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BRENDON Goddard has shed new light on his departure from St Kilda, saying he originally “begged” the club to keep him with a “deal that was fair”.
The Saints were under enormous salary cap pressure in 2012 when Goddard accepted a four-year deal to cross to Essendon as one of footy’s first free agents.
We could've back ended the contract and kept him. We're miles under the cap now for example.
It didn't suit us to keep him and have him help us win more games. We wanted to drift to the bottom of the ladder and the and we wanted the compo for losing him to FA.
We knuckled this one unfortunately and now have to watch him play out his career with a bunch of drug cheats.
suss wrote:We could've back ended the contract and kept him. We're miles under the cap now for example.
It didn't suit us to keep him and have him help us win more games. We wanted to drift to the bottom of the ladder and the and we wanted the compo for losing him to FA.
We knuckled this one unfortunately and now have to watch him play out his career with a bunch of drug cheats.
If we back ended him then several other players would've possibly wanted the same. Would that have been an issue? Or simply was the club fed up with his attitude?
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mad saint guy wrote:A footy club should never push its champions out the door in their prime. Terrible decision making and management by those in charge at the time.
Did we really push him out? He wanted 3 million over 4 years. He had 2 pretty ordinary years. he didn't deserve what he wanted. If anyone was nearly pushed out it was Dal. BJ left because he basically wanted too.And to be honest we win maybe 2 or 3 more games over a 2 year period. Still finish close to the bottom in both years. Not glad he is gone but it was a very good decision.
In his last season with us, I thought he played a very selfish brand of footy, clearly in self-preservation mode knowing the money was in the bag. Probably fits the selfish egotistical Essendon culture better- I guess he can count his money while he watches us move back up the ladder.
People hate BJ cause they can't stomach watching the lost grand finals, erased from minds, else they'd never have been ok with his leaving.
BJ wanted to much money so Pelchen looked for a way out. He did the right thing by the club and I have never been a fan of Pelchen. This one wasn't a mistake though. And I don't hate BJ. If I had a choice of talking to BJ or Pelchen it would be BJ every time. The move suited both parties.
SainterK wrote:
People hate BJ cause they can't stomach watching the lost grand finals, erased from minds, else they'd never have been ok with his leaving.
And all this time I thought I disliked him because he did bugger all in his last two years and just chased the money to Essendon.
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SainterK wrote:
People hate BJ cause they can't stomach watching the lost grand finals, erased from minds, else they'd never have been ok with his leaving.
And all this time I thought I disliked him because he did bugger all in his last two years and just chased the money to Essendon.
If rumours are correct we low balled him essentially pushing him out the door and he would've taken less to stay as long as we gave him four years. The Bombers contract offer was crazy money for him though.
Old Mate wrote:If rumours are correct we low balled him essentially pushing him out the door and he would've taken less to stay as long as we gave him four years. The Bombers contract offer was crazy money for him though.
My source suggests he wanted out and that is why he asked for so much money.
Old Mate wrote:If rumours are correct we low balled him essentially pushing him out the door and he would've taken less to stay as long as we gave him four years. The Bombers contract offer was crazy money for him though.
Yes, was about the length of contract, more than the cash.
A journo told me Pelchen refused to sit down with the BJ camp and even talk about 3 years and a fourth with terms.
It annoyed me that we were under this 'immense salary cap pressure' but we didn't offload the flawed/more easily replaceable players before BJ. Gram was a great player up until 2009 and a liability from that point on. The same goes for Gilbert until 2010. Jones had no value from 2009 onwards. Schneider has been a great clubman but if he's been on more than 300k since 2010 he's been massively overpaid. My point is that there are plenty who should have been squeezed out before Goddard. If we were going to receive a top 5 pick in compensation I could cop the decision, but ultimately we just didn't get enough in return.
I know it's a pointless exercise (yes trading/drafting would have been different in subsequent years), but here's how things could have panned out if we had have just been totally inactive in the FA/trade period of 2012.
Through trading we received: Tom Hickey, Tom Lee, Pick 25 (Spencer White), Pick 46 (Trent Dennis-Lane), Pick 24 (Nathan Wright), Pick 43 (Josh Saunders)
Honestly it looks a lot better to me and we wouldn't have the problem of having too many expensive rucks and tall forwards on the list to fit into one team. Honestly Lee does seem surplus to requirements right now unless he can put some distance between himself and Bruce/Membrey. Hickey is our best ruckman when fit but he's rarely fit and I think all of Longer, Holmes and Pierce have the ability to forge solid AFL careers. White and Wright are potentially the two who could give us some real value from those trades but we need White to build his tank and Wright to stay on the park. Having Goddard in the side wouldn't mean that we keep finishing 9th and our development stalls. He'd help make us more competitive and would be an experienced senior body to help protect the kids and provide leadership.
MSG that is fantasyland stuff. How do you know where we finish with the players we did and didn't get. If you say the team would have been better then how do we get McCartin and probably Acres? Still finishes last this season anyway.
SainterK wrote:You forget MSG, that Pelchen gave guys like Polo, Peake and Clarke extra years...all of them playing until end of 2012.
He had an obsession with 2 years for guys not going anywhere.
I'm not an accountant, but the books looked off to me.
I'd have made it work personally.
Pelchen had a stinker that year trading out BJ, bringing in Hickey and Lee (both can't stay on the park) which involved giving up a decent draft position and extending the contracts of the guys you mentioned. The draft from that year at this point looks poor as well with White inconsistent and only given a one year contract last year (says a lot really) and Wright and Murdoch injury prone.
Old Mate wrote:If rumours are correct we low balled him essentially pushing him out the door and he would've taken less to stay as long as we gave him four years. The Bombers contract offer was crazy money for him though.
Yes, was about the length of contract, more than the cash.
A journo told me Pelchen refused to sit down with the BJ camp and even talk about 3 years and a fourth with terms.
Who knows mate, lots of rumours around trades. I don't reckon his team mates and even coaching team would know the full story. There's always two sides.
You have to wonder what $$$ he would have stayed for? It is appears that Brendan and his manager over rated his worth to the team. I also think at the time he had major issues with Watters as coach which for was understandable, but this contributed to him wanting to go!
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To those who think BJ should have stayed I will ask you just one question. How does it help us now? By the way I want Lockett and Stewart to stay too. And I don't want Brian Wilson or Rene Kink. What does this all have in common. Its in the past and it cant be changed.
plugger66 wrote:To those who think BJ should have stayed I will ask you just one question. How does it help us now? By the way I want Lockett and Stewart to stay too. And I don't want Brian Wilson or Rene Kink. What does this all have in common. Its in the past and it cant be changed.