AFL 2019: Gold Coast Suns’ long list of requests for assistance from the AFL Commission revealed
Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans and chairman Tony Cochrane will request a vast array of assistance measures when they meet with the AFL Commission on Tuesday.
The club won three of its first four matches in 2019 but failed to notch a victory after Round 4 despite valiant efforts against Melbourne (Round 8), St Kilda (Round 13), and Essendon (Round 19).
Among the detailed paper set to be presented to the AFL Commission on Tuesday, an increased salary cap, draft allowances and an acknowledgment that any measures would be temporary are likely to be at the top of the agenda.
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And while the Suns will ask for wide-ranging help, they will make sure they don’t come across as needy or desperate.
Foxfooty.com.au understands Evans and Cochrane will request the following:
- At least one priority pick at the top of the draft, in the hope they can select school friends and teammates Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson with selections one and two in November;
- Salary cap relief, though there is an acknowledgment at Gold Coast this is less likely to be approved given how hard the AFL has worked to equalise total player payments in recent years;
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- More scope for ambassadorial and marketing money to be distributed to players and prospective trade targets;
- At least first round draft selections to be tied to three-year contracts, rather than two-year deals as is the case currently;
- and Academy changes which would allow the club to gain priority access to elite juniors without the potential for clubs to bid for them.
Crucially, Gold Coast will also make it clear it does not expect any or all of these measures to last for 20 years.
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Instead, the Suns will make it crystal clear any advantages afforded to the club will act as temporary concessions designed to get it back on its feet with the right people in charge.
It’s understood the requests will essentially focus on requirements under the broad scope of a ‘moment in time assistant package’ to jolt the club in the short term.
Gold Coast does not want to be seen as a handout club on its knees begging for relief. And when Suns representatives presented their strategy to the AFL last week, they outlined the moves they’ve made across the last 12-18 months to solidify pressing issues internally.
They discussed the need to improve player retention and to break the cycle of departures that has seen three captains leave across the last two off-seasons (Gary Ablett, Steve May and Tom Lynch).
It’s understood the AFL assessed the presentation in a favourable manner.
Gold Coast spends more money than any other club on ‘personal excellence’, which is broadly a term used at Metricon Stadium referring to player welfare and sits under the soft cap.
Norm Smith medallist Shaun Hart heads up the personal excellence wing of the club and is said to be a popular, enthusiastic and respected member of the football department. Of the 18 new staff who have arrived in the last year, six are positioned under the watchful eye of Hart.
In addition, the Suns have re-signed 14 players since the end of last season, including captain and ruckman Jarrod Witts and David Swallow until the end of 2024 and Touk Miller until the end of 2022.
No.3 draft pick Izak Rankine also extended his contract until the end of 2022 in early July, though they will lose uncontracted West Australian Jack Martin in the trade period.
The AFL is likely to informally notify Gold Coast which concessions the Commission has approved and rejected in early September, but won’t formally respond until the next Commission meeting around Grand Final time.