Re: Round 8 Preview - Carlton v Geelong
Reply #64 –
The loss of Betts and Waite to free agency is a clear result of investing a massive component of our salary cap on Dale Thomas. This was a club decision, reportedly driven hard by M Malthouse.
If we try to remove emotion and look at the facts, I can’t understand how anybody can say M Malthouse doesn’t have to shoulder the blame for this. To those that say it’s not his fault because the list is so bad, we still have 15 players who won a final 16 months ago (most of which he should have improved between then and now), and have lost 2 players to bring in his pet player, who has given us nothing, and 2 others who annoyed him but have gone on to make significant contributions at other clubs. And don’t get me started on Jeremy Laidler…
As far as I know, the money offered to Waite by Carlton was the same as that offered by North, North however offered the extra year (unconditional), our extra year had conditions. So I am not sure how you can say Waite was flicked by MM to free $ up for Thomas. For starters Thomas was already there when Waite left. Waite even went to MM's house and told him he was staying then back peddled. Betts was prepared to stay for the same money he was on, Carlton pulled the offer altogether because his Manager c#$ted in the final negotiation meeting and made an absolute pig of himself.