Gold Coast Suns chairman Tony Cochrane says the club has made considerable changes off the field in a bid to keep co-captain Tom Lynch, as debate flares over whether the AFL should get involved in his retention.
Lynch remains the premier impending free agent, and has been linked to Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn, where could command about $1.5 million a season.
Former coach Rodney Eade reckons Tom Lynch has already made his mind up, but the Suns hope they can keep him.
Photo: AAP
Former Suns coach Rodney Eade said on Monday Lynch – represented by Paul Connors, whom he described as the "best manager in the competition" – would have already made his mind up should he want to leave, but the Suns remain focused on retaining the Dandenong Stingrays product.
"We are working behind the scenes to do what we can to empower Tom to make the right decision to stay as captain of the club. We have made a lot of changes. I have been chairman for two years and the only person who we haven't moved on in that two years is the chief financial officer," Cochrane told The Age.
Advertisement
"With the exception of that role, every single person, senior person in football, the CEO, the head of commercial, nearly every other position has been changed in the last two years. Tom sees what we are trying to do for the future and we, obviously, are working very hard to ensure we get his signature going forward for a renewal."
Cochrane would not discuss finances, declaring: "Tom will earn whatever Tom is capable of earning. That's called market force. That's going to be, what it's going to be. He is a restricted free agent."
Swans premiership coach Paul Roos, a mentor of new Suns coach Stuart Dew, has called on the AFL to get involved in retaining Lynch, who has become the face of the club, but Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and Eade have rejected that suggestion.
"They shouldn't get involved. They shouldn't be trying to get one person to stay at a particular club because that is putting pressure on Tom. Tom has got to make his decision on what is best for Tom Lynch, not what is best for the AFL or getting involved. That is a bit mischievous in many ways," Eade said on Radio Sport National.
Buckley said Lynch had every right to play where he wanted, declaring suggestions he needed to stay with the expansion franchise and the AFL should get involved as "ridiculous".
AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has flagged the possibility of Lynch earning ambassadorial money but that would only be considered should he have decided to stay.
The Suns have the option of matching any offer for the restricted free agent, which would force a trade or for Lynch to head to the draft.
Gold Coast Suns chairman Tony Cochrane.
Photo: AAP
Eade said Lynch would be weighing up how important it was to him to play in finals – he has yet to do so, having played in 37 wins and 90 losses in his eight years. Finals appear almost certainly off the agenda this year, but Cochrane said September action was why the club existed.
"If you are the chairman of a football club and you didn't talk about playing finals with your team, then I would suggest you ought to stop being chairman of the football and go out the back and grow tomatoes or something," he said.
"That's why we are in the business we are in. We are in the business to get to finals and to ultimately get to a premiership. We have had a pretty tough eight years of it. There has been lots of errors made, lots of errors by the AFL, lots of errors made by our club, lots of errors made various people along the journey but you don't gain anything but continually reflecting on what could have been, should have been and might have been. What we have got to reflect on is to get everything right for the future of the club."
The Suns, having spent the majority of the first half of the season on the road because of the unavailability of Metricon Stadium, have only three wins, and were crunched by Geelong on Saturday night. Cochrane said the wheel would have to turn.
"It has to turn, it has to turn, because you can't keeping serving up stuff like we did on Saturday night and expect 17,500 to turn up and pay good money to watch it," he said.
And if the wheel does not turn? "I don't even contemplate shit like that."
Eade, whose three-year term with the Suns ended in a messy manner last season, said the "needle" suggested Lynch was leaving.
"Knowing his manager, Paul Connors, who is the best manager in the competition, and he managed (Patrick) Dangerfield, generally Paul's mentality is, if someone big is going to leave the club, it's done. So, my thought, whichever club it is, it's between that club and Gold Coast, so he still is a big chance to stay at the Gold Coast," he said.
"But it won't be a bidding war for three clubs in Melbourne. There might be four clubs queueing up then he makes his decision. So that decision would already be made if he is going to leave. No, the needle was probably heading that way before. With what is happening at the moment, yes, I would even think it would push the needle a bit further that way."
Jon Pierik is a sports writer with The Age, focusing primarily on AFL football, cricket and basketball. He has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.
Most Viewed in Sport
Morning & Afternoon Newsletter
Delivered Mon–Fri.
