Well, I’d be pretty offended if I was Ben Brown right now.
On Tuesday, SEN’s Chief Sports Reporter Sam Edmund said: "He wants four (years), they are only willing to offer three."
North Melbourne are currently only prepared to offer Brown a three-year deal. Did I hear that correctly?
This is the same North Melbourne that has offered nearly every big-name, out-of-contract player massive, multi-million dollar, long-term contracts in recent years.
They went fishing for a raft of players including Isaac Heeney, Dustin Martin, Josh Kelly, Andrew Gaff and threw a 'godfather' $5 million dollar deal at Jordan De Goey that he knocked back.
Besides Martin, Brown is the equal or better than all of the targets North have tried desperately to attract.
In an era where outstanding key forwards are rare, Brown has kicked more goals than any other player in the game in the last three seasons. He’s slotted 21 more in the last three years than any other player in the game.
188 goals in the last three years – yet North are only offering him three seasons.
I’d be offended by that.
This is the same North Melbourne that enticed Jared Polec from Port Adelaide with a monster five-year contract worth $800,000 a season – about $350,000 and two years more than the Power were prepared to pay him.
This is also the same North Melbourne that handed its 31-year-old ruckman Todd Goldstein a three-year deal at the end of last year. Brown is 27 and twice as important to North Melbourne than Goldstein.
It seems to me that North are trying to exploit Brown because he’s a good bloke, low maintenance, loyal and loves the club.
That’s just not right.
Ben Brown is far and away North’s best player and a top 20 player in the AFL. He should be rewarded and treated as such.
A three-year offer on the back of the ridiculous proposals North have shelved out to lesser players in recent years is nothing but insulting.
