No Opposition Supporters Re-signing Tex, Danger and Sloane *** Crows Only ***

Your thoughts on Dangerfield?


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Roo Lives Again

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It takes skill to always be the last to know....does his dad do the hiring and firing at the Advertiser...there's got to be a reason why he's still got a job!!!
 

FR0GGY

Press the button
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Speaking of Rucci, has he gone to press with his leaked HR documents from the Crows yet? I don't read The Advertiser.
Fellas I only pipe up when I've got something worthwhile. Nothing doing here just now. I'll let you know. Glad you're getting a laugh at my expense though
Well that didn't take long. Case cracked.
 

MRB37

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http://afl.to/1FZBPW3

IN THE brave new world of free agency, it's fast becoming an accepted football rule that a player who puts off contract talks at the start of a season will be at a new club by season's end.

So when whispers began to emerge that Adelaide star Patrick Dangerfield was in no hurry to shun free agency and re-sign with the Crows, the natural inclination was to think he was out the door.

The strong suspicion whenever this occurs is that the player in question has already made up his mind to move.
Until the AFL embraces an NRL-like culture where players routinely announce their looming departures mid-season, such players will hide their upcoming moves behind flimsy cover stories about needing more time to decide their future or wanting to focus on their football for the rest of the season.

This is the new age of player movement, one which AFL.com.au will explore over the next six days in a suite of articles that reveal how long-held traditions of player and club loyalty are being challenged like never before.

Let's now consider the main issues the Crows will have to confront in 2015, their 'Year of Danger'.
Fortunately for the Crows, they appear to have only one genuine rival for Dangerfield's services – Geelong.

Although some Melbourne clubs could be prepared to offer Dangerfield up to $1.2 million a season, the Cats aren't about to blow Adelaide out of the water with a deal of Buddy-like proportions, especially when they are seeking to re-sign a star restricted free agent of their own, key forward Tom Hawkins.

Most club sources think the Cats will offer no more than $850,000 a season, but even if Geelong is prepared to offer Dangerfield $1 million a year, one list manager suspects Adelaide is well placed to match it.

AFL.com.au understands the Crows haveplenty of room in their salary cap and will have even more if veteran midfielder Scott Thompson retires at the end of this season.

And if the Cats offer Dangerfield a long-term contract of five years or more, the Crows should have no hesitation matching it given Dangerfield is yet to turn 25.
Melbourne made a serious play for Dangerfield last October, offering the Crows pick No. 2. The Demons did not give up easily either, dangling the prized pick under Adelaide's nose time and time again.

One senior AFL coach told AFL.com.au he thought Adelaide had made a mistake. Pick No.2 in the hand was too good to refuse, he argued, when the Crows' best possible return via free agency compensation would be one first-round draft pick.

That compensation pick would be no better than No. 10 if the Crows repeat their 10th-place finish of last season, or pick No. 12 at best if they make the 2015 finals.

But the list managers AFL.com.au spoke to unanimously supported the Crows' trade period stance.

"When all you're really risking is sliding down a few picks in the first round of the draft, Dangerfield is too good a player to just trade out," one list manager said.

"Your best bet is to hang onto him and back yourselves that you'll be able to convince him to stay over the next year."
As good as out-of-contract midfielder Rory Sloane is, Dangerfield is clearly the Crows' biggest unsigned fish.

But, as desperately as Adelaide will want to keep Dangerfield, the Crows have about 18 other players set to come out of contract at the end of this season.

Chief among them are Sloane, free agent Richard Douglas and emerging youngsters Sam Kerridge, Matt Crouch and Luke Brown.

The Crows have already shown they are prepared to get on with other important contract negotiations when they signed prospective free agent – and now captain – Taylor Walker in November.

They are also believed to have the salary cap room to move ahead with other contracts – even Sloane's – without worrying that any ground they give on those players' salaries might eat into money set aside for Dangerfield.
The Crows, on the other hand, should be free to move to sign Sloane immediately, for say $550,00-$600,000 a season, without fear that it will ultimately force other players out the door.

Most of the list managers AFL.com.au spoke to like the Crows' chances of re-signing Sloane, Douglas and co. if they move now.

Should the Crows put a deadline on negotiations?

Knowing where Dangerfield wants to play will help the Crows better prioritise their own player re-signings, but it will also give their recruiting staff more time to woo any rival targets.

If they know Dangerfield is on the way out – or all of their communications with him suggest that he is – the Crows then know they have the salary cap space to make an aggressive play for out-of-contract opposition players such as South Australian Brisbane Lion James Aish or Greater Western Sydney spearhead Jeremy Cameron, whose Dartmoor family home in south-western Victoria is closer to Adelaide than Melbourne.

As one list manager noted, clubs that start "wining and dining" rival players late in the piece are generally at long odds to trump clubs who started their groundwork earlier.

The Crows could also use the money set aside for Dangerfield to sign a free agent, but are extremely unlikely to make a play for any of this year's crop, knowing that in doing so any Dangerfield compensation pick would be downgraded or forfeited altogether.
 
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