Football gone MAD Football gone MAD

Money for nothing: Bourke deal to end - 13 aUGUST 2003.

ONE OF football's most embarrassing, and costly, deals will end quietly next month when Richmond finally stops paying for discarded Kangaroo David Bourke.

The Tigers have paid almost $300,000 -- or 2.5 per cent of their salary cap -- to honour the deal they struck in late 2001 to palm Bourke off to the Kangaroos, where he has languished in the VFL for two seasons.
Bourke, 27, an injury-prone forward who played 85 games for the Tigers between 1995-2001, was shunted off to Arden St only a year after he had signed a three-year contract with the Tigers.

The deal stipulated that the Kangaroos had to pay him only the AFL minimum rate, while Richmond would pick up the balance until the contract expired at the end of this season.

It has meant that last year, when Bourke earned about $180,000, Richmond paid $137,000.

This year, with Bourke's wage jumping to about $200,000, the Tigers have to fork out $156,000.

So in two seasons, Bourke has cost Richmond $293,000, while the Kangaroos have paid out only $87,000.

It's what you might call a "lose-lose"deal, given that Bourke has played only one game for the Kangaroos and is unlikely to play senior football again.

His lack of success at his new club hasn't hurt only the Kangaroos, though.

Under the agreement, every senior game Bourke plays reduces Richmond's debt by about $2000.

So if he had played, say, 20 games, the Tigers would have been $40,000 better off.

To some, the Bourke case is a stunning example of administrative ineptitude.

To others, it's a reflection of the pragmatism that exists today when a club decides to dump players who are still under contract.

Whatever it is, it can be an expensive exercise in a sport that is supposed to be cutting its cloth very carefully these days.

Richmond is not the only club paying for ex-players now wearing opposition colours.

Essendon is shelling out about 20 per cent of Justin Blumfield's contract at Richmond and about 4 per cent of Chris Heffernan's deal at Melbourne. Shane Woewodin's package at Collingwood is still partly financed by Melbourne.

Richmond also paid about $120,000 for ex-midfielder Nick Daffy's final season of AFL football -- at the Sydney Swans last year.

Daffy, who was on a contract worth about $300,000 a year, played only one game for the Swans before succumbing to injury and retiring.

But the impact on the Tigers of his payout was reduced when the Swans had to pay a significant sum last season for Greg Stafford, who went from Sydney to Richmond as part of the Daffy deal.

SOURCE
By TREVOR GRANT
Herald Sun
https://www.heraldsun.news.com.au
/common/story_page/0,5478,6939810%255E11088,00.html

Related Links
Australian Rules Football

richmondfc.com.au/

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