Can someone explain this to me? They will give away a top 10 player and pick 7 for nothing?
Yep. The link above explains it. The Suns are using the new trade rule where you are now allowed to offload a contracted player to free up salary cap space including adding a cherry on top (pick 7 in this case) if another club is willing to take on that player's existing contract. Clearly, after losing Rankin, a freed-up salary cap is now more important to Gold Coast than another early pick who will likely leave in a couple of years anyway because of their tight salary cap. In essence, it looks like they are using this new trade rule to try and break that cycle.
If he's not good enough to be on the contract he's on then that is mismanagement, and handing another team pick 7 is simply curing mismanagement with further mismanagement.
I'm sure this is some ruse to get more top players and picks to Geelong ...
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What do the Suns get out of the deal?
“The motivation is to free up the salary cap space and ease that pressure,” he [Twomey] added.
“They do have some re-signings that are important next year in Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson.
“And also in time they’re going to be a destination club. I can see the Suns becoming like Brisbane has become.
“They’re likely to get pick 5 as part of the Izak Rankine deal so they will still have a foot at the front of the draft.”
Thanks for that. It still seems insane to me though. I mean, unless they're going to throw their hands up in the air and stop drafting entirely (which is illegal--3 picks minimum) then you're always going to head to the draft, and if you are, you might as well head there with pick 7 instead of pick 77.
If the player, Bowes, is good enough to be on a troublesome contract then he is good enough to be paid that contract elsewhere without pick 7 needing to head that way as well. ("Please, he's a jet, we'll give you pick 7 to pay him!" huh?) I mean why are we packaging up picks for Taranto and Hopper when they should apparently be heading our way instead?
If he's not good enough to be on that contract then that is mismanagement, but paying another club pick 7 to take him is curing mismanagement with further mismanagement.
Are we sure this isn't a new mechanism for keeping Geelong perpetually at the top. They've already changed the on-field rules to suit the style of those soft panic-merchants.
