GWS optimism on Josh Kelly is bad news for RichmondGreg Denham
The Australian
21 August 2017Greater Western Sydney’s increased optimism over the past week that superstar Josh Kelly will stay with them for the next two years spells big problems for Richmond’s bid to retain Brownlow Medal favourite Dustin Martin.
There appears to have been a big turnaround in Martin’s situation, with the Tigers losing the confidence that they had the upper hand in recontracting the free agent.
After beating West Coast at Spotless Stadium on the back of a clear best-on-ground performance from Kelly, GWS coach Leon Cameron reiterated his confidence that the midfielder wanted to stay with the Giants until the end of 2019. Despite the constant distraction of Kelly’s immediate future — with North Melbourne, St Kilda and Carlton all after him — the uncontracted 22-year-old has maintained his focus and has hardly missed a beat this season.
On Saturday the left-footer gathered a club record 43 possessions and eight clearances in the 21-point win. Enormous courage can be added to his CV after being crunched when he collided with West Coast’s Josh Kennedy approaching time on in the final quarter.
How did he respond after being bandaged up on the bench? Unbelievably, under pressure, he delivered a brilliant right-foot pass to Shane Mumford, who kicked truly for goal, before Kelly booted the final goal of the match himself.
Kelly’s contract status beyond has been a talking point all year, and Cameron said his focus had been undiminished despite the speculation. “He’s had a huge year and that’s why we value him so much,” the coach said. “We understand where he’s at in terms of the contract.
“He’s wanted by us, and I have no doubt he wants to stay at our footy club. On the back of those sorts of performances you understand why other clubs are looking at him because he is a pretty good, god damn player. He wants to win for our footy club and he had a massive game.”
There is no doubt Kelly and the Giants have appreciated the return from injury in recent weeks of big-bodied on-ballers Stephen Coniglio and Jacob Hopper.
Importantly for the league’s newest club, it’s thought in Sydney’s west that if Kelly stays, so will his mate Hopper, who is also out of contract and has attracted the most attention from Carlton and Geelong.
But it is the Tigers who are starting to get nervous because North Melbourne are believed to be on the verge of increasing their offer to Martin if they miss luring Kelly — the second of their two-pronged priority recruiting strategy. With both Richmond and North Melbourne already having offered Martin six-year deals of more than $1 million annually, as exclusively reported in The Australian in May, the Kangaroos are now preparing to negotiate their deal out to seven years as well as a pay increase to almost $1.5m a year.
The Australian believes North Melbourne officials, possibly including coach Brad Scott, are preparing as early as this weekend, to fly to New Zealand to speak to Martin’s father Shane.
Martin’s future appears to have changed significantly over the past fortnight, as the Tigers were very confident they had almost closed the deal for Martin to play out his career at Punt Road. Right now, that no longer appears so.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/gws-optimism-on-josh-kelly-is-bad-news-for-richmond/news-story/50a07ef86098311f3588a76f202a0454