Giving credence to the trash Sumich speaks is not something I want to do but he has no idea.
For starters, $750K for one of the best young midfielders in the comp is market price, especially one who is 21 and has proven himself to be elite. If you throw in his other characteristics such as his leadership skills, the respect of the playing group and coaches, being in our prime age demographic, playing an incredibly important role in the side and his close ties with others in the team, you pay what you can to keep him.
It's plain dumb to say we're selling the club for him, we have a salary cap for a reason and it's spread across the 40 players on the list. Every club has a top tier and ours is pretty small at the moment so there should be plenty of cash to spend keeping our talent. Fyfe, Mundy and Walters are our elite tier but are at the end of their days and would be coming down off big money. From there, the next group is Cerra, Brayshaw and Serong with the first two coming into their prime and establishing themselves as some of the best mids in the competition. You absolutely keep these players and the market dictates they will be expensive (made more clear by other sides offering top dollar for him). If you can wrangle some dollars off the contract for loyalty then go for it but you need to pay them what they're worth to stay.
Using the statement "if you're selling your club to a player like that, your club is going down the wrong path" to say why we shouldn't pay one of the best young mids in the comp what he deserves is one of the most moronic statements I've read. To then go comparing Hawthorn and Geelong who threw huge money at players repeatedly to prop themselves up as a comparison speaks volumes for how poorly thought out Sumich's statements are. They each threw huge money at players proving you can "win premierships like that".
He then goes on the ridiculous tangent of ruling the club out of drafting interstate players because of a fear of them leaving. It's been said repeatedly but this is the dumbest draft strategy you can have, diminishing our available draft targets dramatically. Our two best and longest serving players were both from interstate along with far too many others who've been amazing servants of the club. If we did that in Mundy's draft year, we pick Matthew Moody or Chad Jones at pick 16 instead. We also wouldn't have Cerra, Brayshaw and Serong in the first place. You back your club and culture to keep interstate kids here and that's what we'll do again in the future. You draft the most talented players you can and if there's a kid in Vic/SA/NSW or wherever that's better, you get them over.
We've also lost very few interstate players back home who we wanted to keep, it's a mute point for us. The "go home factor" is rubbish and if it were to ever become a reality like with Weller, they don't go for nothing (we got Brayshaw, a clear win in that deal). He then mentions some rubbish about Judd which is just another moronoic line with no real relevance to Cerra, more of an OOFTIT humble brag. It really is representative of how poorly thought out and waht a thinly veiled OOFTIT sentiment his comments are.
Sumich doesn't care for Freo and what we're doing at the club. He wants some cash for headlines and to take potshots at the club who fired him and wouldn't give him the senior coaching job he felt entitled to. Everything he's done since then should tell you all you need to know about why he never had a senior opportunity.
