Tippett never fond of Adelaide

Kurt Tippett with Adelaide teammates Nathan van Berlo, Scott Thompson and Ben Rutten at training. Picture: Simon Cross. Source: adelaidenow

KURT Tippett was never in love with the City of Churches.

For a Gold Coast kid used to the bright lights of Cavill Avenue, Adelaide was a hick town - even if it did make him an AFL star and a multimillionaire.

"I'm not going to deny I'm a beach boy at heart. If you've ever been to the Gold Coast I think you'll know what I'm talking about," Tippett told the Adelaide Advertiser.

But like an unrequited lover, the Crows could never accept Tippett's rejections. To fend off the advances of Gold Coast at the end of 2009, Tippett was offered a $700,000-plus contract, making him Adelaide's highest-paid player.

It was a pay packet based more on potential than performance. And, as it turns out, pure desperation.

The official Tippett contract submitted by the Crows to the AFL did not tell the full story of the relationship between player and club.

An alleged side agreement - complete with instructions to keep it secret from the AFL - detailed how Tippett would be guaranteed extra third-party payments totalling as much as $300,000 over three years.

It is understood to have included an "exit clause" to trade Tippett to the club of his choice for a second-round draft pick should he decide to leave the Crows at the end of 2012.

If true, the allegations amount to salary cap cheating and draft tampering.

At 8am today, Tippett and club heavyweights will front the nine-person AFL Commission to explain their conduct and argue why they should not be severely punished.

At stake are careers, draft picks, fines and the premiership dreams of Adelaide's fanatical supporters.

It's the biggest scandal in the club's 22-year history.

Tippett, while still pleading his innocence in the saga, faces deregistration.

Crows chief executive Steven Trigg, once highly regarded by AFL boss Andrew Demetriou, could lose his job if given a lengthy suspension.

General manager of football operations Phil Harper has also been implicated, as has former football operations manager John Reid.

Crows chairman Rob Chapman - a former St George Bank chief executive - will lead the club delegation at today's hearing, backed by a high-powered legal team to fight nine separate charges.

Trigg, Reid, Harper and Tippett will be represented separately.

All but Tippett, who faces two of his own charges, will plead guilty, and hope their explanations lessen the blow.

"We will be prepared. We will leave no stone unturned to push our case," Chapman has said.

The saga took another twist when the Crows surrendered their first two picks - 20 and 54 - in last week's national draft.

The club described the move as a "goodwill gesture" but rivals claimed it was a ploy to protect picks in future drafts.

A worst-case scenario would see the club banned from participating in the draft and pre-season draft for three years, a devastating outcome.

A more likely punishment would see the Crows heavily fined and stripped of their first and second-round picks in the 2013 and 2014 national drafts.

Internally the Crows believes their crimes are "at the lower end of the scale" and were undertaken at a time when AFL rules governing third-party deals were less defined.

This month's Herald Sun story revealing the league had pulled the plug on Chris Judd's controversial third-party deal with Visy - four years after approving it - highlights the confusion about the payments.

Tippett's manager, Peter Blucher, has his own problems but won't know his fate until after the AFL Commission deals with Adelaide.

Blucher, like disgraced former agent Ricky Nixon, could be stripped of his player management licence by the AFL Players' Association's accreditation board.

But the Tippett camp has signalled its intention to fight, possibly in the courts, to paint Adelaide as the villain.

Rumours about the mysterious clauses surrounding Tippett's contract surfaced in August last year.

At the time, Adelaide legend Mark Ricciuto urged the club to accept Tippett's inevitable return to the Gold Coast by trading him to the Suns for Sam Day or Daniel Gorringe.

Had it listened, Adelaide's dirtiest secret might never have been exposed.

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