Gold Coast launches ambitious plan to poach superstars
Andrew Hamilton | April 01, 2009 12:00am
GEELONG champion Gary Ablett is the confirmed No. 1 target of the Gold Coast team.
Football director Graeme Downie made the bold claim after the club was awarded the 17th AFL licence yesterday, which came as a complete surprise to some media.
Ablett, Lance Franklin and Nick Riewoldt, who come out of contract at the end of 2010, are firmly in the Gold Coast's sights.
Under the AFL's list building concessions, the club can sign one uncontracted player from each of the 16 clubs.
"My view is you go for the best player," Downie said. "Any club would love to have Gary Ablett, he is an amazing player. Everyone says how good his father was. I'd have Gary before his father."
The Gold Coast's core philosophy will be to build a team from the ground up with younger players.
But Downie has drawn on his experiences with the Brisbane Bears and Lions to demand recruiter Scott Clayton find a leadership core of between five and eight players in their mid-20s with about 150 games' experience.
He has ruled out players in their late 20s or 30s, but an exception would be made for Riewoldt, a local hero who has been earmarked as the side's first captain.
Clayton has already presented leading player agents with an ambitious recruiting plan the club says can deliver a premiership to the region in 2014 - its fourth year in the competition.
"Scott Clayton's main focus seems to be ensuring every player in the competition is out of contract at the end of 2010," Downie said. "If it works out, we'll have a few to choose from."
It is believed Clayton, the ex-Bulldogs football manager, favours Bulldogs Ryan Griffen and Adam Cooney, and Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury.
Former Queenslanders Brent Renouf (Hawks), Ricky Pettard (Melbourne) and Gavin Urquhart (Kangaroos) are also on the radar.
Downie said the club's next appointment would be a football manager.
AFLQ chief executive Richard Griffiths, a former Melbourne football department head, and assistant coach and former Lions football administration manager Marcus Ashcroft are contenders.
WHAT THE CLUB GETS
17-team league from 2011 means a bye each week
Gold Coast will have access to one uncontracted player per club at the end of the 2010 season
In the 2010 national draft, Gold Coast will have the first pick in each round. In the first round, it will have picks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15
Via the 2009 national draft, Gold Coast will be able to sign 12 17-year-olds
In the 2009 rookie draft, Gold Coast will have selections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
AFL commitment: $100m over 6 years
Salary Cap: 2011 $9.21m ($1m more than rival clubs), 2012 ($800,000 more), 2013 ($600,000 more), 2014 ($400,000 more)
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While I'd argue their concessions are bloody excessive, and their logo is heinous, you'd expect the footy media will flog this "they're coming to get your stars" line like a rented mule for the next two years.
Certainly lends added interest to our individual contract negotiations over the next 12-24 months.