Neil Craig has a clear conscience about his role in the controversial 2009 deal which kept Kurt Tippett at the Adelaide Crows.
Craig was Adelaide’s coach at the time and told club officials do what they could to retain Tippett.
“Absolutely, I remember talking about that Kurt Tippett is a required play for the Adelaide footy club and we need to keep him,” Craig told reporters in Adelaide on Friday.
“The only extension of that would be within the rules of the game and I don’t deviate from that – within the rules of the game.”
But Crows officials and Tippett subsequently went outside AFL rules in striking a contract extension.
The dodgy deal emerged last season when Tippett and the Crows split in bitter circumstances.
Tippett, now at Sydney, was suspended for 11 games by the AFL, who fined the Crows $300,000 and banned their chief executive Steven Trigg for six months, and football manager Phil Harper for two months.
The Crows also lost draft picks.
But Craig, now Melbourne’s caretaker coach, said he had no knowledge of the rule-breaking deal.
“What I did know was that Kurt was a required player at the Adelaide footy club when I was here, clearly that was stated,” Craig said.
“As it has unfolded, and I’m not trying to deflect anything from anyone in the footy club, but sometimes if you’re not involved directly in an AFL club, you just don’t understand the pressures that are involved.
“Anyway, I think the club has paid a big price for it, from an outsider looking in.”
Trigg, who returned to work in July, would be an improved club chief as a result of the scandal, he said.
“Steven Trigg will be a much better CEO for it. He was already an outstanding CEO and he will be better again for it, no doubt at all,” Craig said.