Xavier Richards learns harsh reality of AFL after knocking back Sydney’s contract offer, writes Jon Ralph

WHERE did it all go wrong for Xavier Richards? The rising Sydney star was good enough to keep his spot for the Grand Final but has found himself without an AFL home for next year.

Xavier Richards knocked back a contract offer from the Swans but has been left without an AFL home. Picture: Phil Hillyard

ON August 13, Sydney tore apart St Kilda in a Saturday night Docklands special and Xavier Richards was the toast of the town.

Richards, 23, kicked a career-best three goals — his fourth consecutive game with multiple goals — and the reward was a two-year contract offer.

Eleven weeks later he has been turfed out of the AFL, a victim of salary cap pressures and a failure to read the AFL’s complex playbook.

A Sydney forward acclaimed as a rising star, who played well enough to keep his spot for this year’s Grand Final, is out of options.

After knocking back that two-year offer, he was friendless in the trade period then ignored in the national, pre-season and rookie drafts.

The moral of this cautionary tale is if you knock back a contract offer, you better be sure you have fallback options.

“To be honest, it’s been a little extraordinary the way it played out,’’ Sydney’s head of football Tom Harley told the Herald Sun.

“But the facts are as reported. We offered him a two-year extension towards the back end of the year and there was some back and forth and the final offer was in Round 21.

Xavier Richards celebrates a goal in the semi-final against Adelaide. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“We moved into the finals and there wasn’t any indication he wouldn’t accept, and then during exit interviews we were informed by his manager he was seeking a trade.

“We thought it was disappointing because we had an offer there.”

The explanation for the trade from Richards’ manager Phil Mullen was that the abolition of Sydney’s cost-of-living allowance made the city too expensive.

“He will be able to go home to Melbourne and live with his parents initially and put some money away — that’s been impossible in Sydney,” Mullen said.

The problem was that clubs the Swans were told were interested instead were anything but keen to give draft picks or players in return for Richards, the younger brother of Swans 2012 premiership player Ted.

And while he considered his position and pondered whether to enter one of those three drafts, the Swans had moved on.

“The way the year panned out, clubs are paying 100 per cent of the salary cap and every $5000 counts. We were negotiating with players, Dean Towers being one of them, and once a player is out of your club, you work on the players who want to stay,” Harley said.

With its salary cap tight as a drum and Isaac Heeney’s contract looming in 2017 — “He is our No.1 priority next year,” Harley said — Sydney just didn’t have anything for Richards.

Richards was good enough to play in Sydney’s Grand Final team. Picture: David Caird

And Richards never came back cap in hand, content to take his chances in the drafts.

“We have got a really great history and relationships with the Richards family and we can’t stress enough there was no malice involved,’’ Harley said.

“We have spoken to Xavier since he departed and we parted ways amicably.”

Essendon invited Richards to training but when the Bombers secured running half-forward Josh Green, the former Swan was never likely to make the Bombers his home.

Stunningly, not one club considered him as a rookie pick.

“We gave him an opportunity to train with us and he really impressed everyone,’’ Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro said.

“We are really feeling for him and I hope he keeps at it because he has got a lot to offer. It was purely our list demographic.

“We got James Stewart (from GWS) and we are getting (Cale) Hooker and (Michael) Hurley back (from bans), so we have got that area covered.”

Richards will lick his wounds and hopefully find a VFL club to again push his AFL claims but, as he well knows, there are no guarantees in football.

Originally published as Xavier Richards learns harsh reality of AFL after knocking back Sydney’s contract offer, writes Jon Ralph