Collingwood‘s wish for Dayne Beams to be given medical payout fails
Collingwood’s hopes of convincing the AFL to have the remainder of Dayne Beams’ salary be a medical payout has fallen on deaf ears. Here’s why.
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Collingwood’s wish to have the remainder of Dayne Beams’ salary be a medical payout has failed.
It’s believed the AFL has knocked back Collingwood’s plan to avoid Beams’ payout of the two years remaining on his contract be included in the club’s salary cap.
The Pies had been working with the AFL on a potential Beams settlement, but according to the rules, the former Pies midfielder’s payout will remain inside the salary cap.
Beams confirmed to the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast last month that he had retired from the AFL, opening up on the gambling and prescription drug addictions that he had dealt with in recent years along with significant mental health issues.
Earlier, Collingwood chief executive Mark Anderson had said the club had remained hopeful of reaching an arrangement with the league.
“Yeah, we’re working through all of that,” Anderson said on SEN when asked if the league’s medical payout scheme could come into play.
“And we’d hope that we do end up at a fair outcome.
“The primary thing for us has been really disappointing that we find ourselves in the position, but we want to make sure that we’re looking after Dayne not only for the moment, but actually ensuring he’s got a good future ahead of him.
“He is in a good space. He’s progressing and his life’s on track. Our job is to ensure that continues and that’s been our primary concern throughout. I think we and he have managed that situation well in what was disappointing for everyone.”
Anderson conceded that it had been “a really difficult situation for everyone and Dayne’s handled himself really well”.
“His agent’s managed it really well and to be fair, we’ve handled the situation really well with Dayne as well,” he said.
“It’s been disappointing for all, and it hasn’t played out the way anyone hoped, but we’ve stood by him, we’ve supported him through and importantly we’ve done that directly with Dayne and not talked about it a lot.
“But we’ve stood by him and looked after him and that’s continuing but hasn’t reached a conclusion yet.”
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LETTER TO FANS REVEALS EXTENT OF PIES’ SALARY ‘BIND’
– Reece Homfray
Collingwood has written to members in a bid to appease growing anger over its shock moves during the trade period and admitted it was forced to act because of salary cap pressure.
Chief executive Mark Anderson emailed members on Sunday and said the club’s underwhelming finish to the 2020 season when it lost the semi-final to Geelong was also behind the decision to trade established stars Adam Treloar, Tom Phillips and emerging talent Jaidyn Stephenson and Atu Bosenavulagi.
Anderson acknowledged it had caused “angst” for members and fans and promised their questions would be answered by the club’s hierarchy at a member forum after next month’s national draft.
But in his letter, Anderson said “salary cap pressure” had played its part in trading the quartet after “quality” free agents had expressed their interest in joining the Magpies but the club simply couldn’t fit them into the cap.
“Salary cap pressure was certainly a key part of the decision,” Anderson said.
“This is common for teams in premiership contention and even for some who are not.
“Financial sacrifices were made to keep the list together but this could not be the ongoing solution.
“With a further reduction of every club’s salary cap about to come due to the impacts of COVID, this situation was going to be exacerbated.
“To be blunt, we found ourselves in a bind.
“We were without realistic access to the free agency market with our salary cap being at its limit.
“We have had quality players expressing interest in coming to our club, interest we could not realistically pursue due to our cap limitations.
“This could not continue and so some tough and, frankly, painful decisions had to be made.”
Despite playing in a grand final, preliminary final and semi-final the last three years, Anderson said the Pies had to act now to remain in the premiership hunt and the 68-point loss to Geelong in this year’s semi-final could not be ignored.
“We believed that we could stay in and around the mark for some time but knew that to maximise our opportunity to win the premiership and build a sustainable future really difficult decisions were required,” he said.
“Being realistic about the future was also something we felt was required.
“Despite the fantastic elimination final win only a few weeks ago in Perth, we fell well short in our semi-final against the Cats the following week.
“The unflattering result was not a reflection of our season but it could not be ignored, either.”
Anderson said the team expects to improve from within and pointed to its emerging young players like Isaac Quaynor, Josh Daicos, Brayden Sier, Will Kelly, Mark Keane and the Brown brothers who will be bolstered by two first-round draft picks this year.
The Magpies currently hold Picks 14 and 16.
“We are extremely excited by the prospect of bringing two first round draftees, something we have not done since drafting Jordan De Goey and Darcy Moore in the top 10 of the 2014 draft,” he said.
“Because of the talent at the top end of this year’s draft, this is one our recruiting team want to be in.
“Further, with the salary cap relief created, we can aggressively attack the free agency market from next year on if we so wish.”
The chief executive finished the letter by saying not all members would agree with the club’s decisions, but list manager Ned Guy and football boss Geoff Walsh had made the “tough calls for the right reasons”.
“And in the very best interest of our team and club. I absolutely respect their judgment and have the utmost confidence in their ability to reshape our list, open up new possibilities for growth and build off the plan that has been established,” he said.
MORE COLLINGWOOD
Collingwood fans revolt as fallout grows over club’s behaviour during AFL trade period
Mark Robinson: Collingwood trade drama not a fire sale but an inside arson job
AFL trades: Jaidyn Stephenson, Adam Treloar and Tom Phillips leave the Magpies
‘A fight until the end’: Treloar reveals hurt of Pies’ push
- Chris Cavangah and Rebecca Williams
Adam Treloar says he was told “in no uncertain way” by Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley that Magpies players did not want him at the club in what he believes to be a hurtful lie.
Speaking for the first time after a tumultuous month, the new Western Bulldogs recruit said he was shocked to be told teammates did not want him given the strong relationships he had built across five seasons at Collingwood.
“It is what you read,” Treloar said when asked about the reported explosive conversation with Buckley.
“That was told to me in no uncertain way and that did hurt, because I know how close I am with the players. To be told that, when I don’t think that’s the truth, and to be told that there’s some players that don’t want you there when I know the majority of the players love me and care for me, that did hurt a bit.
“But they were adamant on moving me on so no matter how they were going to go about it, it was going to happen. It was a fight up until the end, because I wanted to be at Collingwood.”
The confirmation came a week after Buckley took to Twitter to label reports of the conversation as “rumour and innuendo”, adding that “our leaders don’t sit on list management”.
When asked if he knew which players wanted him gone, Treloar said he simply did not believe the allegation to be true.
“I’ve spoken to a number of players and the majority of the players have sent me messages of love and support,” he said.
“I don’t think that was the truth. I don’t think that was the reality. I think they were up for a fight to move me on and I guess anything was going to be said to move me on.
“There hasn’t been one player that has come to me and said, ‘I was a part of moving you on’. I think we all have nothing but love and mutual respect for each other.”
While Treloar denied he was bitter with the Magpies and said he was grateful for his time spent at the club, he also disputed a claim made by Collingwood list manager Ned Guy.
Guy told Fox Footy on Thursday night that Treloar would likely have not been traded had his partner Kim Ravaillion not signed a contract to play with Suncorp Super Netball side Queensland Firebirds next year.
“That’s really disappointing,” Treloar said of Guy’s comments.
“The club has known that I never wanted to play anywhere else and I never wanted to move to Queensland. I did read that and hear that and that’s extremely disappointing because I don’t think that’s the truth. I think last year my name was floated as well for a potential trade to Queensland and Kim was heavily pregnant.”
Treloar said while he wished the trade saga had played out differently, he still had “a lot of love and respect” for Buckley.
“There’s two sides to footy. There’s the business side and there’s the loyalty, passion, love side of playing the game,” he said.
“I think Bucks was in that tricky situation where you’ve got to put the business side of things first.
“I wish things could have played out differently. I wish it wasn’t played out externally like it was. It would have been nice if everything was played out internally and we could have helped each other out, helped each other get to where we wanted to get to. I wish that’s the way we went about it. But it is what it is. One chapter closes, another starts.”
A conversation with Western Bulldogs list manager Sam Power and coach Luke Beveridge on Monday convinced Treloar a move to Whitten Oval was the right decision before a trade deal was done with one minute to spare before the deadline on Thursday night.
“The love and care and empathy he (Beveridge) was showing Kim and I was something I was drawn to and when he was chatting more about Kim and less about me, it was something that I genuinely felt was care and love,” Treloar said.
“I have a lot of admiration and a lot of respect for the Bulldogs, externally watching from afar.”
Treloar’s manager, Tim Hazel, said on Friday morning Treloar wanted to stay at Collingwood, a club he joined from Greater Western Sydney in 2016.
“He was really desperate to stay, he’s black and white through and through, he’s extremely passionate, wears his heart on his sleeve,” Hazel told SEN.
“Post their last game there were a couple of conversations that took place between Collingwood, Adam and myself and they just felt it that it was a good opportunity for Adam to go and explore.
“We didn’t rush to that, we still wanted to stay and see out his contract, but as the weeks unfolded things started to change a little and the opportunity came to talk to Luke Beveridge and the Western Bulldogs team and it just seemed like a really good fit and a really good opportunity for Adam to see out his playing career.”
Originally published as Collingwood‘s wish for Dayne Beams to be given medical payout fails
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