Adelaide Crows have warned the AFL is heading down the path of “unethical” NRL-style mid-season player poaching after Phil Davis defected to Greater Western Sydney.
Welcome to the new world of AFL footy. Not only do these things happen, but we now live in a ridiculously inflated market for AFL players.
The Crows stopped short of endorsing Eddie McGuire’s view that the Giants had cheated by enticing Phil Davis, but said it was a sad day for traditional football lovers.
“I’m not sure about cheating…I understand what Eddie’s saying, it’s not ethical … but welcome to the new world of AFL,” Crows football operations chief Phil Harper told Radio Sport National.
“In the new world it is probably is ethical but as far as I’m concerned for the old footy world, and probably Eddie the same, talking to players from another club about playing for your club next year doesn’t sit right.
“They do it all the time in the NRL and I look at that and shake my head because it’s just not what I’ve been brought up with.”
“Once we found out what we were up against with Phil, we put an offer together … that was way, way, way over any offer to a 20-game player in the history of this football club,” Harper said.
“It still wasn’t in the ballpark … I don’t think we as a club could have done any more to keep Phil here.”
Davis refused to detail the length of his contract or the money involved.
“I am not going to lie, money is a factor,” he explained.
Earlier, McGuire said the AFL’s 18th team were “cheating on their first signing”.
“I’ve been saying this for ages, that sooner or later this is just really going to blow up and everyone’s going to do their lid on this one and I reckon this is an absolute insult to everyone in the AFL competition,” McGuire said.
Davis and Adelaide confirmed the player’s departure on Tuesday, with Davis admitting his head had been turned by the huge money on offer, reported to be as much as $750,000 a season.
But Giants chief executive Dale Holmes later released a statement, claiming an agreement had not been reached.
McGuire said: “It’s just ridiculous and they’re treating people like morons.
“Seriously if this is not a complete joke, Adrian Anderson must pick the phone up to Dale Holmes and belt him and hit him with whatever the sanctions are for breaking this rule.
“You tell me, if I offer you a job and you announce you’re going to leave your club, your home, your family, are you going to go to Greater Western Sydney where it hasn’t even started and in three months time we’ll discuss wages with you?
“That’s why Phil went in and resigned and said ‘I’ve got a truckload of cash that I can’t jump over’.
Davis’s teammate Mattew Jaensch yesterday tweeted: “@PhilDavis16 has left for a multitude of reasons, 800,000 reasons!”
“He’s an idiot sometimes, Matty,” Davis said in response to the tweet.
Buford Balony says: Cry me a river you whingeing fuck Eddie.
