Brisbane to sack FevolaCaroline Wilson
February 19, 2011BRISBANE Lions will sack troubled footballer Brendan Fevola within the next few days. The Lions could make the official call as early as Monday, having held high-level talks yesterday at AFL headquarters.
Contrary to recent reports, the AFL yesterday confirmed it would use its discretion to relieve the club's salary-cap woes by spreading Fevola's seven-figure payout over two years, as it did with St Kilda last season when Andrew Lovett was sacked.
A Brisbane Lions contingent led by club chairman Angus Johnson, acting chief executive Steve Wright and football boss Dean Warren yesterday met AFL bosses, including Andrew Demetriou and Adrian Anderson. Although Fevola was not the only topic on the agenda, when the talks broke up no one was left in any doubt regarding Fevola's fate.
Fevola's manager, Alastair Lynch, said he had not received any official word from Brisbane but agreed that the longer the stalemate lasted the worse it appeared for Fevola, who remains in a rehabilitation facility and has no meeting scheduled with Lions coach Michael Voss or other club chiefs.
Lynch said Fevola would remain in care until he knew whether or not he had a future with the Lions - the club he joined last season after Carlton terminated its star full-forward, the 2006 and 2009 Coleman medallist. The Age understands that special arrangements would be put in place by Lynch's Velocity Sports to help Fevola rebuild his life after leaving Brisbane.
Under Fevola's generous three-year deal, he is due to earn at least $1 million this season from the Lions, along with $100,000 from Carlton. With the Lions looking to settle with Fevola to the tune of at least $1.2 million and potentially up to $1.5 million - he was contracted in 2012 for about $400,000 - the AFL is believed to have approved spreading Fevola's payout over two seasons.
Anderson, the AFL's football operations boss, last night confirmed the league had discretionary powers to spread any termination settlement over more than one season, although he refused to discuss Fevola specifically.
With significant six-figure gambling debts, Fevola - a confessed gambling addict, depressive and binge drinker - is expected to return to Melbourne in a bid to rebuild his life.
The Lions board had reportedly planned to reach a decision on Fevola next Wednesday but was awaiting an official recommendation from Wright and new football boss Warren. Yesterday's talks are understood to have significantly speeded up the proceedings.
Fevola was suspended indefinitely by the club after being arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Brisbane in the early hours of New Year's Day, but even before that incident the club had looked at cutting its losses and terminating his contract.
It had hoped to release him at a less significant financial cost after a woman alleged he had exposed himself to her at a community function last September, but Fevola was cleared by police of those allegations.
Fevola then flew to China to join the club on a post-season tour which included an exhibition game against Melbourne, where his poor behaviour was witnessed by AFL officials.
The New Year's Day incident involving a clash with police proved to be the last straw for the turbulent but talented full-forward.
As costly as Fevola's payout will be, the decision to recruit him - led by Voss and his then football boss Graeme Allan - has already proved devastatingly expensive for the Lions. The decision was approved by now departed chairman Tony Kelly and then CEO Michael Bowers, who was exited from the club late last year. The decision never went before the board and led in part to the resignation of director David Liddy.
Premiership forward Daniel Bradshaw quit, disenchanted, for Sydney, and at the end of 2010 Michael Rischitelli and Jared Brennan left for bigger money at the Gold Coast.
Despite Fevola's increasingly highlighted off-field issues, the view from Brisbane is that the club is not a rehabilitation facility and the fortunes of the Lions' playing group had to be placed ahead of Fevola the individual.
It was not a difficult decision. His mood swings were proving a massive distraction to the youth-led path Voss has been forced to take, and influences like Fevola - who can lead the pack on his charm as soon as shun it - were damaging. The club was also mindful that having sacked the errant Albert Proud, it would have been sending mixed messages by keeping Fevola.
The problem was that the latter was much costlier and layered with complexities. Lynch's comments regarding Fevola's well-being, desire to play again and his recommended need for the disciplined structure offered by football placed more pressure on the club. But in the end it was not enough to retain an unfit and unpredictable 30-year-old.
And with some finessing from the AFL, even the payout became a secondary concern. As costly as it will be to sack Fevola, the Lions knew it would have been costlier to keep him.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/brisbane-to-sack-fevola-20110218-1azqk.html
