Cats - re-signing players

[ScouseCat]

Cats aim for stars
Fiona Welsh
Geelong Advertiser
8:49:33 AM Fri 6 June, 2003

http://gfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=97312

Geelong is launching an all-out assault to re-sign some of its brightest young stars. More than 20 players are out of contract at the end of the season, and the club has spent months working on new agreements.

The bulk of the signings will come from the younger senior players on two-year deals.

http://gfc.com.au/cp2/c2/webi/article/097280bb.jpg

The list covers a bevy of midfielders including Joel Corey, Corey Enright, Paul Chapman and Cameron Ling from the 1999 national draft, and James Kelly, James Bartel, Steve Johnson and David Johnson from the 2001 group.

Cats football operations manager Garry Davidson said yesterday the expanded list was the result of two groups of two-year deals coinciding.

"It's also a result of our conscious decision to draft young people and develop our own list, particularly when Mark (Thompson) came to the club," Davidson said.

A succession plan over the past four years has seen the club draft an impressive array of midfielders and in the past two years supplement them with eight tall forwards.

The succession plan and re-contracting strategy would continue for the greater part of the year, Davidson said.

Chief executive Brian Cook said the club hoped to announce new contracts for up to six players within the next fortnight.

He said Geelong had moved away from locking players into deals longer than two years with only a handful signed for three years.

He highlighted the cases of Jason Snell and Ronnie Burns as examples of why the Cats did not favour longer terms.

"It was our fault that we gave Ronnie a three-year contract and then at the end of the first year we traded him," Cook said of the forward who went to Adelaide.

"Jason was three weeks into his three-year deal and he was injured. Again it was not his fault," he said.

Snell was paid out after he suffered a career-ending ankle injury at the MCG in 2001.

Cook said many clubs now preferred two-year deals, although some of the top clubs would sign up their franchise players for five or six years.

Currently, the Cats are paying just under 97 per cent of the salary cap, and hope to maintain a similar figure in 2004.

The club is also seeking concessions on the father-son rule which allows for one selection each year.

The Cats hope to be able to pick both Mark Blake, son of Rod, and Nathan Ablett, son of Gary, who are eligible for the AFL draft this year.

[ScouseCat]

I hope we are able to keep the majority of our young players together. I thought it was interesting to read that Geelong is hoping to draft both Mark Blake and Nathan Ablett at the end of this year.

Thoughts??

[Fall Out Boy]

If the club don't sign Corey, Chapman and Ling to AT LEAST 3 year deals, they will have this problem all over again at the end of 2005.

Besides, though kids deserve longer contracts.

[Big Red]

Surely Nathan Ablett wont even nominate himself for the draft this year so therefore no one will be able to pick him up!? We get Blake this year, and then if Nathan decides he wants to play he makes himself available next year and we get him then.

It's a shame Brian Peake only played 60 odd games for us and we can't get his son under the father son rule. We could have flown him in in a helicopter! Apparently Freo do get a crack at him under the Father/Son rule and will pick him up

[Fall Out Boy]

Originally posted by Big Red
Surely Nathan Ablett wont even nominate himself for the draft this year so therefore no one will be able to pick him up!?

Obviously he won't nominate unless we are able to get him.


Originally posted by Big Red

It's a shame Brian Peake only played 60 odd games for us and we can't get his son under the father son rule. We could have flown him in in a helicopter! Apparently Freo do get a crack at him under the Father/Son rule and will pick him up

No real loss unless the kid si only 14-15 now.

We're pretty much committed to F/S players for the next two years.

[Big Red]

Originally posted by phatandphreaky



No real loss unless the kid si only 14-15 now.



Or an absolute superstar like his Dad was always expected to be, but wasn't!

[ScouseCat]

Originally posted by Big Red
Or an absolute superstar like his Dad was always expected to be, but wasn't!

Brian Peake was a great player in an ordinary side, often asked to play roles which didn't suit him. We never saw the best of Peake at Geelong, that was one of the reasons why. (that was what my Dad says about him)

[ScouseCat]

Originally posted by phatandphreaky
If the club don't sign Corey, Chapman and Ling to AT LEAST 3 year deals, they will have this problem all over again at the end of 2005.

Besides, though kids deserve longer contracts.

I agree with you, especially the above mentioned players... guys who will hopefully be the heart of our team for many, many years.

Also add Corey Enright to your list of players.

[you_idiot]

About 20 players, just for the sake of a round figure? Hmmmmm, interesting stuff...

I know some salary-cap numbers have come up on this forum before, but if it gets to a point where the club has to prioritise who to keep and who not to, just for the sake of sheer numbers against the cap, a majority of the players had better get some multi-year deals.

And for all the growing pains they've had to endure this year, they certainly deserve to remain tied to the Geelong Football Club for well into the foreseeable future.

I agree with what P&P had to say, that the likes of Ling, Chapman and Corey MUST be given three-year deals. Yet the same can be said for Enright, Ablett Jr., Kelly, Bartel and the Johnson boys. They all deserve it, based on their meritorious service to date to the GFC.

However, it will all depend on what the room under the cap will allow. Will be interesting to see what transpires in the off-season...

[Fall Out Boy]

Originally posted by you_idiot
Yet the same can be said for Enright, Ablett Jr., Kelly, Bartel and the Johnson boys. They all deserve it, based on their meritorious service to date to the GFC.

Ablett already has a three year deal.

I agree with Enright, but neither of the Johnson boys deserve a 3 year contract at this stage.

Hell, neither deserves more then a one year deal based on 2003 form.

[ScouseCat]

Originally posted by you_idiot
I agree with what P&P had to say, that the likes of Ling, Chapman and Corey MUST be given three-year deals. Yet the same can be said for Enright, Ablett Jr., Kelly, Bartel and the Johnson boys. They all deserve it, based on their meritorious service to date to the GFC.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of signing players for 2 and 3 year deals if we are able to manage and keep them at Geelong regardless??

[you_idiot]

Originally posted by phatandphreaky
Ablett already has a three year deal.

Certainly good news, then. :)

Originally posted by phatandphreaky
I agree with Enright, but neither of the Johnson boys deserve a 3 year contract at this stage.

Hell, neither deserves more then a one year deal based on 2003 form.

Nonetheless, some of those questionable players will get some sort of contract renewal, either a one- or two-year deal, when the time comes later this year.

It'll take some creative finance work (legal, of course) in order to get everyone signed up. All very important, to keep the nucleus together for the future...

[you_idiot]

Originally posted by ScouseCat
What are the advantages and disadvantages of signing players for 2 and 3 year deals if we are able to manage and keep them at Geelong regardless??

Damn, that's a good question, my friend. :)

Advantages-- Keeping the nucleus of developing players intact for future glories (as aforementioned); gives the players a sense of community and security at the GFC; and knowing that if any other club wanted our players with these kinds of salaries and commitments, they'd have to pay through the nose to get them in a trade.

Disadvantages-- Can't think of any, really. ;)

[ScouseCat]

Originally posted by you_idiot
All very important, to keep the nucleus together for the future...

That is the most important part, keeping these players together for long enough to develop into a high quality side. We should have enough room in our salary cap, especially with Mitchell White and Marc Woolnough likely to be delisted at the end of the season, and Peter Riccardi moved onto the veterans list. (if he isnt on there already)

Peter Street and James Rahilly would be feeling just a little nervous I would think, especially if they don't show signs of improvement in the next 12 weeks. It is becoming more and more difficult to justify them remaining on our list at the end of the season.

[you_idiot]

Originally posted by ScouseCat
Peter Street and James Rahilly would be feeling just a little nervous I would think, especially if they don't show signs of improvement in the next 12 weeks. It is becoming more and more difficult to justify them remaining on our list at the end of the season.

Sounds like trade bait to me. :)

Although I think the management's mind will be made up on those players well before the end of the next 12-week window.

Just my opinion...

[ScouseCat]

Originally posted by you_idiot
Although I think the management's mind will be made up on those players well before the end of the next 12-week window.

Someone like Kevin Sheedy would find out exactly which players on his list can play and which ones cant if his Essendon side were in a similar position.

[you_idiot]

Originally posted by ScouseCat
Someone like Kevin Sheedy would find out exactly which players on his list can play and which ones cant if his Essendon side were in a similar position.

That's a good analogy, and I think a line in the sand can be drawn in the case of our clib as well, as to which players will be well entrenched at the club, and which players will be well entrenched under the gallows of the guillotine, as it were.

[Mattster]

i can only think of 4 players who would be gone at the end of the year...perhaps i'm not thinking like Sheedy...:(

But yeah, Corey, Ling, Enright, Chapman must be signed