Crows may have breached salary cap

The Adelaide Crows are insisting they didn't mean to breach AFL rules in Kurt Tippett's out-of-contract dealings. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: adelaidenow

ADELAIDE'S no-longer secret "exit clause" with forward Kurt Tippett may be the least of the Crows' problems as the AFL investigation turns to allegations of undisclosed third-party payments.

If proven, these claims - that relate to Tippett and his brother Joel who plays with SANFL club West Adelaide - could subject the Crows to heavy sanctions for salary cap breaches.

AFL salary cap investigator Ken Wood has taken to investigating how the Crows may have paid Joel Tippett to move from the Gold Coast to Adelaide to ease Kurt's unease in the SA capital.

Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg on Friday handed to the AFL a letter of agreement reached outside the Crows' contract dealings with Tippett in 2009.

That letter has at least three clauses - the exit demand to trade Tippett to any AFL club of his choice when he chose to leave Adelaide and two deals that could breach the AFL salary cap rules.

Adelaide faces harsher penalties for the alleged third-party arrangements than the exit clause written in the 2009 letter between Crows football operations chief John Reid and Tippett's Brisbane-based manager Peter Blucher.

If Wood and AFL integrity officer Brett Clothier find the Crows should have detailed the third-party deals in Tippett's contract, Adelaide will be subject to penalties ranging from fines to losing draft picks.

Trigg's decision to hand the document to the AFL on Friday appears to have been triggered, in part, by rival AFL club Gold Coast becoming aware of Tippett's letter of arrangement with the Crows and seeking AFL scrutiny of the 2009 document.

Also, Wood had taken interest - before Trigg's declaration - in an interview in The Advertiser earlier this month when Crows chairman Rob Chapman spoke of Joel's move to Adelaide.

EARLIER, Crows chairman Rob Chapman insisted the club had nothing to hide after initiating an AFL probe into Kurt Tippett's out-of-contract terms at West Lakes.

Chapman also has opened the Adelaide player files to AFL investigator Ken Wood as the special letter between Tippett and the Crows from 2009 brings into question how the club has signed up its squad.

"We have nothing to hide - and we have opened all the books to the AFL without condition," Chapman said last night.

"I can give a gold-plated commitment the AFL will find nothing."

Chapman defended his club's officials who allowed Tippett to have a letter detailing the terms by which he was to be traded from Adelaide if he chose to leave the Crows at the end of his three-year contract - as he has asked with a trade to Sydney.

"Our intent was never to break any rules," Chapman told The Advertiser last night.

"And we have a history of compliance, no record of any misdemeanours, but if we have now got this wrong, we need to know before the trade is done and we will have to abide by any penalty."

Chapman last night would not prejudice decisions that could follow if the AFL finds the Crows and Tippett have breached league rules.

He would not comment on a potential sacking of chief executive Steven Trigg who sanctioned the deal in 2009.

The other key player in the negotiations, football operations chief John Reid, left the Crows at the end of the 2009 season.

But Chapman did praise Trigg for putting the Tippett issue - which has been subject to media scrutiny for more than a year - before him on Friday, an hour after Trigg returned from a three-week European holiday.

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"And 90 minutes later we were on the phone to (AFL chief) Andrew Demetriou," said Chapman.

"We have disclosed the issues we think he should be aware of.

"We have opened to the AFL all the books at the Adelaide Football Club without condition. And I have given the AFL a gold-plated commitment they will find nothing out of order with any other player contract."

Chapman could not answer why his club - or even the AFL - had not put the Tippett agreement up for review earlier, particularly when it was subject to intense public speculation this year.

"They are good questions you ask," said Chapman.

"And I would love to be in a position to disclose more fully my answer to those questions - and I look forward to the day I do.

"Because the club's members and the football public deserve to know what is going on.

"Remember, we asked the AFL to investigate this.

"In the past week it has been clear we have to remove every shade of grey from this debate. There must be full disclosure.

"Once I took this to the board, every director without hesitation agreed this needs to be clarified and there needs to be disclosure to the AFL.

"The AFL acknowledges we have done the right thing to bring this to them.

"Everyone deserves answers."

The AFL investigation now puts in question if Tippett can be traded before tomorrow's 1.30pm deadline - and what happens to his football career if he is suspended for breaching league rules.

Adelaide is understood to have agreed after closing contract talks with Tippett in 2009 to release him at a "minimal cost", supposedly a second-round draft pick.

"Remember three years ago everyone in this state wanted our club to re-sign Kurt Tippett," said Chapman. "

"At that time, our people negotiating the deal believed what they were doing was right."

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Chapman would not reveal the legal advice his club has received.

"I've consulted far and wide - and put in place methods to look at this with due diligence," he said.

"We're asking all the questions. We are still in the process of getting the answers."

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