How were you imagining that would have happened? How would we have forced him to leave?
Every list manager in the afl said that we did the right thing and they would have done the same thing, fwiw.
That wasn't the point I was trying to make, maybe it didn't come across well. My point was the best chance of getting somewhere close to value for him would have been trading him whilst still under contract. Would it have been possible? Probably not.
If he was to accept a free agency offer from a club at the end of this year, the only way we will get a decent pick for him is if we finish bottom 4. If we match the offer we may get the team he chooses first round pick and a player as an absolute best return. The other team will call a bluff about him going into PSD, we have lost two years of decent draft picks, as a club we are in no position to cut the nose off our faces on principle.
Which goes back to Alexs comment that the person was dreaming about us getting a first rounder and Cockatoo...we are not going to get a value reward for him leaving