RICHMOND chief executive Brendon Gale is adamant the Tigers’ salary cap position remains “solid” for the future after securing the hottest signature in football with Dustin Martin’s recommitting to the club.
Gale said today the Tigers were always confident Martin would re-sign with the club, but added the club’s offer to the raging Brownlow Medal favourite would not compromise its ability to attract of retain players in the future.
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“It’s solid. We would never make a decision that we felt compromised our ability to reward and retain our current players and also attract new players,’’ Gale said.
“That’s part of the responsibility. We’ve got a responsibility to Dustin, we’ve got no interest in underpaying him, but we can’t overpay him either.
“We want to pay him his fair market value, but we’ve got a responsibility to surround him with the best possible environment for all our players to be as good as they can be and achieve the ultimate success.’’
Dustin Martin is staying at Richmond. Picture: AAP ImagesSource:AAP
While the Tigers are ecstatic Martin will remain at the club for the next seven years, Gale admitted the decision to announce his commitment to Richmond on TV wasn’t ideal.
The club missed the opportunity to release one of the biggest news stories in the club’s history, having to hand control to Martin and his manager Ralph Carr, who sold it to Channel Nine’s Footy Show for a reported $ 50,000.
There were shades of NBA star LeBron James, who announced his deal with Miami Heat via a live television special titled ‘The Decision’.
Gale said the Tigers would have preferred to make the announcement themselves.
“It certainly wasn’t our preference,” Gale said.
“The most important thing about this footy club is our members and we would much prefer that we had given our members the opportunity to hear first.”
With Martin reportedly giving up as much as $ 2 million dollars in choosing the Tigers over a mega-deal offered by North Melbourne, Gale said he couldn’t deny him the television pay-off.
Dustin Martin talks with Sam Newman and Eddie McGuire for the Footy Show.Source:Supplied
“I’m not going to begrudge Dustin — he’s turned his back on a lot of money which is incredible so to do a paid exclusive interview and get a bit of earn I’m comfortable with that and I’m sure our fans are comfortable too,” he said.
“I could have made the announcement nude and our fans wouldn’t care.”
Gale said the way the news was released was something that clubs may have to get used to.
“Clubs do tend to want to control everything but perhaps it’s the way of future, that the nature of our business is increasingly an entertainment business.”
Gale said the star midfielder’s decision was significant boost for the club on the eve of next week’s qualifying final against Geelong.
“It’s a boost, there is no doubt, it’s nice to have it resolved and off the table.
“Most importantly it allows us to absolutely, fully, focus on a huge finals series.’’
Gale said the Tigers always felt confident with their environment and Martin’s relationships at the club would help sway his decision to remain a Tiger.
“I think we were always confident that Dustin would sign, but we always supported his right to go to the market and we wanted him to do that and we wanted him to feel valued and we wanted to make a really strong decision and strongly invest in the future of the club and he has,’’ Gale said.
“We’re encouraged and we’ve got a big game next Friday and we can absolutely fully focus on that now.
“From my point of view, from our point of view, we always felt supremely confident just with the way Dustin was carrying himself, with the way that he was playing, the environment here and we felt it would only be a matter of time.”
Originally published as Dusty’s TV reveal not ideal for Tigers
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