Melbourne ruckman Mitch Clark talks with coach Mark Neeld. Picture: Quinn Rooney. Source: Getty Images
ADELAIDE could have had Mitch Clark in a straight swap deal for Kurt Tippett last year if the Crows had have put the right offer to him.
The former Brisbane forward, below, shocked the AFL by signing with Melbourne, after strongly indicating he would only consider offers from his home state of WA.
Clark's manager Colin Young yesterday revealed the 198cm spearhead would have been open to a move to the Crows, which in hindsight may have been Adelaide's best replacement option for wantaway forward Tippett.
"Adelaide never came up, never ever came up," Young said.
"Mitch would have gone. There's no problems with Adelaide, they're a great club. You wouldn't mind any player going there ...
"In the end Melbourne's presentation was too good to refuse (but) the Crows could have matched the offer." At the time Brisbane was strongly pursuing Tippett, but only offering the Crows pick No. 8 in the draft and a later pick.
The Lions didn't offer Clark and the Crows didn't inquire about him because of the perception he was determined to move to Fremantle.
"Mitch Clark was going to Freo," Crows list manager David Noble said.
"All the discussion through that initial period of time with (Brisbane national talent manager Rob Kerr) was that was absolutely where he was going to go."
Whether the Crows would have been better off with Clark, particularly given what they stand to get for Tippett now, is a question all Adelaide supporters will be asking themselves.
Clark kicked 29 goals in 11 games before suffering a season-ending foot injury against GWS in Round 13. Tippett kicked 39 goals in 21 games but was hampered by a string of concussions.
Noble said it was "an interesting debate".
"I think if you went back and had a look at Tippett's year versus Clark's year, who is front?" he said.
"If you go back and have a look at the way Kurt pulled himself together in that last final, it was outstanding."
Noble said Clark wasn't on the club's radar at the time because they were banking on keeping Tippett at the club.
He said it would have been difficult to pull a last-minute trade for Clark because the club hadn't gone down the path of monitoring his form, investigating his character and all the other processes it goes through before pursuing a player.
"At no point did we have Kurt Tippett on the table last year to be traded. He was a required and a contracted player," Noble said.
"Our clear directive from a club perspective - with a new coach coming in - was that we wanted to back ourselves in to keep him."
At the time, Noble was also confident that the continued development of Josh Jenkins, Shaun McKernan and Lewis Johnston would leave the club in a good position to cover Tippett, if he left a year later.
"We still felt we had enough in the group we were going to develop underneath to step into that breach," he said.
In retrospect, Noble appears comfortable with the club's decision to take it's chances with Tippett, despite having lost him without compensation.
"I'm not a big one for looking in the rear vision mirror - we've made the call," he said.
"We played in finals and we were five points short of playing in a Grand Final... quite often it's easier in hindsight.
"Having also coached in the forward line, I know that quite often Kurt would take the number one (defender) so Taylor Walker than has a slight change in his defensive player who might play on him.
"Kurt's reliability in his competitiveness has been something that has helped out our small blokes on the deck as well."
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