Leading AFL player agent Craig Kelly splits from ranks on whether players should strike

FOOTY’S most powerful player agent has split from rival managers and declared that the game’s 800 stars should never strike.

Adelaide Crows Training AFL at Max Basheer Reserve - AAMI Stadium. Craig Kelly. Picture Dylan Coker

FOOTY’S most powerful player agent has split from rival managers and declared that the game’s 800 stars should never strike.

Elite Sports Properties founder Craig Kelly broke ranks at a meeting of 40 player agents and AFL Players’ Association chief executive Paul Marsh at Victoria Park last Wednesday.

He urged the player union to take the strike option off the table in collective bargaining talks with league bosses and reach a new pay deal without the threat of players walking off the job.

Some managers have accused Kelly and his company, which shares strong commercial ties with the AFL, of being too close to the league.

Asked Tuesday about his stance, Kelly told the Herald Sun: “Being a farmer from way back, I am fundamentally opposed to a strike — and the word strike.

“I believe with the right conversations and the right information being shared openly, we should be able to get an outcome for the clubs, the players and the AFL.

“If the parties can’t reach an agreement there are better ways in which you can get your point across and not penalise the fans or the game.”

Rival agents expressed surprise at Kelly’s comments and insisted a strike was a vital, but last resort, bargaining tool in negotiations with the AFL.

Negotiations between the AFLPA and league chiefs over a wages increase for players kicked off this month.

Marsh said: “Clearly, the conversation with the AFL has only just started and we want to conduct the negotiations in good faith, and a strike, as always, would be a last resort.

“But there was discussion around whether we take it off the table publicly from the beginning and some debate around that, but the sense from the majority in the room was that there was no need to do that.”

The AFLPA is fighting for a fixed percentage of the game’s revenues, a battle it lost comprehensively in the last round of negotiations with former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

Kelly, whose stable of stars includes Cyril Rioli, Dan Hannebery, Jobe Watson, Jarryd Roughead, Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin, believes players could just as effectively withdraw their services from key off-field commitments to make their point if the AFL refuses to negotiate fairly.

“Paul Marsh and the guys are trying to work through this,” Kelly said.

“I’m disappointed those private conversations have been provided to you but I’m not going to shy away from the beliefs of our organisation and what I fundamentally believe in.”

Asked about suggestions his business was too close to the AFL, Kelly said: “We are commercially close to the AFL, but so are the players, so is every club and so is the AFL Players’ Association.

“What we’ve got to understand is that we are not like the United States. We are a small market and we all need to work together to support our corporate partners, grow the game and the players must be recognised in that pie. If they don’t (get a fair share) then you can withhold some services, but don’t strike.

“And if anyone wants to have a look at the amount of money that we (ESP) have generated and provided to players and the AFL, in growing activities and events that didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago, then by all means come and sit down and I’ll show you the numbers.

“This organisation has contributed as much as it has been paid over the journey.”

Elite Sports Properties was bought out by the London-listed company TLA Worldwide last year for $25.5 million.