I wanted to do some research into th attitudes of media people regarding previous big FA moves and compare them to this one.
Dangerfield had this fawning article by Robbo where they listed his family, the environment, his family, the history of the area, his family, the future, the area, then there's a quote about how the family (and by extension Robbo, who has now written an article so long and meandering that surely he is a distant uncle by association) hated that fans on "internet forums" were calling Dangerfield a traitor. There is one mention of money and it's Dangerfield saying "I'm getting paid incredibly well anyway", but by and large it's Dangerfield being lauded for leaving his original club and going to another one for what you would assume is more money.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...b68520582?sv=84af0a18bb0335f4ceb8bf21ec52740a
Then there's this one:
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/cats-purr-as-afl-trade-trendsetters-ng-ya-158765
The first line is "Geelong is an amazing footy club". Throughout the article there are mentions of Geelong "making history" among other things:
This weird article from Jake Niall about how Harvard (?!) played a role in a super non-complicated, amicable player exchange scenario:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-harvard-helped-the-dangerfield-deal-20151031-gkno93.html
More generally the mood surrounding the Dangerfield deal was not one of "he's a dog for leaving", it was more "oh well, let him go", and then congratulating Geelong for their directness and their ability to make an offer and get a player signed, sealed and delivered. The language is really positive, there's not much to-ing and fro-ing about whether or not Geelong are being obstructive or are desperate for trying to lure Dangerfield, etc etc.
Compare all that to the North offers to Dusty, which so far has seen the following:
- The absolute worst argument of all time, which is that he will have to pay more tax on a larger offer from North, which would be a terrific argument if it weren't for the fact that his manager isn't a football manager, and is more a celebrity handler, which means he's probably across every conceivable dodgy tax arrangement in the book
- Football media openly barracking against the idea of Martin coming to North, with luminaries like Caro penning tear-smattered op-eds asking why Dusty would leave (hint - it's the $2.8m he's stacking up)
- Talking Footy, Slurping Footy, Footy ****heads, Footy ******s and We Love Footy Television dedicating countless discussion topics to why Dusty should stay, why he should reject the money, why he should forfeit nearly $3m when he could accept the contract and set himself up for life
- The entire media stating that Martin would want to stay at Richmond and not go to North because the club has no good young players despite the fact that we debuted 13 of them this season, and our 24 year old full forward kicked 63 goals and finished 3rd in the Coleman despite having a midfield that collectively kicks like a drunk mule
- The Richmond FC stating they were giving Martin all the time and space in the world to make his decision, that they wouldn't be pressuring him and would give him leave to go to NZ and speak to his father, doing all the right things and generally taking a back seat to wait for Martin to make his decision, and then Channel 7 flying obssessed celebrity stalker and button-faced cretin Stevo to a foreign country to shout questions at a podcast-listening Martin to glean precisely no new information
- North being called irresponsible for spending "so much money" on one player, despite Franklin commanding a 9y/10m deal, Ablett getting more than we've offered Martin in the first year of his deal at the GC, and Dangerfield leaving Adelaide to come to Geelong on huge coin and all three being lauded for it, plus the weird "it'll screw up North's ability to pay all their other players", which is strange because two points ago we didn't have any good young players, so you'd think we'd be sweet for paying them
- Further to the "it'll throw out the salary cap at North", we actually had to request permission from the AFL to pay less than the salary cap floor. We've made stupid offers to Hannebery, Heeney, Kelly, Martin, Hartlett, and anyone else you care to name because we
have to pay that money to someone. Someone is getting that money whether it's Martin or Kelly or a player to be named later. We have the money to spend because believe it or not, as I have posted in the past, our list management team isn't sitting around drinking beer bongs and going off a napkin with player spend totals written on it. We use Excel spreadsheets now, and they're formatted beautifully
- The media acting incredulous when hearing that North's leadership group had met with Martin, and Hardwick being asked if it's a bad thing that players are meeting with other clubs throughout the season, only to earn some respect by stating "we've done it before" and nobody in the media mentioning it again
- RIchmond openly going to the AFL and attempting to get permission to rort the salary cap to keep Martin because they're thoroughly aware they can't match our offer, and everybody just being like "well yeah that's cool"
I genuinely feel sorry for Martin. I have no doubt the guy is split between wanting to remain loyal to the Tigers who again I have no doubt have done massive things for him and his life and his family, accepting a smaller deal at Richmond and maybe proving the view some people have of him wrong, and wanting to take the money and set himself up for life. Realistically he's probably embarrassed that he even has to make this decision and largely just wants to play footy and kick the aggot around. We've made his choice incredibly difficult by offering so much money that he actually has to take pause and go and get counsel from his father.
I would love nothing more than for the question to be answered quickly so that either way, the bloke can just get back to enjoying his life, because I'd wager it's not all sunshine and roses in the Martin camp at the moment.
I hope Stevo falls into Milford Sound and is washed into the Tasman.