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  1. #1
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    Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Gold Coast are preparing to submit a request to the AFL for a wide-ranging rescue package, including a priority draft pick, more money and the introduction of a player-retention allowance.

    Suns president Tony Cochrane said the club needed help in a strategic and long-term way that went beyond just a draft pick, but an extra draft pick was important as part of a suite of measures for the club.

    "We have not specifically asked for a priority pick yet but that will be part of a submission to the AFL on a range of things that are needed ... but I don't want to get into specifics," Cochrane said.

    He added that other lowly clubs not just the Suns should be given draft help or else the competition risked becoming like the English Premier League where the top six soccer clubs fought it out each year and the rest of the competition were "cannon fodder".

    "The AFL is very happy to take the extra broadcast money that the Gold Coast Suns and GWS bring into the competition by having nine games a round. We need that money invested in the clubs," he said, adding that the extra broadcast revenue far outweighed the cost of the clubs to the competition.

    Since inception, the Suns had yet to pay 100 per cent of the salary cap, Cochrane said, because they could not afford to do so.

    That meant they had trouble retaining and attracting players. A new form of player retention allowance, fully funded by the AFL, was one option they would explore in a submission to go to the AFL about the clubs in the expanding markets.

    Cochrane criticised attempts to lure Suns captain and free agent Tom Lynch away from the club. After losing Gary Ablett, Jaeger O'Meara and Dion Prestia the club is frustrated at the difficulty in being able to retain players and believes they need help to retain players.

    "There's got to be something to help us keep people from the return-home factor," he said.

    "Right at the moment in the history of the AFL the majority of the players come from the southern states. In 15 or 20 years that will change but right now the majority of players come from those states and we have to do something about how we are able to keep them when they come here.

    "We have to be given some help to retain those players ... investment [in the Gold Coast] is not necessarily all in money, it's people and assistance in structural issues, the draft."

    He said the club had been forced to slash the budget for the North Queensland player academy budget in his first year as chairman by $60,000 from $320,000 because they couldn't fund it. He admitted it was nonsensical for an expanding club to cut that sort of budget but they had no choice because they didn't have the money.

    Cochrane said it was outrageous that the club had to survive out of tin sheds for six years and while he did not want to apportion blame he said they were still struggling to deal with problems from the way they were established.

    "It costs us $4 million a year to run the stadium. These were things signed by the AFL for us and we couldn't do anything about," he said.

    The club were awful at the weekend, losing by 112 points to Greater Western Sydney, their sixth successive loss, leaving them 15th on the ladder.

    In the final quarters of the past three matches they have scored a combined two points - in round nine they didn't score in the last term and in the last two matches they have scored one point in each final term - suggesting a serious fitness problem.

  2. #2
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Surely a club that's less than ten years old shouldn't be anywhere near the point where they should be asking for this sort of assistance.

    How can a club that had Gary *!*!*!*!ing Ablett on their list since their inception not be paying 100% of the salary cap?

    Any bailout needs to start with a cleanout of management. Cochrane has been there since day one and they haven't taken a single step forward.

  3. #3
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Wish they'd just fold this club.

  4. #4
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Quote Originally Posted by westdog54 View Post
    Surely a club that's less than ten years old shouldn't be anywhere near the point where they should be asking for this sort of assistance.

    How can a club that had Gary *!*!*!*!ing Ablett on their list since their inception not be paying 100% of the salary cap?

    Any bailout needs to start with a cleanout of management. Cochrane has been there since day one and they haven't taken a single step forward.
    Cochrane only joined the board in 2014 and took over as chairman in 2016.

  5. #5
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Quote Originally Posted by Axe Man View Post
    Cochrane only joined the board in 2014 and took over as chairman in 2016.
    I thought he's been there much longer than that. I stand corrected.

  6. #6
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Wasn't it just yesterday that he was sprouting how this will be a successful club. What a basketcase

  7. #7
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    If they weren't paying their full salary cap when they were given carte blanche to headhunt out of contract players from other teams then they were either mismanaged or not trying hard enough.

    I don't think they'll exist (at least not in their current form) by the end of the next decade. The AFL's scheduling of them to start the season is a pretty clear indicator that they've given up on their short-term success at a minimum, and the following just isn't there (who could have possibly seen that coming). Plus they've proven that they can develop elite talent all the way to the top of suburban leagues - if I was a young player with any capacity to think forwardly then I would be doing everything I could to not end up there.
    - I'm a visionary - Only here to confirm my biases -

  8. #8
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Quote Originally Posted by Happy Days View Post
    If they weren't paying their full salary cap when they were given carte blanche to headhunt out of contract players from other teams then they were either mismanaged or not trying hard enough.

    I don't think they'll exist (at least not in their current form) by the end of the next decade. The AFL's scheduling of them to start the season is a pretty clear indicator that they've given up on their short-term success at a minimum, and the following just isn't there (who could have possibly seen that coming). Plus they've proven that they can develop elite talent all the way to the top of suburban leagues - if I was a young player with any capacity to think forwardly then I would be doing everything I could to not end up there.
    And that presser isn't helping, if he wants players to stay don't come out and say they don't want to stay that's just making it worse .
    Should be saying its a great place etc , this release is its own worst enemy.
    Bring back the biff

  9. #9
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Stuff them, why should they get assistance. They had their chances so now they need to find their own solutions.
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

  10. #10
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    How hard will it be now for them to attract good, mature players now?

    I also hope they do not receive additional assistance. Harbinger of things to come for the plastic oranges after their premiership window shuts ? (Hopefully sometime soon).

    On the bright side, any players of theirs that available, that we can afford and that would enhance out list?

  11. #11
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    If they need some assistance they should get it but they need to not keep wasting there chances. The AFL also can't keep sending young players up there only to be heading home within a couple of years.

    A priority pick won't change things but they might be able to use it to attract an established player.
    Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"

  12. #12
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    What secret deals has the AFL done with the Giants so that they are not in this predicament as well?

    The Giants have bugger all members and tiny home game crowds.
    The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.

  13. #13
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Let’s raid the joint
    Don’t recall much sympathy when the took Harbrow .
    Recruiting has been comical . Summed up giving pick 2 for Lachie Weller !
    Just Scott Clayton fingerprints all over it

  14. #14
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    Quote Originally Posted by Dry Rot View Post
    What secret deals has the AFL done with the Giants so that they are not in this predicament as well?

    The Giants have bugger all members and tiny home game crowds.
    They were better run to start with, got their list management right
    Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"

  15. #15
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    Re: Suns send AFL an SOS for priority pick, cash, retention allowance

    There will never be a better time to right the wrongs of the past- bring back Fitzroy.

    Kick Hawthorn and NM out of Tasmania and play half of their games out of Tassie.

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