Revealed: The marathon cafe meeting that paved the way for Adelaide to sign Bryce Gibbs
AS Bryce Gibbs prepares to play against his former club Carlton for the first time, Adelaide chief executive Andrew Fagan details the intricate wheelings and dealings that landed the midfield star.
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ANDREW Fagan’s instructions to his list management team were loud and clear.
“Do not leave that meeting without a deal being done for Bryce Gibbs,’’ the Adelaide chief executive told Justin Reid, Brett Burton and Hamish Ogilvie.
“Order as many pizzas as you like and if it takes until 2am, so be it. We have to get this Gibbs deal finalised.’’
It was at a marathon meeting at a North Melbourne cafe on Wednesday, October 18 last year when a deal was finally orchestrated to allow a favourite South Australian football son to return home.
Eleven years after a teenage Gibbs was drafted by Carlton at pick one from SANFL club Glenelg, the Crows reached agreement to secure a player they had long believed would become their first father-son pick, only to be cruelly denied by an AFL ruling.
In Gibbs’ draft year in 2006, it was revealed that his dad Ross, a dual Tigers’ premiership star, had fallen agonisingly nine games short of the 200-game qualifying period when the AFL stripped back his Escort Cup games.
A year after Adelaide tried to deal for Gibbs, who wanted to return home for family reasons following the birth of he and fiancee Lauren’s first child, Charlie, but wouldn’t agree to Carlton’s asking price of two first-round draft picks, this time it wasn't going to be denied.
The Crows — beaten in last year’s grand final by Richmond — entered the 2017 trade period believing their chances of securing star midfielder Gibbs, who still had two years to run on a five-year contract, had all but vanished.
“We asked the question of Carlton pre-trade period about whether it’s position with Bryce had changed from the year before and the answer was ‘no’, so we said we would move on and try do other things (deals),’’ Fagan explained to The Advertiser as Gibbs prepares to play against his former club for the first time at Adelaide Oval tomorrow night.
“There were no conversations taking place with Carlton at all until two days before the trade period was due to finish.’’
That’s when Adelaide took a call from Gibbs’ manager, Melbourne-based agent Nigel Carmody.
“He rang to say that Carlton’s position had changed and there might be an opportunity to pursue Bryce,’’ Fagan said.
A meeting with Blues list manager Stephen Silvagni was quickly arranged for 11am on Wednesday at the NAB building near AFL House.
Fagan, who was in Adelaide, was kept abreast of movements and was shocked to have head of football Burton ring him within seven minutes to say a deal had been agreed.
At 4pm that afternoon, the deal had collapsed.
“The two clubs went to lodge the paperwork with the AFL and there was a significant discrepancy in regards to what we had agreed on,’’ said Fagan.
“So it was back to the drawing board.’’
The discrepancy is believed to be a misunderstanding over the trading of Carlton’s 2018 second-round draft pick to the Crows.
“It was a tough little period,’’ said Fagan.
“Bryce had told his family he was returning to Adelaide, they were in tears of joy, and then to see the deal momentarily fall over ...’’
This time Fagan, whose club had lost key defender Jake Lever to Melbourne and was in the process of losing speedy forward Charlie Cameron to Brisbane, wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
And so — with the trade deadline rapidly ticking down — began a marathon night of meetings, frantic phone calls and text messages.
“We had got so close to signing Bryce that we just couldn’t let him go this time,’’ Fagan said.
“Another meeting was hastily arranged with ‘SOS’ (Silvagni), Nigel and our list management team (Burton, list manager Reid and national recruiting manager Ogilvie) and the messaging was simple — I don’t care how long it takes, you are staying there until you get it done.’’
The trade meeting started at 5pm at a North Melbourne cafe/bar.
Fagan was in Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast at a family affair.
Coach Don Pyke had just arrived in Perth to see friends before heading overseas on his end-of-season break.
Board member and list management chairman Mark Ricciuto was in Adelaide.
All three were important to the “last-minute’’ negotiations and were glued to their telephones while a trade was thrashed out.
“There were various (trade) options thrown up and during the course of the evening I would have had 30 phone conversations, either with individuals or as a group, and plenty of text messages,’’ said Fagan, adding the Blues were trying to manoeuvre draft picks to secure other deals.
“To paint a picture of how events unfolded I arrived at a family dinner on the phone,
returned to the table three times throughout the evening to sit down to order and on the third occasion the dishes were being cleared.
“On the fourth occasion only my wife (Alana) and one other family member were still there and the place was being packed up.
“But that’s the nature of the beast and in the end we got Bryce.’’
Adelaide’s list management team emerged from its meeting at about 11pm with a deal agreed that would land the club Gibbs, draft pick 77 and Carlton’s 2018 second and third-round picks and see the Crows part with picks 10, 16 and 73 and their future second-rounder.
The paperwork was lodged with the AFL on trade deadline day, when players and draft picks from the 18 AFL clubs were flung all over the place, and Gibbs — more than a decade after he believed he was going to wear the Crows tricolours — was officially an Adelaide player
“Credit must go to Brett, Justin and Hamish who drove the outcome as part of our broader list management group,’’ Fagan said.
Gibbs’ recollections of the weeks and days leading up to his trading was that it just wasn’t going to happen.
“In my exit interview with Carlton the club asked me if there was something I wanted to entertain (returning home) I had to be honest and let them know,’’ he told The Advertiser.
“I said I hadn’t thought about it for a while and would have a good chat with Lauren because after what happened the year before we had to work out whether it was a realistic option again.
“We hadn’t heard anything from Adelaide so we didn't even know if the club was interested.
“When we found out through my manager that there still was some interest there I had to uncomfortably eyeball my coach (Brendon Bolton) for the second year in a row and say I was keen to get back home if it was possible and the right deal could be done.
“We had a great relationship and enough respect for each other to work through it. All along I was strong that there be a fair and reasonable deal for both parties.’’
But Gibbs said as the deadline ticked down on the exchange period he had almost given up hope of an Adelaide homecoming.
“Two-to-three days before the trade deadline I didn’t think it was going to happen,’’ he said.
“There hadn’t been much dialogue between the two clubs but then things quickly changed.
“The ball started rolling and everything happened really quickly. One minute it seemed I was staying at Carlton and the next the deal was over the line.’’
Gibbs admitted to thinking that after the first trade attempt fell over in 2016 that he would finish his AFL career with the Blues.
“I thought that probably was it, that it wasn’t going to happen,’’ he said.
“So I made a conscious decision not to think about it too much again until the (2017) season had finished.’’
Gibbs said if a trade had not been orchestrated he would not have gone back to the well again.
“I think it’s fair to say I wasn’t going to go back and ask a third time, especially being 30 next year,’’ he said.
“I couldn’t have gone through that again, so this would have been it.’’
THE DEAL
Adelaide: Gained Bryce Gibbs, pick 77, Carlton’s 2018 second and third-round picks.
Carlton: Gained picks 10, 16 and 73, Adelaide’s 2018 second-round pick.
MEETING OF THE MINDS
North Melbourne cafe: Justin Reid (general manager of list management and strategy), Brett Burton (head of football), Hamish Ogilvie (national recruiting manager).
Melbourne: Bryce Gibbs
Noosa, Queensland: Andrew Fagan (chief executive).
Perth, WA: Don Pyke (senior coach).
Adelaide, SA: Mark Ricciuto (list management chairman).
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