Former Collingwood premiership player Dale Thomas has revealed an extraordinary multi-million dollar deal received from expansion club GWS Giants to lure the midfielder to become the inaugural captain of the club.
At the turn of the 2010s decade, Thomas was one of the most exciting players in the AFL. Averaging 24 and 25.1 disposals in 2010 and 2011 respectively, the out-of-contract star quickly became one of the most sought-after players in the 2011 season.
Thomas would eventually turn down all rival offers before signing with Collingwood for a further two seasons, however. In 2013, Thomas then made the shock switch to archrivals Carlton, where he would finish his career in 2019.
Thomas told Channel 7's Agenda Setters program that GWS offered the Collingwood star a mammoth $6 million deal over six seasons in 2011, coupled with captaincy, or at least co-captaincy, of the AFL's newest expansion club.
"I met with GWS Giants when they were coming into the (competition). It was somewhere in Carlton and was pitched about what was to come, what the offer was and everything to go along with that," Thomas said.
"That was at a time where we were very successful at Collingwood, we'd just come off winning a premiership, we looked like we were going to go deep.
"Six years for six million - a million bucks a year in 2011. Captain of the football club, whether that was co-captain or not."
Thomas said he did seriously weigh up the offer given the financial magnitude of the deal, but reflected that a move interstate was not ideal.
"I thought about it, obviously you had to sit there and weigh up everything that it is - it's a lot of money, it's a lot of time, but also moving away to the west of Sydney and where they were pretty keen to set up base," Thomas said.
"And also at that point in my career, all I had come in and known was winning.
"The thought of actually going to a club and being a part of whether I was to be the captain and have that responsibility to take them from nothing to where they needed to go, I was not sure how that would sit."
Thomas has previously admitted that his offer from the Giants was substantial in the press conference following his 2011 re-signing, but the exact figures have remained a mystery until Tuesday night.
"The decision wasn't made on numbers ... the offer (from GWS) was greater than what I've signed for," Thomas said in 2011.
The discussion arose as trade and free agency speculation swarms the AFL landscape, with Carlton's Tom De Koning reportedly weighing up a $12 million deal over seven years from St Kilda, while West Coast's Oscar Allen reportedly met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell as he weighs up his future.
