Dean Solomon leaves Essendon

[Troy G]

After a long exhaustive process of weighing up his future, Dean Solomon has decided to leave Essendon.
"This is one of the hardest decisions of my life," Solomon said.
"I love the club, my teammates and everyone, including the sponsors and supporters, who have been there for me during my six years at Windy Hill.
"I appreciate the enormity of the decision I have just made. It definitely hasn't been a last-minute decision, it has been a long drawn out process and the culmination of a number of things.
"I am deeply saddened that the club couldn't come to an appropriate arrangement with my management earlier but I want to make it clear that at not stage have I been looking to leave and join another club.
"Having made my decision I am going to take some time to evaluate my future."
Michael Quinlan said Solomon's contract had been on the table since August and was 'fair and reasonable'.
"We have been desperate to guarantee Dean's immediate playing future with Essendon since August," he said.

[sharpie]

How can it actually be possible that Richmond could have the bargaining power or the salary cap room to go after both Solomon and Nathan Brown?

[Norris Lurker]

Originally posted by sharpie
How can it actually be possible that Richmond could have the bargaining power or the salary cap room to go after both Solomon and Nathan Brown?

Because their current playing list is crap.

[Steve]

I just find the whole thing highly amusing.

Richmond offer $350-400K for 4 years for a HBF who spent this year on a HFF.

They're going to have a fire sale to recruit 2 players who are good, but in the overall scheme of things play bit-part roles.

Hopefully they win the first 5 games of next year and they'll offer Frawley a 10-year extension.

They never learn, and it's brilliant.

[NMWBloods]

There's something wrong with football when clubs are paying that sort of figure for a player like Solomon. Good player, but really...

[Destructive]

There is no way Soloman is worth that sort of money. He is a good player but......

[sharpie]

Originally posted by Norris Lurker
Because their current playing list is crap.

I think Richmond have a very good list, pity about the coach though.

I would have thought they have a lot of guys that would be on the higher end of payments: Blumfield, Bowden, Campbell, Gaspar, Holland, Johnson, Ottens, Richardson to name a few.

Surely they have their own salary cap issues with that lot, yet they've recruited Blumfield and Johnson recently, and now look like snaring Brown and/or Solomon.

And I agree that they are offering Solomon far more than he's worth.

[Steve]

Originally posted by sharpie
I think Richmond have a very good list ... Blumfield, Bowden, Campbell, Gaspar, Holland, Johnson, Ottens, Richardson to name a few ... now look like snaring Brown and/or Solomon.

That's the very thing about Richmond though - they don't have a good list, they have a group of talented but generally speaking underperforming players who they allocate most of their salary cap to.

Hence they've got no way to have a solid core of 30+ AFL-standard players - they just couldn't fit them all under their TPP cap with so much tied up with their (so-called) stars.

The funniest thing is that they'll probably eventually lose someone like Coughlan b/c they've committed so much in long-term contracts and can't do anything about it.

[sharpie]

Originally posted by Steve
That's the very thing about Richmond though - they don't have a good list, they have a group of talented but generally speaking underperforming players who they allocate most of their salary cap to.

Hence they've got no way to have a solid core of 30+ AFL-standard players - they just couldn't fit them all under their TPP cap with so much tied up with their (so-called) stars.

The funniest thing is that they'll probably eventually lose someone like Coughlan b/c they've committed so much in long-term contracts and can't do anything about it.

I agree about them having a group of talented players as opposed to a good list, that's really what I meant. But not many other teams have that many top line players (underperforming or otherwise). Maybe Brisbane, Hawthorn, Port and Essendon. And all these teams are under varying degrees of salary cap pressure. So my question still stands - how does Richmond have the salary cap leverage to attract these new guys?

[Steve]

They'll do what they've done each year for the last few years - re-negotiate and backload the contracts of the likes of Richardson, Gaspar, Johnson, Ottens etc.

So next year they'll be okay and can afford all of them plus Brown and Solomon, but next year and the year after and the year after that and the year after that ... they'll be ****ed.

And then either do the same thing again, or lose a player they actually really need like a Coughlan.

[swan_song]

He wont be leaving sNdon, unfortunately. He'll be stuck there ad infinitum....