The AFL's 30-year investment has come back to bite the AFL, says Mark Robinson
THE league’s best intentions to help shore up the Sydney Swans has come back to haunt them, writes Mark Robinson.
Mark Robinson
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SO, it's $10 million over nine years.
But don't blame Sydney or Lance Franklin. Blame the AFL.
The league's best intentions to help shore up their 30-year investment in the Sydney Swans, by virtue of a cost of living allowance, has come back to haunt them.
It is a PR nightmare.
The other clubs are furious and the fans are perplexed.
One year it is Kurt Tippett on $900,00. The next it is $1.4 million for Lance Franklin.
Together, they will share about 20 per cent of Sydney’s $11 million salary cap.
As one club chief executive said yesterday: ‘’It’s not sustainable.’’
Surely, the AFL did not envisage a scenario whereby the Swans could use their extra millions to lure two superstars from their clubs?
Initially, the money was for player retention.
Now, it is viewed as the most significant bargaining tool in the competition.
Fans, the cornerstone of the competition, have further lost faith in the AFL, and it’s up to the AFL to fix it.
An uncompromised salary cap would be a start.
The cost of living allowance is under review and this latest outcome might hasten an outcome.
The fallout will be extreme.
Before that, the Swans must be congratulated. They are bold, adventurous and successful. They are modern-day bounty hunters. They identify their man and they get their man.
While other clubs posture and ponder, the Swans act with strength and confidence, and of course with great subterfuge.
The Swans have worked on this deal for 12 months, after Franklin’s manager Liam Pickering contacted the Swans weeks after the 2012 Grand Final loss to the Swans.
The Swans were stunned, for they were still working on the Tippett deal. Stunned, and more than a fraction excited.
The secret stayed a secret.
At Sydney, chief executive Andrew Ireland and head of football Dean Moore had to know everything, as did, from the other end, Franklin, Franklin’s manager Liam Pickering and most likely Franklin’s parents.
Several Swans directors knew, given the size of the money on offer.
It’s believed John Longmire was also part of the in-crowd.
Certainly, GWS were sideswiped and the impression is the AFL was not aware of Sydney’s plans.
One league official said he first heard of the development on the superfooty.com.au website about 11.30 on Monday night.
GWS would be reeling.
They met Franklin’s management last week and clearly were not told of the year-long discussions with the Swans.
They offered $1.2 million over six years and felt they were in the box seat, especially since they were confident of top-up ambassadorial money coming from the AFL.
They withdrew their money yesterday morning after being told Pickering informed them Franklin wanted to go to the Swans.
It is a kick in the guts for the GWS and for the AFL.
The Giants need a marquee player and Franklin was prime-time. And the AFL needed their western Sydney baby to grow up quickly.
Neither is happening.
In a sense, the Swans continue to grow as a team and a club, at the same time stomping all over their city rivals.
The AFL would hate that.
The Swans achieved their result after magnificently working their salary cap.
Ruckman Shane Mumford and forward Jessie White will be finding new homes to ensure Franklin’s wage bill fits inside the Swans’ salary cap.
Mumford, who was paid around $400,000 this season, is out of contract and has attracted interest from a number of Victorian clubs, while White has already met with Collingwood.
The retirements of favourite son Jude Bolton, premiership defender Martin Mattner and forward Mitch Morton have also cleared space.
Will it work? Time will tell. Might it even happen?
The AFL said last night it would investigate the deal and, truth be known, the remarkable development has you immediately questioning how it could happen.
NBA star Andrew Bogut threw up a curveball on Twitter.
"Do the @AFL have the balls to veto the deal a la David Stern’s Mutomboing of Chris Paul to the Lakers???. Your move Demetriou!!!!’’
What a day for football.
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