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No compo has Crows feeling cheated

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 21 Oktober 2012 | 23.03

Adelaide is furious over the lack of compensation for losing free agent Chris Knights to Richmond. Picture: Sarah Reed Source: The Advertiser

ADELAIDE will join Hawthorn this week in sending a please explain to AFL salary cap master Ken Wood to understand how free-agency compensation draft picks were assigned.

The Crows remain baffled on how the loss of half-forward Chris Knights to Richmond gave Adelaide no compensation. They expected at least a third-round draft pick.

Hawthorn feels it has been "pick-pocketed" by Wood assigning the Hawks draft pick No.66 for premiership player Clinton Young's move to Collingwood.

Port Adelaide was the major winner of the first free-agent market that closed on Friday, with two high-order compensation picks at No. 30 and 31 for losing midfielder Danyle Pearce (to Fremantle) and key defender Troy Chaplin (to Richmond).

Adelaide football operations chief Phil Harper and his Hawks counterpart Mark Evans want to be run through the maths Wood used to ignore compensation for Knights and rate Young so cheaply.


"We expected some compensation for Knights," Harper said yesterday.

"We thought there would be a late pick, say in the third round. We're not overly worried today because we probably would not have used that pick," added Harper, whose Crows currently are primed for just two live picks in next month's national draft. These would be Adelaide's first-round pick at No. 20 and Sydney's No. 23 in the impending trade for defecting forward Kurt Tippett.

"But if we had been planning on a compensation pick for losing Chris Knights, we would like to know the process that formed the decision there be no compensation.

"We need to know for the future. And we're sure everyone wants to know how compensation is assigned."

Most clubs, Adelaide included, believe there should be a transparent formula, as there is for players before the match review panel.

The AFL declared on Friday that Wood's decision to offer no compensation was "based on the age" of Knights, who is 26, and the contract offer from his new club at Richmond.

Evans says the AFL market would have rated Young at an early second-round draft pick, as Wood did with Pearce and Chaplin. He also wants clarity on Wood's differing verdict.

"I don't know if anyone could look you in the eye and say this is a just system," he said.
 


23.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Adelaide facing a new Kurt dilemma

The Crows would be significantly disadvantaged if they allowed Kurt Tippett to enter the draft pool rather than work out a suitable trade with Sydney. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun

ADELAIDE'S price to stand on a principle by not trading Kurt Tippett to Sydney is now clearly defined.

By not securing the Swans' first-round draft pick of No. 23 - and out-of-favour forward Jesse White - the Crows' second call in the AFL national draft next month would be in the third round at No.54.

Adelaide currently holds two live draft picks - 20 and 54. It gave up its second-round draft pick at No. 43 on Friday to secure Richmond ruckman Angus Graham as back-up for lead ruckman Sam Jacobs.

The cost of forcing Tippett into the draft pool without compensation - as urged by inaugural Adelaide coach Graham Cornes and his captain Chris McDermott - is waiting 34 calls in the draft rather than just three.

Graham's move to Adelaide coincided with the Crows pulling away paperwork to seal the Tippett trade.


But it may not have marked the end of negotiating for White, who remains on contract with the Swans for next season.

Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg yesterday said of dealing for White: "There is no conclusion on that."

White's Melbourne-based manager Michael Quinlan yesterday said of negotiations with Adelaide: "This is not over and done with."

Asked why the paperwork to trade White to Adelaide was pulled back late on Friday, Quinlan said: "You have to ask Dean Moore at Sydney or David Noble at Adelaide."

But neither Moore nor Noble were prepared to publicly detail the stand-off.

If Adelaide persists with chasing White to increase forward options around Taylor Walker, the Crows would need to cut a contracted player.

The leading contender appears midfielder Richard Tambling.

Meanwhile, Port Adelaide will enter the last week of trade talks still searching for a key defender to support Alipate Carlile and Jackson Trengove.

New coach Ken Hinkley's notes from Geelong could influence a move on Cats defender Tom Gillies.

Ben Jacobs' wish to be traded to North Melbourne may put Kangaroos defender Luke Delaney before the Power.

Port also has to deal with the promise to its members to deliver the findings of this year's review by seven independent experts.

Chief executive Keith Thomas, who commissioned the review in February, says: "It's important that the results of the club review, which was conducted throughout season 2012, be shared with our supporters and members.

"Whilst some action is already being taken as a result of the review, an overview of the findings will hopefully help to provide further clarity in regards to the direction we will take going forward.

"This report will be completed and presented by the middle of (October)."
 


23.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Saints stuck in trade jam

St Kilda is struggling to find suitable trades to lure West Coast defender Mitch Brown and Gold Coast ruckman Tom Hickey to the club. Picture: Faith Moran Source: PerthNow

ST Kilda is being squeezed from both sides on deals for West Coast defender Mitch Brown and Gold Coast ruckman Tom Hickey.

This year's protracted trade period will conclude at 2pm on Friday and St Kilda still has much of its key business to conclude.

West Coast is refusing to budge on St Kilda's request to include defender Brown, 23, in a trade for homesick Saints midfielder Jamie Cripps, 20.

Eagles list manager Craig Vozzo has told St Kilda to come up with an alternate deal for Cripps, but the Saints are still hopeful.

Brown wants to leave the Eagles but is contracted, so St Kilda cannot hope to lure him back to Melbourne other than via a trade.

West Coast cannot promise Brown more opportunities next year because of its wealth of talls, so St Kilda officials believe he might walk for nothing at the end of 2013 if the Eagles do not relent.


St Kilda leads the charge for Gold Coast ruckman Hickey, 21, but has been told the price is a first-round draft selection.

Hickey has played 12 games for the Suns who believe the exceptional endurance athlete is the modern-day prototype for ruckmen, with capped interchange set to be introduced in 2014.

St Kilda has picks 13, 25, 37, 46 and 57, but while Gold Coast wants pick 13, the Saints believe 25 might get them their man.
 


23.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Agents of the trade table

AFL player agents Dan Richardson, Craig Kelly, Shane Casley, John Andrews, Adam Ramanauskas and Nick Gieschen from Elite Sports Properties. Picture: Hamish Blair Source: Herald Sun

"BYRNESY was a bit jumpy all year about where he was at - the best advice we gave him was just to focus on playing good footy in the VFL. I knew Melbourne was watching him closely all year."

It's halfway through trade month and on the fourth floor of a building on Bridge Rd, Richmond, where if you press your face to the plate-glass window and look right you can see the light towers of the MCG, the Elite Sports Properties player agent team is meeting.

Football is often a game of averages, but this meeting shows no two AFL players are the same.

Head agent Dan Richardson is talking -- ESP secured a deal on October 4 to prolong Shannon Byrnes' career with a move from Geelong to Melbourne.

Byrnes is the dual-premiership veteran whose future was in doubt before finding a home at the Dees.

Other players high on the agenda are Brendon Goddard, the poster boy of free agency, and Angus Monfries, a Bomber for eight years who never quite made it big and is now headed home to South Australia to play for Port Adelaide.


Six men sit around the table -- Richardson, co-founder and boss Craig Kelly, chairman John Andrews, agent and accountant Shane Casley and agents Nick Gieschen and Adam Ramanauskas.

Justin Reid and new agent, freshly retired Crows player Michael Doughty, join the conversation from Adelaide on Skype.

Agent Nigel Carmody is away getting married so, in line with the ESP-espoused team ethos, his colleagues help out with his clients.

These fortnightly meetings promote what could politely be described as animated discussion. It's robust -- much like Kelly's public persona.

The former Collingwood premiership player says it's all about the team -- and that gets the best deal for the players.

Former Bomber Ramanauskas chairs the meeting and invites Richardson to outline Goddard's successful move from St Kilda to Essendon on day one of free agency.

ESP was fielding inquiries about Goddard 12 months ago. He was a restricted free agent, everyone knew it.

Three months out it got more serious and Goddard began to contemplate a move. The agents thought St Kilda had made its mind up not to match Essendon's offer -- a four-year deal -- "a long way out".

It took only hours for the paperwork to go through at AFL House.

There was a better financial offer out there, but it wasn't all about money.

There's talk on Demon Jared Rivers, who they hope to get to Geelong. A two-year deal is signed two days later.

Gieschen outlines the meeting he had with Richmond about Greater Western Sydney youngster Dom Tyson. The Victorian was a mad Tigers fan as a kid.

The potential trade was discussed in-house and they realised they couldn't guarantee a deal would get done, so it was knocked on the head.

Tyson is happy at the Giants. The No.3 draft pick is out of contract at the end of next year.

Another player wants to be traded to play more senior footy. He has two years to run on his contract, his club understands his position and is happy for the agents to try to find him a new home.

No one's beating down the door to get him. Everything will turn on the movement of other players. Hang tight.

They discuss the AFL's approach to free agency. Some want compensation picks dropped, others think it would work better if clubs knew what compensation they would get before the period began.

There's a consensus that the three-week player movement period should be split into one week of free agency and two weeks of trade, with no overlap.

It's not just trade talk in the boardroom; there are contracts, too.

One club has expressed an interest in extending a young star's contract early. He had a brilliant finals series. The agents confer and there's a sense it's probably best to wait. There's a lot of "upside" to this guy. No need to rush it.

It's different for another client, an established player who had a very good season. Strike now on an early offer.

There are sensitivities in dealing with money in an industry where the average wage for senior players is about $260,000.

With teammates talking up what they earn and other managers inflating prices, it can be challenging to explain to a player how much he is worth.

But Richardson said once the players knew the facts, without disclosing what other players earn, they saw it clearly.

Kelly spells it out: "We've had meetings in here, not all the time, but when someone's completely out of whack, we've put up some names of guys who are similar players," he said.

"We won't say the numbers but we'll say if you were 10-15 grand apart from that person, that person and that person, do you think you're getting paid the right number?" Kelly explained.

"And then they go, 'Yeah'. And we say, 'Well, you are'."

There are players on the way out of the AFL. Kelly would like them all to join Goulburn Valley league club Mansfield, the side that appears almost as close to his heart as Collingwood. (He coached the Eagles to a flag in 2009 in his first year).

The agents discuss the departing players and generally they're ready for the transition. Some are off to university, there are offers from state leagues, electrical apprenticeships, development roles at clubs and media.

For a moment they stop to celebrate some of their success stories. Gieschen has seen a bit of premiership-winning client Nick Smith recently.

Richardson reckons Melbourne-born Smith is the perfect example of a successful agent-client relationship.

"He got rookie-listed by the Swans," Richardson said.

"The day of the draft I took a call; it was Paul Roos, Andrew Ireland, John Longmire and Ricky Barham. They'd just drafted him and they'd rung Nick and he'd told them he didn't want to go.

"Because he got rookie-listed his parents didn't really understand it. They thought, 'If they've only rookie-listed you, they don't really rate you so you shouldn't go'.

"I drove around to his house and sat down with him, mum and dad and convinced him to go up to Sydney for a couple of days and if you don't like it, we'll work it out.

"He went up there and they had a players' day out on Sydney Harbour on a boat. I rang him the next day, thinking he'd still be sad.

"He said, 'How good's this place?'. He hasn't looked back since."


23.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rule change favours vets

Collingwood is set to take advantage of a new rule that will allow most of veteran Ben Johnson's wage to be placed outside the salary cap. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun

AGEING stars like Collingwood's Ben Johnson and St Kilda's Jason Blake, who hang on for a final season next year, could actually make their clubs' salary cap room because of new list rules for veterans.

The old veterans' list rules allowed clubs to put half a player's wage outside the salary cap, but teams can next year decide to exclude $112,000 from the cap per veteran.

So a player like Collingwood's Ben Johnson can effectively be paid nothing in the salary cap next year, with every cent of his base outside the cap.

His match payments would be inside the cap, but he would effectively be cheaper to retain than even a first-year player on $50,000 to $70,000 if they played a similar number of games.

It will be a key factor for clubs with tight salary caps  considering whether to retain veteran players.

Even if a player is on a modest base of $200,000, the ability to shift most of that outside the salary cap will appeal.


Blake has had to wait to find out his fate, but at a club like St Kilda, the rules could hand him a crucial edge.

Essendon has offered veterans David Hille and Nathan Lovett-Murray new contracts.

Johnson will be at Collingwood, but has not yet been given details.
 


23.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Riewoldt ties the knot in Waco

Nick Riewoldt and Catherine Heard have married. Source: Herald Sun

SAINTS captain Nick Riewoldt has tied the knot in a big Texan wedding, at a riverside property owned by his bride Catherine Heard's family.

The newlyweds exchanged vows on Saturday in a pecan grove outside her parents' house in Waco in front 250 guests, including players Jack Riewoldt, Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo and former Tiger Nathan Brown.

The couple met three years ago by the pool at a hotel in Las Vegas.

Riewoldt is already talking babies.

"Hopefully, we can get our act together and start pumping out some little father-sons soon," he said in a pre-wedding video posted on the Saints website this week.

Ms Heard, who moved to Australia in 2010 to be with the St Kilda player, said in the lead-up that it would be a "big southern Texas wedding".

She was true to her word, wearing cowboy boots under her stunning strapless lace gown by Monique Lhuillier.

There were five groomsmen and five bridesmaids with perfect weather.

"It's all outdoors, I wanted a very natural, outdoorsy southern Texas feel," she said in the Saints Hot Seat video.

"It's just a very natural look, I'm not too over the top."

So much effort went into the preparations that Heard missed football's night of nights, the Brownlow Medal, having flown home mid-last month to play wedding planner.


23.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Supercomputers tackle AFL draw

Eyes on the ball...The AFL fixture has been revealed as the most difficult mathematical problem in world sport. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun

THE AFL fixture has been revealed as the most difficult mathematical problem in world sport.

As league chiefs prepare to unveil next season's draw, its complexities have been laid bare by the Canadian company that helps devise it.

The AFL uses British Columbian software firm Optimal Planning Solutions to craft its 23-round fixture.

Canvassing every possible combination for the 198- game home-and-away season would take literally billions of years, Optimal's chief told the Herald Sun.

Optimal creates draws for leading competitions across the globe including NFL football, European soccer, the NRL and Super Rugby.

Optimal chief Rick Stone says the AFL's array of agreements surrounding stadiums, clubs, blockbusters, broadcasters, state derbies, themed matches and player welfare made it the hardest fixture to assemble.


The equation is compounded because the league's 18 teams do not play each other twice.

"From a strictly mathematical point of view, the AFL is more difficult (than the 32-team NFL) -- by far," Stone told the Herald Sun.

"There are a lot of rules specific to the clubs, but there are also a lot of rules specific to stadiums and what the broadcasting partners are looking for. And every year they seem to come up with more rules and we assist them in defining the rules and translate that into software."

New fixture "rules" for next year will see top four teams play fewer matches against bottom four sides.

The only exception will be for the Swans, who get two hitouts against Greater Western Sydney.

Another rule sees the non-finalists from this season play a maximum of two return matches against top eight sides from 2012.

Stone said the home-and-away season, with 18 teams and 22 matches a club across 23 rounds, threw up more than 250,000 potential match-ups.

"The size of this model is so incredibly large -- I mean we attempt to look at every possible solution, but in reality, to look at every possible solution for the AFL would probably take billions of years on the fastest computers there are. Billions of years. It is that big," Stone said.

The AFL makes no secret of the fixture's limitations.

"The draw is absolutely compromised, it's unashamedly comprised, but what's really bizarre about the whole thing, and I can't give you any logical explanation, it appears that the best four teams make the top four every year," AFL boss Andrew Demetriou said last year.

Work on the fixture begins in August and Stone says the end result is outstanding considering the complications.

"They come up with some very good results," he said.

"Ten out 10. They really do a wonderful job with it -- in terms of trying to please everybody.

"There are probably hundreds of rules that go into it -- a lot of them are politically-based, some of them are sport-based and some of them are fairness-based.

"A lot of them are about economics, in terms of television and revenue-driving. So you are looking at it from a number of different perspectives.

"You're looking at it from the clubs, stadiums, networks and road teams, because of travel requirements, particularly for some of the more isolated clubs in Western Australia.

"It is almost an infinite number of combinations. Even from one team's perspective -- you talk to the fans, to the stadium manager, to the coach and to the team owner, they are all going to have a completely different idea about what a perfect schedule is."
 


23.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Calculating the perfect fixture

Calculating the perfect AFL season fixture is no easy task, according to a leading international numbers guru. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: Herald Sun

GRAB a pen and a piece of paper and start trying to nut out if the AFL fixture is as good as it could possibly be.

You'll soon discover it's an impossible task. The maths is so complex it would take billions of years - and even that's a guesstimate by an international numbers guru.

Footy's countless number of agreements, contracts, broadcast deals and player welfare rules make producing the footy fixture a logistical nightmare - mathematically the hardest in world sport.

At the heart of the dilemma is AFL economics - maximising the TV ratings and attendances.

But this needs to be balanced against fairness, six and seven-day breaks for the combatants and sharing the riches among all the clubs.

According to one club figure, the difference between a Friday night fixture and a Sunday twilight match for Collingwood could be $500,000.


For North Melbourne, it could be $200,000.

Big numbers and a lot to compute.

That's where Rick Stone and his Canadian-based software firm Optimal Planning Solutions come to the rescue.

Since 2006, Optimal has assisted the AFL in balancing the endless number of fixture factors.

"Suffice to say, it is an impossibly large number of possible fixture lists that need to be evaluated by the AFL," Stone says.

"Our software, in conjunction with a commercial mathematical solver and state-of-the-art computers, which have between 24 and 80 cores each, allows the AFL to efficiently evaluate the many different possibilities in a much more finite time period."

In layman's terms, that means Optimal's computers are fast - a top personal laptop would have about four cores.

"The AFL, with the use of our software, has built a scoring system that will give penalties for undesirable things," Stone says.

"So you might have situations where a club has back-to-back long travels, or multiple road games in a row ... or fixtures on specific TV networks that aren't as appealing as others."

The end result is the best possible result - because there's simply no such thing as a perfect draw in the AFL.

"You can kind of equate it to trying to find a star in a solar system or a grain of sand on the beach. It really is a mind-boggling number," Stone says.

Stone now knows a lot about Australian football - he has been to two Grand Finals - and is well aware of the politics behind every AFL fixture.

"In general terms, with the leagues that we've been dealing with, if you've got a salary cap in the league, the teams should be pretty even regardless," he said.

"And the fact we do the top eight, bottom 10 rule should make it a little bit fairer for clubs that were at the bottom of the ladder (the previous season).

"Every year is a new year. My personal opinion is that you've got a salary cap in the league, so everyone should be on the same footing going into each season."
 


23.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

It's tricky to get the right formula

AFL fixture consultant Rick Stone (far right). Source: Supplied

YOUR typical state lottery may require you to pick six numbers out of 50 to win the jackpot.

Statistically, this means selecting the correct combination of six numbers out of 50. You would have a one in 15,890,700 chance of winning.

That's how many different ways there are of selecting 6/50.

Compare this with the AFL's fixture lists. We have 18 clubs. Each club can play in one of 34 possible matches per week -- 17 home against the other clubs and 17 away against the other clubs.

In addition, each of those matches can be on any one of the nine different TV slots each round. As well, many of the clubs can host matches in a variety of stadiums, on average about two stadiums per club.

Altogether we are dealing with 18 clubs x 34 match-ups x 9 TV slots x 2 stadiums x 23 rounds, which equals a little over 250,000 possible choices.


From those 250,000 choices, the AFL must select the correct combination of 198 matches that best meets the collective needs of the clubs, the fans, the stadiums, and broadcasters.

I have yet to find a calculatorthat can handle a number as large as this. The answer is always infinity.

Even trying to select 198 matches out of 1000 game options gives me the number 4.1e+214. That is 4.1 with 214 zeros behind it.

I can only imagine that selecting 198 out of 250,000 is infinitely bigger than this number. It's like trying to find the "best" grain of sand on a beach.

Rick Stone is president of Optimal Planning Solutions, the AFL's fixture consultant
 


23.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Clubs told AFL decisions final

Angry Hawthorn say they feel they have been 'pickpocketed' over the loss of Tom Murphy. Picture: Wayne Ludbey Source: Herald Sun

THE AFL says there is no avenue for appeal for clubs livid at the compensation they received for departing free agents.

Hawthorn is smarting at receiving pick No.66 for Clinton Young (Collingwood) and nothing for Tom Murphy (Gold Coast).

The Hawks want to talk to the league about being short-changed, but the AFL said yesterday it had "received no formal approach from any club".

Adelaide yesterday said it wanted an explanation from the league about receiving no compensation for Chris Knights (Richmond).

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said there was no appeals process for clubs.

He said the league already had warned there would be modest compensation, with the criteria for compensation picks being a player's age and contract at his new club.

Under the compensation formula a "committee review" is possible if the formula produced "a materially anomalous result", which could see alternate compensation recommended.

But that process already was used before the picks were released, with no built-in appeals system for upset clubs.

"The compensation comes down to the age and contract offered," Keane said.

"If there are two players who are the same age and there was different compensation for them, it is obvious why it is different.

"The whole purpose of free agency was that if a player leaves, there is not automatic replacement via a draft pick. The (expansion selections) provided much greater compensation because we were adding players to the competition."

Hawthorn was angered by its compensation. Football manager Mark Evans said: "It is like we've been pick-pocketed and somebody has put an old $2 scratchy ticket back in our pocket."

Melbourne also was mystified when it received one third-round selection (49) for Jared Rivers (Geelong) and Brent Moloney (Brisbane Lions).

The Demons lured Geelong's Shannon Byrnes, but considering the league felt he was not worthy of a compensation pick he would not have affected the quality of the pick allocated for Rivers and Moloney. Both are 28, which dilutes the compensation. But Young and Knights - for whom Adelaide received no compensation - are 26.

That formula indicates Young, Rivers and Moloney are on contracts of less money at new clubs than former Port Adelaide players Danyle Pearce (Fremantle) and Troy Chaplin (Richmond).

Port received No. 30 for Pearce and 31 for Chaplin, St Kilda 13 for Brendon Goddard (Essendon) and West Coast 62 for Quinten Lynch (Collingwood).


23.02 | 0 komentar | Read More
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