Australian Football League club Adelaide Crows are expecting to have selections taken from them over the next two national drafts as well as "being heavily fined by the AFL" for violating the salary cap for the past three years, according to Greg Denham of THE AUSTRALIAN.
As the Kurt Tippett investigation intensifies, "the Crows have hidden from the AFL at least A$300,000 ($311,000) in payments to him over the past three years." The league "has already discovered guaranteed payments of A$100,000 a season over the length of Tippett's three-year contract from '09 that were outside the club's salary cap." Tippett was not traded before Friday's deadline and "remains an out-of-contract Crows player without a home." Sydney Swans withdrew their interest in Tippett "because of the controversy that surfaced earlier this week" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/27). In Adelaide, Michelangelo Rucci reported that Adelaide CEO Steven Trigg on Friday "handed to the AFL a letter of agreement reached outside the Crows' contract dealings with Tippett in '09." That letter "has at least three clauses -- the exit demand to trade Tippett to any AFL club of his choice when he chose to leave Adelaide and two deals that could breach the AFL salary cap rules." Crows Chair Rob Chapman "insisted the club had nothing to hide after initiating an AFL probe into Kurt Tippett's out-of-contract terms at West Lakes," home of the club. Chapman also "opened the Adelaide player files to AFL investigator Ken Wood as the special letter between Tippett and the Crows from '09 brings into question how the club has signed up its squad." Chapman said, "We have nothing to hide, and we have opened all the books to the AFL without condition. I can give a gold-plated commitment the AFL will find nothing" (THE ADVERTISER, 10/25). In Adelaide, Rucci also reported that Adelaide "will have to cut a wanted Crows player on Wednesday" as the pain from the Tippett scandal "turns to list management at West Lakes." The Crows "will have to gamble on which player to turf into the AFL national draft pool where Adelaide may not get a call until No. 83." The main candidates remain out-of-favor midfielder Richard Tambling or any of Adelaide's recent draftees Nick Joyce, Mitch Grigg or Cam Ellis-Yolmen (THE ADVERTISER, 10/29).
