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Suns chairman Tony Cochrane says it is “incredibly disappointing” to see Izak Rankine depart the Gold Coast, claiming the talented forward owed it to the club to stay.
The Suns confirmed Rankine had requested a trade to the Adelaide Crows on Tuesday after reportedly showing encouraging signs of re-signing with the club halfway through the season.
Speaking on 3AW’s Sportsday, Cochrane expressed his frustration with Rankine’s decision, off the back of the Suns equalling their most successful season in the club’s history.
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“Incredibly disappointing because there are so many people around our club that gave Izak a hell of a lot of time,” he said.
“I recall his first year they discovered he had a bit of an arthritic hip issue and the time and trouble we went to trying to get to the bottom of that and to get him sorted for life – not just for footy – and he didn’t play in that first year.
“It goes right back to those days. Stuart Dew has put in a phenomenal amount of time with this kid. Stuart’s been like a second dad to him, he’s helped him in so many ways to get around him and he’s also helped him enormously with his football.”
The Suns will now spend the next month negotiating with the Crows to reach the best possible deal for the promising youngster.
“There’s a lot of very disappointed people up here and I know a lot of his teammates all feel that they are all in this together and felt that he was in this with them … money talks, huh,” Cochrane said.
“I do [feel like he owed the club]. When you put the investment in with a young lad who is 18, he’s unfortunately unfit to play in the first year, you give him a whole year to help get him right, you put a lot of work into him, turn him into an AFL footballer and great credit to Stuart Dew.
“It’s disappointing when that happens, but it’s sport all over the world now. Somebody else with a bigger wallet comes along and makes it pretty hard.”
Cochrane echoed Suns captain Touk Miller’s dissatisfaction that the club would not reap the rewards of its investment in Rankine.
“We sat him down, we had a chat to him, our leadership group,” Miller told Fox Footy during the AFL awards night on Wednesday.
“I’ll be honest, it is disappointing. I feel like for us, we felt like Izak, we put a lot of time into him.
“For the player that he is and going to become, I feel like we had a massive hand in that and trying to create that and surround him with a culture where he can thrive and relish.
“He’s really just started to give us the goods towards the end there.”
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