JUST days after new Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch expressed a desire to add out of contract Richmond player Dustin Martin to his squad, the Lions have officially withdrawn their interest.
In a statement released by the club this morning, Brisbane has contacted Martin’s management to advise them of their decision.
“After evaluating or list and discussions with our General Manager Football Operations, Dean Warren, and Senior Coach, Justin Leppitsch, we have decided not to pursue Dustin in the upcoming trade period,” said Lions National Talent Manager, Rob Kerr.
“We wish Dustin all the best in his career but at this point in time our key focus is on retaining the Club’s young talent, and we’re working hard to try and achieve this.”
The decision comes less than a week after Leppistch, who had served as an assistant coach at Richmond, had expressed an interest in the forward.
“I do know Dusty well and I do have my views but I won’t share them here today, my feet haven’t got under the desk yet and it would be premature to talk about those sorts of things,’’ said Leppitsch last Wednesday.
With interest now no longer there with the GWS Giants, North Melbourne and St Kilda as well, it appears increasingly more likely that a return to Richmond will be Martin’s only option.
It is understood that Martin has yet to receive an offer from another club and his manager, Ralph Carr, has maintained that an offer of about $600,000 per year would be expected if he were to re-enter the draft.
The Tigers had apparently tabled a two-year offer worth close to $1 million but based on Martin’s ongoing off-field issues that deal is likely to come heavily laden with performance and behavioural clauses.
Photo appears under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Source: Football Nation