Gold Coast should tell rivals it’s prepared to trade Tom Lynch and start bidding war between Victorian clubs
TOM Lynch is being chased by three Melbourne clubs and that means good things for Gold Coast. The Suns should tell Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn they’re willing to trade him to start a bidding war and pit the Victorian suitors against each other.
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TOM Lynch and every interstate club that have their hooks into him should watch Gold Coast against Carlton closely on Saturday night because if they don’t play their cards right, he’ll be running around for one of them next year.
The Suns are behind a lot of the negative commentary about their plight, perhaps as a tactic to strengthen their case for special assistance, and I hope as AFL boss Gillon McLachlan watches his first Gold Coast game of the year at Metricon he tells the powerbrokers to stop it.
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I support any assistance the AFL chooses to give them provided the Lions, who have been through the same situation as their neighbours in recent years and share the same geographical disadvantages, get the same.
However, there is a way out of the mess they are in if they simply start making more good decisions than bad.
Lynch and the players who left before him didn’t go for more money, they got sick of broken promises.
Suns chairman Tony Cochrane’s rant this week about free agency destroying the smaller clubs was ill-informed.
In the Lynch instance, free agency not only protects them, it can be their greatest tool.
For starters, the Suns’ compensation for losing Lynch will be much greater than Hawthorn received for Lance Franklin’s departure or West Coast will get if they lose Andrew Gaff this year.
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And because Lynch is a restricted free agent, the Suns can match any rival offers, which would force him to either stay on the Gold Coast or enter the draft — and potentially end up at Carlton.
None of the clubs who head the queue for his services, Richmond, Collingwood or Hawthorn can pay him as much as Gold Coast can.
No club has ever matched an offer before and the compensation for losing Lynch would be a draft pick attached to their first pick, so they could conceivably have picks two and three, which is enticing.
But they also need established players urgently or this time next year they will be in the same boat with David Swallow, Steven May, Jack Martin, Callum Ah Chee, Sam Day, Touk Miller and Pearce Hanley all coming out of contract.
Why not tell any potential suitors they are prepared to trade Lynch and start the bidding at a top-10 draft pick and an established player?
Pitch the rival clubs against each other.
The Suns tell us that in coach Stuart Dew and footy manager Jon Haines they finally have the right people in place to reverse the club’s fortunes.
So go and get the best players available and back Dew and his team to do their jobs.
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Originally published as Gold Coast should tell rivals it’s prepared to trade Tom Lynch and start bidding war between Victorian clubs
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