Adelaide Crows football operations GM Phil Harper says "it's good to be back" after serving suspension.
Adelaide Crows football manager Phil Harper last year. Picture: Campbell Brodie Source: adelaidenow
PHIL Harper first saw the infamous secret deal with Crows forward Kurt Tippett six months after he started work at his new desk as Adelaide's football operations manager late in 2009.
He argues he had three options: He could carry the illegal contract to its terms; he could have taken it to the AFL or he could have refused to accept it.
History, and an AFL investigation that cost Harper a two-month ban that ended yesterday, tells that the Adelaide Football Club made a mess of it.
The Crows at times lived Tippett's secret deal and later, in trade talks with Sydney, tried to walk away from it. Hindsight now tells Harper he should have put Tippett's secret deal before AFL investigator Ken Wood in 2010.
But that raises the question: Would Harper have been allowed to?
"It's a good question," says Harper of how a confession to the AFL would have been greeted by his superiors at West Lakes, in particular chief executive Steven Trigg. "I don't know . . . we won't know."
Harper's memory of his first impression on Tippett's irregular contract is: "I did not think it was a major problem.
"Trading him for a second-round draft pick? If he stayed, that was null and void.
"It was the independent agreements that always worried me."
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Harper made two mistakes. The first, his direct link between Tippett and third-party sponsors seems minor. "But as soon as you pass on any details - even a phone number - to a sponsor, it is no longer an independent deal," he says.
The second, declaring Tippett's non-football payments as "independent" rather than "additional services agreements" and away from Adelaide's salary cap, was a big mistake.
"But it is a grey area," says Harper. "The bottom line is you have to liaise with the AFL to get the correct ruling."
Harper is the ultimate middle-man in the Tippett mess. He did not arrange the deal with Tippett, but he did become caught up in the consequences of Reid in 2009 meeting then-coach Neil Craig's demand to do "whatever it takes" to keep Tippett.
Harper's reputation is now tarnished as a consequence.
"I have to live with that," he says. "How do I restore it? I work as hard as I possibly can - and I hope the points I've built up over 15 years here count for something.
"I hope people understand the situation I was in. I'd be foolish to think this has been a positive for my reputation. All I can do now is work hard to re-establish my standing.
"I'm confident I won't make the same mistake again."
Harper admits he did consider not returning to Adelaide where his job has been redefined, away from contracts towards day-to-day football operations.
"If I thought it was best for the club and me to walk away, I would have," said Harper. "I didn't think that was the case."
Harper does take comfort in the AFL investigation proving all his deals at West Lakes have been clean.
So was he harshly treated by the AFL?
"A lot of people have said, `Gee, you were hard done by and you had nothing to do with that deal," he says.
"Those people who say that to me are family, friends and Crows supporters. They are all biased really. And really what you need to do is ask, who should judge that? It should be someone who is independent.
"That is the AFL Commission and they made a judgment and I accept their decision."
Amid the regrets, Harper wishes Adelaide had traded Tippett to an eager Brisbane at the end of 2011. But he doubts this would have covered up Tippett's secret deal forever.
"Six months later, two years later or five years later it would have come out," said Harper. "It would have come out at some stage - that's why I am glad we came forward to the AFL (during last year's trade talks)."
Harper's golf game improved in his enforced two-month break. But he has paid a heavy price for this - and not alone.
"It takes a toll on your family . . . that's not good and it certainly is not fair on them; I certainly thank them for their support," he says.
As for Tippett and his manager Peter Blucher, Harper carries no grudge.
"No animosity . . . they are good people," said Harper. "Kurt's gone to Sydney. If he did not want to play for us, we should not force him to stay - no matter how good he is." If only Adelaide had thought that way in 2009.
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