide Football Club has to make a stand and tell the football world that it is not a finishing school for young elite footballers before they move on to a chosen destination, more money and better premiership opportunities.
Of course it’s easy enough to keep the foot-soldiers, but it’s the match-winners that every other club would love to have that the Crows are struggling to keep.
That’s why Rory Sloane deserves a special place in the hearts of all Crows supporters. With free-agency looming, significant service to the tri-colours and every family reason to return to Victoria, he choose to stay.
I can not subscribe to the scuttlebutt that the Crows have a culture problem which has seen so many good young players walk out.
However, all too often the Crows seem resigned to the fact and are unwilling to call the player’s (or his manager’s) bluff and take them to the brink.
Why have a draft in the first place if a player can walk out when either: he gets a better offer; or the coach moves him out of his comfort zone. Contracts have to mean something.
The suggestion from Port’s list manager, Jason Cripps, that clubs should be able to trade contracted players without their approval is just as preposterous as this modern scourge of contracted players walking out.
Understandably, contracts can be terminated by mutual agreement, which would seem to the case at Sydney where Dan Hannebery is seeking a new club after two years of a five-year deal.
But as his form has been dreadful and not worthy of his elite salary, one can see why Sydney would have no objection to him leaving. All that spare money in the salary cap will be put to better use.
The key elements of the McGovern/Carlton trade are that the Crows get pick 13 and Shane McAdam.
Despite what appears to be a capitulation, it may still work in the Crows favour. Pick 13 is not bad. It’s not great, but it’s not bad. In the past 10 years, one genuine gun player in Patrick Cripps, a club champion in Daniel Talia, an enigmatic, fiery forward in Toby Greene and couple of other solid players, have been taken at pick 13. It’s still a lottery though, and I’d rather have Mitch McGovern.
The wild card is Shane McAdam, who had languished in the football world until this season when he excited Sturt fans and made recruiters sit up and look at him again.
Crows legend, Mark Ricciuto, now a Crows board member was quick to rebut criticism of the trade.
“McAdam would day have [gone] between 15-25 in this draft...He is the type of player we need”, said the champ. Maybe, maybe not! There still has to be a question mark.
McAdam recorded phenomenal results five years ago when he tested at the draft combine camp, yet not one club selected him.
So he went back home, played his footy for fun in country WA, the WAFL, and amateur footy until Marty Mattner at Sturt recognised his talent. If he succeeds, he won’t be the first mature-age rookie to make a mark in the AFL but if someone with so much ability has languished so long in the lower levels, a lot of AFL recruiters aren’t doing their job properly.
Mitch McGovern tweeted a sweet good-bye to Adelaide after the deal was done. They were empty words because when all is said and done, he has walked out on the club, his team-mates and the supporters.
When you see something special in a player; when he becomes a favourite player; when you can see how important he can be to your team, it’s even more inexcusable when he walks out.
It’s just as inexcusable that the club lets it happen again without fighting to the death knell.