The Herald Sun has reported Geelong asked the AFL for money outside of their salary cap to hold onto superstar midfielder Tim Kelly.
In an SEN interview with Geelong chief executive Brian Cook, he revealed his club approached the AFL to assist with payments outside of Geelong's TPP (Total Player Payments) to bring over Kelly and his partner Caitlin's family across from Western Australia.
"The AFL knocked us back," Cook said.
The struggles of adapting to a new town and having two out of three of their young children recently diagnosed with autism were reasons behind the pitch to help Tim and Caitlin's parents live in Geelong to support the family.
“One of the issues for us is that to do what we needed to do to make sure it was as comfortable as possible for the Kelly family was near impossible in the end because it would have needed the parents to come over, all sorts of assistance around the home, all of those things," Cook added.
“We helped in those areas but we weren’t — we went to the AFL and asked for some extra help in terms of money outside the TPP (Total Player Payments) because these things cost money.
“So it made it really hard for us to do to the 100 per cent that we wanted to help him. We nearly got there but we couldn’t.”
Kelly's trade request to the West Coast Eagles was granted in a blockbuster deal which saw Geelong receive picks 14, 24 and 37 with a future first-round pick in return for the silky onballer.
“I thought it was a win-win-win. Win for us, win for Kelly and win for the West Coast Eagles,” Cook told SEN.
