AFL investigating secret Crows business

Updated October 24, 2012 18:32:48

Adelaide says it will cop any penalty handed down by the AFL for its secret deal which could kill Kurt Tippett's bid to join Sydney.

The Crows face fines and loss of draft picks, and star forward Tippett could be deregistered as an AFL player, if an investigation by the AFL finds they broke the league's rules.

Tippett's manager Peter Blucher also faces a possible ban for his role in a murky deal which was hidden from the AFL for three years until last Friday.

Tippett became Adelaide's highest-paid player in 2009 when agreeing to a three-year contract extension with the club.

Since the signing, speculation has been rife of a clause which enabled Tippett to be traded at the end of the contract to the club of his choice, in return for a second-round draft pick - compensation well below the key forward's market worth.

Crows management repeatedly denied the existence of the clause in the contract.

But the Crows admitted to the AFL last Friday they had a secret agreement, outside the contract, with Tippett.

Tippett's contract with the Crows has expired and he has requested a trade to the premier Swans.

The move shocked Adelaide, which believed Queensland-born Tippett would likely return home if he left the club.

And with the AFL trade period ending on Friday at 2:00pm (AEDT), Tippett's future hinges on the findings of the league's investigation.

Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman said the Crows board confessed to the AFL "because it was the right thing to do".

"There was no alternative here," Chapman told Adelaide radio station 5AA.

"The thought not to disclose never entered our mind and (Crows chief executive) Steven (Trigg) and I made that call straight away."

Chapman did not explain why Adelaide kept the deal a secret for three years.

"If we have stuffed up in any way, and I'm not pre-empting that, we'll put up our hand and say sorry and remedy it and move on," Chapman said.

"We will take whatever comes out of it."

Chapman declined to guarantee the position of Trigg as club chief executive.

"We will reach the right conclusions after this," he said.

"Steven Trigg has been a veteran of this world, as has (former football operations manager) Johnny Reid, (current football operations manager) Phil Harper, everyone at our club.

"And they have got a history of complying with the rules and ... I don't want to speculate beyond that because that might prejudice the outcome of the investigation."

The Crows, by confessing the deal, were not ensuring a lighter penalty from the AFL, he said.

"We brought it to their attention ... but there is no assurances," Chapman said.

AAP

Tags: australian-football-league, sport, adelaide-5000, sa, australia

First posted October 24, 2012 08:37:12

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AFL investigating exotic bets

PETER CAVE: The AFL is investigating whether recent betting plunges on so called exotic wagers were prompted by clubs leaking inside information about team selections and strategies.

Bookmakers are concerned about recent plunges which leave them exposed and undermines the integrity of the game.

There's no suggestion players themselves are involved in the betting.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: The AFL has today confirmed a series of recent plunges on so called exotic bets are under investigation by the league amid concerns clubs may be leaking sensitive information.

It's bets like 'first goal kicker' which have raised eyebrows in recent weeks.

Bookmaker Alan Eskander explains.

ALAN ESKANDER: There's been a couple of incidents over the last few weeks where a normal defender is all of a sudden for one week playing in the forward line, and prior to the match there is unusually high interest in backing a defender at 100:1 into 50:1 to kick the first goal.

With people suspecting that they are going to play out of their normal position, there's information that's leaving clubs in a really innocuous kind of way, like they're not trying to cause any harm or do anything wrong, and it's getting into the hands of people who think they might be able to profiteer from it.

So what we need to be looking at is the disclosure of information.

ALISON CALDWELL: There are concerns that inside information about positional selections, or who's playing where, have been leaked out of clubs.

There's no suggestion whatsoever that the AFL players themselves are in any way involved in the betting plunges.

ALAN ESKANDER: I believe that a player or a club official or a sponsor who's privy to this information might be sitting at a barbecue on a Saturday night before a Sunday game, saying, oh well, Daniel Merrett's playing in the forward line this week, isn't that funny, rather than playing in the back line.

And then someone's ears prick up at that barbecue and then they might think, oh well I'm going to go and have $50 on him to win the first goal, to kick the first goal.

ALISON CALDWELL: One of those bets that you were talking about is the one where the Hawthorn defender Brent Guerra was backed; can you tell us about that one?

ALAN ESKANDER: I mean that was a similar situation where Brent Guerra was backed from a 100:1 into about $51 to kick the first goal, and that was due to the fact that he was playing in the forward line, and that's unusual for him to be playing in the forward line. And as a consequence $101 was the wrong price.

ALISON CALDWELL: In the round seven clash between the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast Suns, regular Brisbane full back Daniel Merrett went forward at the start of the game.

Twenty-four hours ahead of the match, he was backed from $101 in, to $15 dollars in.

Alan Eskander says clearly punters are getting good information about line-ups ahead of time.

ALAN ESKANDER: It's exactly like insider trading in the stock market.

ALISON CALDWELL: This sort of activity would really leave bookmakers like yourself exposed, wouldn't it?

ALAN ESKANDER: Yes it does leave us exposed. My primary concern is the public conception of it. And if the public perceive that something untoward is happening in a sport, that's a very dangerous place to be in. And any sport, or code, administrators need to ensure that that doesn't happen.

PETER CAVE: Bookmaker Alan Eskander, Alison Caldwell was our reporter.

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