Richmond would be silly not to match any free agency offer for Dustin MartinJon Ralph,
Herald Sun
21 June 2017RICHMOND has already taken on free agency’s arcane loopholes and won by trading Brett Deledio at the top of his value.
Clubs reluctantly accepted the player body’s demand for more player movement but the smarter ones are prospering.
Now the Tigers can help their case with Dustin Martin by stating they will matching his restricted free agency no matter what cost.
To date no one has yet officially matched a free agency bid and yet the cannier clubs have played the market well.
Adelaide effectively did just that by forcing Geelong into a trade for Patrick Dangerfield with threat of matching and reaped picks 9, 28 and Dean Gore rather than a late first-round pick.
Richmond happily accepted the Giants’ first and third-round selections in 2017 when Deledio wanted out, aware he was a free agent this year anyway.
Just as Paul Roos had predicted after studying American free agency, clubs aware they could lose free agents would trade them 12 months before.
Just imagine what kind of free agency compensation they would have got this year for Deledio.
A banged up midfielder turning 31 in the first month of the season with a body that keeps breaking down.
So big tick for the Tigers.
Now the Martin situation confronts them, with no one really knowing exactly what he might do.
He has absolutely no reason to leave — he has a deal of over $1 million a year in front of him, his club is well placed for success, he is content at the club.
But pushing the message that under free agency rights they would match any bid might make their hand even stronger.
Brendon Gale has already inferred it, saying on Saturday: “He’s a restricted free agent. So we’ve always got the right to match any sort of offer. I guess we do have that in the background.”
Under free agency rights if a player’s restricted free agency bid is matched, they can either stay, nominate for the draft or the clubs can broker a trade.
If Martin departed the Tigers would receive a pick after their first round selection.
It is currently pick 13, so receiving pick 14 for Martin would follow a long line of clubs being shafted with inadequate compensation.
Pick 14 is the same number Adelaide refused to accept as compensation for Dangerfield.
If Martin had a bid from a club like North Melbourne or Essendon matched, there is some chance he would still stay at the Tigers.
Ryan O’Keefe and Bryce Gibbs before him looked to be traded then sucked it up and immediately put in excellent seasons when they remained.
The option of going into the draft wouldn’t appeal at all to Martin given Brisbane are expected to have the No.1 pick in the pre-season and national drafts.
So the only other option is those clubs being forced into trading for Martin.
Richmond could immediately ask for something like North Melbourne’s first pick (currently No.3) and Mason Wood, or Essendon’s first pick (11) and a marking forward.
All of those permutations are a long way down the track.
But at least it would plant the seed to Martin that departing would be far from swanning out the door to a new location.
Hawthorn couldn’t hope to match Lance Franklin’s Sydney offer given their tight salary cap.
But Richmond will have new CBA dollars and will no longer be paying $300,000 of Deledio’s wage to GWS.
It isn’t paying for departing players Chris Yarran or Tyrone Vickery and could match crazy money even if it only led to an immediate trade.
The worst outcome from matching is a superior trade to pick No.14 and the downside is basically nothing.
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