GIANT play for Tippett

This article first appeared on afl.com.au

GIANTS CEO Dave Matthews confirmed the club had on Monday discussed the controversial former Crow at a football sub-committee meeting.

“Now that it looks like Kurt Tippett is into one of the next couple of drafts clearly it means he is someone we should be discussing. We did that today, we had a football sub-committee and Sheeds was in that. He was the subject of plenty of discussons,” Matthews told Melbourne radio SEN on Monday evening.

GIANTS coach Kevin Sheedy decided to take to Twitter to stir the pot about Tippett’s possible destination.

“I see Kurt Tippett may be going into the Draft,” the veteran coach tweeted.

“That’s exciting. Wonder what he would look like in orange.”

GIANTS co-captain Phil Davis, who played alongside Tippett with Adelaide before moving to western Sydney, then replied to his coach’s tweet.

“Haha, wouldn’t be a bad look!” Davis tweeted.

The GIANTS sub-committee meeting included Matthews, Sheedy, Sheedy’s understudy Leon Cameron, list manager Stephen Silvagni and football chief Graeme Allan.

GWS have the first three picks at the NAB AFL Draft and the first pick at the pre-season draft.

The AFL is investigating an exit clause in the contract Tippet signed with the Crows in 2009.

The league blocked any potential Tippett move during the Gillette AFL Trade Period, which ended last Friday, while it continued its investigation.

He didn’t get his wish to move to the Swans but could still find himself based in the harbour city.

The GIANTS’ tall forward stocks run deep, with promising signs from Jeremy Cameron and No.1 draft pick Jonathon Patton in their debut seasons while rugby league convert Israel Folau continues to learn the craft.

But Matthews said the GIANTS would be open to further boosting their tall forward depth with Tippett.

“If he is affordable then we’d look to select him for sure. He’s 25, he’s right in the prime of his career, he’s a tall player that we probably lack in the ruck and if he’s affordable then we’ll have the opportunity so we’ll wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.”

Matthews later confirmed GWS had flexibility in its salary cap.

“Certainly we have some room because, as I said, we had some plans and had been considering mature-age players through the trade period,” Matthews told Crocmedia’s Sportsday.

“We’ve got Stephen Gilham through from Hawthorn, but we’ve probably got a bit more room there and we now need to understand what sort of terms he’s looking for.

“But we have those selections, and if it came to pass, then it would be a good outcome for the club.”

Matthews’ comments came shortly after Adelaide list manager David Noble spoke publicly for the first time since the AFL confirmed it would investigate Tippett’s last contract.

Noble took to the Adelaide airwaves to reassure Crows fans he was trying to be as active as possible in the trade period despite the dramas surrounding Tippett.

“It’s been a horrible couple of weeks. Having said that, we were still active behind the scenes to try to leverage someone out to work our needs with another key defender or another outside runner,” Noble told Adelaide radio FIVEaa on Tuesday.

“But our fans need to understand we weren’t sitting, feeling sorry for ourselves. We were as active as we could be.”