Jon Ralph says Victorian clubs should follow Sydney’s lead and offer big money, long-term deal to Nathan Fyfe or James Frawley
VICTORIAN clubs can moan all they want about Sydney’s acquisition of Lance Franklin, but at least the Swans go out and get what they want. RECAP RALPHY’S CHAT
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VICTORIAN clubs can moan all they want about Sydney’s acquisition of Lance Franklin, but at least the Swans go out and get what they want.
Franklin’s nine-year deal might backfire — and would have been blocked by most rival club boards — but it could still win the club multiple premierships.
RECAP RALPHY’S CHAT BELOW
Right now Buddy is helping fill stadiums and captivating fans, even if few believe he will play into his ninth year.
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So why don’t Victorian clubs consider a safer version of that bold Sydney play and try Buddy Lite?
Where is the Victorian club that is prepared to use their massive salary cap room to offer 22-year-old Nate Fyfe a $12 million ten-year deal?
Or 25-year-old unrestricted free agent James Frawley a five-year deal worth $3.3 million that would cost them only salary cap space and no draft picks.
Or actually have a real crack at luring 21-year-old Jeremy Cameron with an eight-year $10 million deal to be the pin-up by for your club for the next generation?
AFL clubs have never had more free salary cap space, with the cap going up half a million bucks in 2015 and a heap of clubs having cleared the decks salary-wise.
They have either prepaid other contracts like Collingwood and Hawthorn to clear room or they can use new equalisation rules which mean if you pay under the cap this year you can go over by an equal amount next year.
Yet too many clubs are meek and mild, worried about perceptions if they try but miss out and believing they won’t succeed anyway.
At least Melbourne won’t die wondering having secured Jesse Hogan as a 17-year-old in the mini-draft from GWS and using their cap space for lucrative deals with Mitch Clark and Chris Dawes.
It hasn’t been an unqualified success, but to paraphrase Mark Thompson, at least the Dees put their “gonads on the line”.
Nathan Fyfe will most likely stay at Fremantle, but where is the club planting the seed of doubt in his mind with a once-in-a-lifetime deal?
If he rebuffs that deal the Dockers would still need to match it, pushing their salary cap to the limit and leaving other Fremantle players exposed.
Would the Dogs give up their first pick (pick 6 right now) and a young full back like Jordan Roughead for Fyfe and push the Dockers into a corner?
Or the Tigers their first pick (no. 4), one of their key talls (David Astbury or Dylan Grimes) and another quality mid-ranked player?
Too hard? Too much to give? Would Freo tell them to get stuffed?
Then go for a free agent who won’t cost you picks.
Clubs say it is ridiculous to pay Frawley $800,000 a year, but he is a swingman yet to turn 26 who could be one of the top three full backs in the league in a good team with quality support.
Clubs like Richmond and the Dogs and Melbourne are stuck in a crush between the expansion sides and power clubs like the Hawks and Pies, and might just stay there if they don’t try something inventive.
Don’t mortgage your future on an ageing key forward playing until he is 35, but don’t be scared to think outside the box if it might deliver you a franchise player for years to come.
Originally published as Jon Ralph says Victorian clubs should follow Sydney’s lead and offer big money, long-term deal to Nathan Fyfe or James Frawley
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