One-eyed Tiger
15 Oct 2003, 01:57
Tigers agree to pay cuts
By Caroline Wilson
October 15, 2003
Richmond captain Wayne Campbell has revealed that he and six of his teammates yesterday voted to take significant pay cuts next season in a bid to make room for Dean Solomon and Nathan Brown on the Tigers' 2004 list.
While Solomon remained torn last night between the Bombers and the Tigers, the seven highest-paid players on Richmond's list remained united over the cuts should they be required to attract the two high-priced recruits, Campbell said.
Campbell, who contacted Solomon in London yesterday to assure him that no resentment surrounded the reported four-year $1.6 million deal offered to the 23-year-old premiership defender, said his senior teammates had met earlier and taken five minutes to unanimously vote for the cuts.
Matthew Richardson, Darren Gaspar, Kane Johnson, Joel Bowden and Greg Stafford attended the early-morning meeting at Punt Road, called by Campbell and the club's football operations chief Greg Miller. All are understood to have agreed to take a $25,000 pay cut.
The seventh player, Brad Ottens, was in Adelaide but is believed to have later agreed to the salary sacrifice, freeing up almost $200,000 in Richmond's salary cap.
"We've been pretty well looked after by Richmond," Campbell said. "and over the past two years we haven't performed. For most of my career I've been looked after and in recent years so has Richo, so has Darren (Gaspar). We all have but we haven't had success.
"Basically Greg (Miller) put it to us that he needs a bit of help to get a couple of footballers to the club to help us achieve success. We believe we owe it to him.
"Greg's a proven administrator. He's done the right thing by the Kangaroos and I think he'll do the right thing by this football club. The talk of disgruntlement is just wrong. I think it's probably coming from another football club."
While Miller remained confident last night of signing Brown - Richmond has offered the Bulldogs its first two picks in the national draft (6 and 21) - he agreed that Solomon could have been torn by emotional conversations in recent days with his Essendon teammates James Hird and Adam Ramanauskas.
"The fact that he's swayed by blokes like Hird and Ramanauskas only make me realise what a quality player and leader he is," said Miller.
Fuelling ongoing ill-feeling between the seasoned and aggressive recruiter and Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, Miller revealed that Sheedy had said to him of Solomon on Monday: "He's just a half-back flanker."
But Miller and Campbell had different ideas. "We see Dean Solomon not as a half-back flanker but as an on-field leader that Richmond has a dearth of," Miller said. "That's what you build premierships out of."
Campbell said: "We need his type. Coming back from a knee reconstruction, to see what he's done, he's the type of player we need - pinch-hitting in the middle and moving to half-back or half-forward. 'I've been speaking to Greg a bit about this and we're all sweet about it.
"Dean has great relationships with his teammates but he knows a few of the blokes here, too, through he and Matty Rogers' business together in the Lounge."
Gaspar, 27, Richmond's vice-captain, and Richardson, last season's acting captain, are the two highest-paid players at the club. Richardson, who turns 29 before the start of next season, has a three-year contract with the club until 2005 worth between $1.2 and $1.5 million.
Gaspar knocked back a remarkably lucrative offer from Fremantle at the end of the 2000 season, instead re-signing with the Tigers in a five-year, $2.5 million deal.
While several managers of the Richmond players involved privately voiced some concern over clubs requesting financial sacrifices by footballers, they agreed that it was the players' decision.
In 2001, 12 senior Kangaroos - at Miller's request - agreed to $10,000 pay cuts to put the club in line with the AFL's total player payments rules.
Last year Carlton players agreed to cuts, a move that drew concern from the players' association.
By Caroline Wilson
October 15, 2003
Richmond captain Wayne Campbell has revealed that he and six of his teammates yesterday voted to take significant pay cuts next season in a bid to make room for Dean Solomon and Nathan Brown on the Tigers' 2004 list.
While Solomon remained torn last night between the Bombers and the Tigers, the seven highest-paid players on Richmond's list remained united over the cuts should they be required to attract the two high-priced recruits, Campbell said.
Campbell, who contacted Solomon in London yesterday to assure him that no resentment surrounded the reported four-year $1.6 million deal offered to the 23-year-old premiership defender, said his senior teammates had met earlier and taken five minutes to unanimously vote for the cuts.
Matthew Richardson, Darren Gaspar, Kane Johnson, Joel Bowden and Greg Stafford attended the early-morning meeting at Punt Road, called by Campbell and the club's football operations chief Greg Miller. All are understood to have agreed to take a $25,000 pay cut.
The seventh player, Brad Ottens, was in Adelaide but is believed to have later agreed to the salary sacrifice, freeing up almost $200,000 in Richmond's salary cap.
"We've been pretty well looked after by Richmond," Campbell said. "and over the past two years we haven't performed. For most of my career I've been looked after and in recent years so has Richo, so has Darren (Gaspar). We all have but we haven't had success.
"Basically Greg (Miller) put it to us that he needs a bit of help to get a couple of footballers to the club to help us achieve success. We believe we owe it to him.
"Greg's a proven administrator. He's done the right thing by the Kangaroos and I think he'll do the right thing by this football club. The talk of disgruntlement is just wrong. I think it's probably coming from another football club."
While Miller remained confident last night of signing Brown - Richmond has offered the Bulldogs its first two picks in the national draft (6 and 21) - he agreed that Solomon could have been torn by emotional conversations in recent days with his Essendon teammates James Hird and Adam Ramanauskas.
"The fact that he's swayed by blokes like Hird and Ramanauskas only make me realise what a quality player and leader he is," said Miller.
Fuelling ongoing ill-feeling between the seasoned and aggressive recruiter and Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, Miller revealed that Sheedy had said to him of Solomon on Monday: "He's just a half-back flanker."
But Miller and Campbell had different ideas. "We see Dean Solomon not as a half-back flanker but as an on-field leader that Richmond has a dearth of," Miller said. "That's what you build premierships out of."
Campbell said: "We need his type. Coming back from a knee reconstruction, to see what he's done, he's the type of player we need - pinch-hitting in the middle and moving to half-back or half-forward. 'I've been speaking to Greg a bit about this and we're all sweet about it.
"Dean has great relationships with his teammates but he knows a few of the blokes here, too, through he and Matty Rogers' business together in the Lounge."
Gaspar, 27, Richmond's vice-captain, and Richardson, last season's acting captain, are the two highest-paid players at the club. Richardson, who turns 29 before the start of next season, has a three-year contract with the club until 2005 worth between $1.2 and $1.5 million.
Gaspar knocked back a remarkably lucrative offer from Fremantle at the end of the 2000 season, instead re-signing with the Tigers in a five-year, $2.5 million deal.
While several managers of the Richmond players involved privately voiced some concern over clubs requesting financial sacrifices by footballers, they agreed that it was the players' decision.
In 2001, 12 senior Kangaroos - at Miller's request - agreed to $10,000 pay cuts to put the club in line with the AFL's total player payments rules.
Last year Carlton players agreed to cuts, a move that drew concern from the players' association.