Kurt Reply

it’s in the balance
season’s end for loyalty
money will tip it

Comments

  1. Maybe not always money, The ‘Q’ stick want’s to play more footy at the ‘G
    All Supporters from today onwards will need to brace themselves for what they may considered ‘loyal’ players, the club’s may not having any say in keeping them.
    Remember the players wanted ‘Free Agency’

  2. Ben Footner says

    I know the AFL is a business these days, but I’m pretty cut up about Tippett leaving. The club did so much for him:

    – Plucked him from basketball obscurity
    – Taught him how to play footy at an elite level
    – Paid him well over his worth for the last 3 years
    – Got his younger brother a gig in the SANFL this year after he was cut from GC.
    – Offered him a contract renewal of 800k a year to stay

    On top of this Adelaide were a kick away from a GF birth this year with the majority of the squad still under 25yrs old, and possess one of the hottest new coaches in the competition.

    Yet despite all of this, Kurt has still decided to walk away. I just don’t get it. I don’t think his decision is about money necessarily, but it’s clearly not about football either. There must be something else going on surely.

  3. Not Happy in Adelaide perhaps?

  4. Ben Footner says

    That’s the word going around Phanto. I know Adelaide is a bit of a fish bowl and the scrutiny would be difficult to handle, but I would suggest he was very well compensated for this. He was also quite happy to flog Balfours Pies and go on Better Homes & Gardens.

    He did cop a lot of critism this year over his output, and his head being elsewhere, and no doubt there were some feral fans that gave it too him at times. IMO that is football at an elite level though, you are a public figure and therefore subject to public opinion, much of it will be negative. You are also paid at a level that compensates for this.

  5. Ben,

    the decisions of some ‘free agents’ may have an elephant in the room aspect to it with respect to young kids who have been drafted to a place a long way from home.

    Some (maybe many) may well be able to cope with the tyrrany of distance and settle but it would be fair to believe that some just want to go home, or some where else.

    If you can get the same, or a better deal, at home then I would suggest that you would be silly not to take it if that’s where your heart was. Nothing to do with being a mercenary but more to do with home sickness.

    Just a thought.

  6. Ben Footner says

    Just to clarify, Kurt isn’t a free agent. Regarding his destination, he has told the club that he is exploring all options, not just going home, thereby changing the tune he has been playing to the club all year.

    I think most supporters would accept the go home factor, but if he ends up heading to the highest bidder then that would be a bitter pill to swallow. Lets not forget that Tippett is the latest in a line of high profile departures including Bock, Davis, and Gunston. This raises even more questions, and certainly the club administration would be scratching their heads.

    I’m sure Adelaide will secure a very good deal for him, and when the emotion subsides I actually expect us to end up in front, as we have with most of the previous departures over the past few years.

    That said, I will be one of the many thousands of people who will be booing him when he next returns to Adelaide. Footy is a business – but it is a business that makes its money from trading on our emotions. I pay my membership, which has subsidised his overblown contract for the last 3 years, and as such he will feel my wrath. Bugger him.

  7. Skip of Skipton says

    Ben, according to M.Rucci, Tippett can get to the Gold Coast Suns for free because they have the first pick in the pre-season draft. It is also suggested that the Swans are offering obscene money, possibly 1mil a year for him, but have little to satisfy Adelaide with in a trade.

    Do the Swans still get salary cap concessions for ‘cost of living’ expenses? If so, it is time to knock that on the head.

    Be happy to be rid of him, the club will have money to spread around to those more deserving.

  8. That’s the way Ben. “Don’t get mad – get even”.

  9. As an Adelaide supporter, I’m still coming to terms with the rank amateurishness of Kurt’s decision.

    I fully understand homesickness – it’s been over 2 decades since I left Adelaide for work reasons. I also fully understand moving for professional reasons. I’ve got nothing against Kurt for deciding to change clubs – any more than I did against Kane Johnson, or Tyson Stenglein, or Nathan Bock, Ivan Maric and Chris Knights, or a number of other players.

    I don’t quite get the moving with no destination and no sense of purpose. I’d understand wanting to go home. I’d understand wanting to go to a club that he thought had a better chance of success. I’d understand wanting to be the number one forward target, or the number one ruck, or even being under less pressure somewhere. To not appear to care where he goes (given he’s going to be on massive $$ wherever he finishes up, but not substantially more than Adelaide offered) confuses me a bit.

    I also really struggle with the “cheers guys, see you all Friday at the B+F” manner of his exit. There’s no way I’d hand in my notice to go to a competitor and expect to be invited to the office Christmas party.

  10. John Kingsmill says

    Kurt can do whatever he wants to do for whatever reasons he wants… but he let himself down badly this week by announcing his decision to leave in a text message sent to his Adelaide team-mates . That club bled for him and he owed them more. He should have put a couple of hours in his life aside and individually rung each one of those players who went to him a fortnight ago to plead with him to stay.

    And the fans bled for him, too. They forgave his tentative performance in the first two finals and were rewarded by his sterling effort in the prelim. We all understood the effect those series of concussions may have had on his play.

    But none of us expected that he would walk away with barely a shrug of acknowledgment to the investment the club had made in him.
    He could have drafted a letter to the season ticket holders for the club to send out as an email. He still can, for that matter.

  11. Simon Willcox says

    I agree John
    Hence the title
    He needs to explain

  12. ripper haiku coxy!
    welcome ‘on board’.

  13. Simon Willcox says

    Thanks Bob
    high praise from the master
    really enjoyed
    the GF in haiku form
    thought
    not seeing
    the wind
    until Malceski’s kick
    was particularly fine

  14. Peter Flynn says

    The concussion issue has been forgotten.

  15. Completely understand where disappointed Crows supporters are coming from re Kurt Tippett.

    G Ablett jnr left his lifelong home, his mates, his champion football club and tens of thousands of adoring supporters for the big bucks. 800k or so a year for 5 to 10 years & business opportunities for life clearly weren’t enough for him; nor the admiration of every Geelong supporter. Oh well at least he has his money to keep him happy now.

  16. Skip of Skipton says

    I don’t begrudge Gary junior leaving for the Gold Coast. He had lived his whole life in the Geelong district as the ‘son of’, and then his own well earned fame was piled on top. Unlike metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong was, and still largely is, an insular place with a country town mentality. Can’t blame him for getting out of the fishbowl to experience some normal (relatively) anonymous life.

    Tippett now wants to play for the Swans, and isn’t homesick for Queensland after all. I hope the Crows jerk him around no end.

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