Kurt Tippett’s injury settlement will allow Sydney to snare a quality player at season’s end
KURT Tippett’s shock retirement is set to put the Swans back in the free agent market for the first time since they landed Lance Franklin at the end of the 2013 season.
Sydney
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KURT Tippett’s shock retirement is set to put the Swans back in the free agent market for the first time since they landed Lance Franklin at the end of the 2013 season.
It won’t be another $10 million Buddy deal but the 2019 and 2020 salary cap space freed up by Tippett’s premature departure will open the doors to a quality player.
Because the ankle reconstruction Tippett had in October wasn’t a career-ending injury, Swans football manager Tom Harley has been able to negotiate a reduced figure on his payout.
“We won’t have to carry his salary for the full term of his three years remaining,” Harley told SEN radio.
“He was contracted for three years prior to that so it certainly won’t be that.”
Had it been a career-ending injury, Sydney would have been forced to pay Tippett the full amount of his contract over the next three years.
“Injuries have played a part in his decision,” Harley said.
“He had a full ankle reconstruction last year. There are strict definitions around what constitutes career-ending injuries. It means you aren’t able to play and that isn’t what’s happened to Kurt.”
Harley wouldn’t comment on the settlement figure agreed upon or the time frame for its payment. But given the club is committed to Tippett’s payment this year, it’s believed to be heavily front-ended.
“Any contract negotiations are confidential between the player, his management and the club,” Harley said.
“He was a contracted player at the time so we had to work our way through that. It’s still pretty raw, we haven’t sat down and worked out what this means for the longer perspective. Kurt is 200cm and players like him don’t grow on trees. We’ve got a hole in our list now and clearly he won’t be playing this year.”
Sydney won’t be able to replace Tippett on the playing list this season but changes to the rules surrounding rookie-listed players mean they can play senior football without being upgraded to the primary list.
While Tippett arrived on a very large contract, he has renegotiated twice, extending his time for less money.
This allowed the Swans to re-sign young guns Isaac Heeney to the end of 2022 and Callum Mills until 2023.
They have also extended deals with Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker and Sam Reid until 2021, as well as Ollie Florent (2020), Tom Papley (2020) and Zak Jones (2019).
His retirement now looks likely to help the Swans snare more talent when the trade period opens in October.
The only players of contractual concern are runner-up in last year’s best and fairest Jake Lloyd and talented defender Aliir Aliir.
The ruck duties are set to be carried by Sam Naismith, Callum Sinclair and Darcy Cameron.