Stephen Silvagni takes aim at Carlton over his exit from the club and the Blues’ treatment of his sons
Carlton great Stephen Silvagni has accused Blues chief executive Cain Liddle of throwing his sons under the bus and handling his exit as list manager in ‘amateur’ fashion. And he wasn’t done there.
Carlton
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Carlton great Stephen Silvagni has accused Blues chief executive Cain Liddle of throwing his sons under the bus and handling his exit as list manager in “amateur” fashion.
Silvagni, who served in the role for five years until December 2019, has finally opened up on his departure from the club where he played 312 games and where his son Jack remains on the playing list.
He said Liddle — who he accused of overruling list bosses on the Eddie Betts deal — had accused him of potentially “sabotaging the trade period” if he had stayed, which he said was the most hurtful and disappointing element of his axing.
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“Looking back at the press release, it just put the boys under the bus. I thought it was amateur, to be honest. It really lacked any respect in terms of how you handle people on the way out. That was probably the most hurtful thing … your two biggest assets at a football club are your supporters, and your players,” he told SEN.
“The way that press release was written up, I thought, put two players under the bus, and put more pressure on them than they should have to handle throughout a season and ultimately if he (Liddle) had actually used the words he used to me when he decided not to go on with me, I would have been fine with that.
“But when you use words that weren’t in that, and I asked him, if that’s the reason why you don’t want to renew my contract, that’s fine, but make sure you use those words you’ve used. But he didn’t have the courage or conviction.”
Silvagni said he took exception to the word “complexity”, when he said Liddle had told him that “it was untenable that I remain at the football club because my boys were there”.
“Also other staff members, which I was really taken aback,” he said.
“It was never brought up in my performance review … to be brought up in a trade period, because there was some argy bargy … that was disappointing.”
SILVAGNI ON BEING ACCUSED OF “SABOTAGE”
“Probably when your president has a chat to you and he says ‘I’ve fought for you’, and that the CEO said to him that he felt as though I would sabotage the trade and draft period,” he said.
“That probably hurt me the most … when you played for a club for 17 years, you put your body on the line and supported the club all your life, for a person to actually say that you’ll sabotage the trade and draft period … and for me, an outsider that has come into the club and doesn’t really know a lot about the club and really doesn’t know a lot about me, that was probably the most disappointing out of everything that happened.
“I think Mark was strong with Cain that he backed me in. He put things into place during that trade period and Chris Judd was heavily involved in it … I didn’t have to have any further contact with Cain Liddle through the trade period.”
SILVAGNI ON HIS SON JACK
“I really haven’t spoken to him about that (the position it’s put him in), he’s his own person,” he said.
“He’s like any player on the list. You face challenges and whether it’s through form, through injuries, through relationships. But my view is … when a club actually puts more pressure on a player than that player should actually carry through a season, I find that frustrating.”
SILVAGNI ON EDDIE BETTS
“When you’re list manager, you have a look at the list and you work with people around you,” he said.
“Fundamentally, those decision basically are reliant on you. But collectively you hope you come to a decision and you agree to it.
“Ultimately I look back … we all agreed that Eddie Betts should come to the Carlton Football Club. We all agreed on that. But it was at a price, in terms of what his deal looked like.
“But when someone above decides that, well, I don’t want to change those rules.
“The reasons why you get a little bit annoyed and frustrated at times … (is when things weren’t in a great state) and certain people start splashing money out, after we all agreed what that payment should look like.
“Particularly as a list manager, when you’ve got to manage other players … and you’ve got a 17-year player sitting there that you’ve just done a deal with, and you look eye-to-eye with them and say ‘this is all we can pay you’, and he’s been very loyal … and then another player comes in … and then you want to pay that player more than the player that had been sitting at that club, I don’t find that fair. We all have a responsibility to make sure that those players are looked after that are loyal to that football club.
“When you have people that overrule your decisions, that you’ve worked so hard for, and because they want memberships to look great or the accolade of ‘we’re bringing someone back’, is there intention the right intention for the Carlton Football Club? I don’t think it was.
“It does (become untenable).”
SILVAGNI ON HIS “MESSY” EXIT
“I loved my time at Carlton, other than the last three months or so.
“There’s some great people there, we worked really hard to build a list and get the salary cap in order, even in other areas of the football club. When a team or a club hasn’t been successful for a long time, there are a lot of obstacles and hurdles you’ve got to overcome. The board did work very hard to get a number of things into place and the heavy lifting and the hard yards had sort of been done. Really enjoyed my time at Carlton and some great people.
“It got messy in the end. And throughout the year, I’d actually been talking to Mark LoGiudice about moving on, whether that was at the end of last year or whether that was at some stage this year. But that decision was made for me, and that happens in footy clubs.”
SILVAGNI ON MITCH McGOVERN
“As it stands at the minute, and Mitch is a great guy, and I think he’s got a lot of talent,” he said.
“I think Mitch was a better player at Adelaide, than he has been at Carlton.
“And that’s through a bit of that is his own fault in terms of the way he prepares and gets up for training each week.
“I feel as though the club hasn’t done him any favours, because they’ve played him when he’s been unfit and out of form.
“He’s got X-factor … he probably hasn’t delivered. He needs to get moving a bit, because he has got talent, but for what we got him to the club for and what he’s getting paid, he needs to get moving.
“He’s being given a bit of a free ride at the minute.
“I think he’s been very, very lucky to play a lot of football this year.
“I think there’s a spot for him – he can play back as well … he’s got to fight like any other player.”
SILVAGNI ON TOM PAPLEY
“The Tom Papley approach got a little bit messy,” he said.
“Because obviously when you have a contracted player, you need to work with their management group really closely. Also that manager needs to condition the club, which would have been Sydney at the time … and give them some significant time to get themselves prepared should a deal be able to be done.
“When it comes at the last minute, it’s really difficult for clubs to actually to do deals, because they need to be respected as well and make sure they can search the market place and get their list in order and see what else is out there. When it comes late, those players that are contracted, it’s very, very difficult to get done.
“We gave Sydney a very, very good offer, but he was contracted to their football club for another two or three years, so they opted not to accept that deal and that’s what happened.”
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