SO THE Greater Western Sydney has finally - officially - added an out-of-contract recruit to their playing list.
Phil Davis may have told his Adelaide teammates last month he was headed to GWS, but, on Monday, Callan Ward became the first prized signing to be announced by the Giants.
It was a bizarre way to end the past year of intrigue, intrigue that's become part of the AFL landscape since the Suns got the ball rolling last year.
For those who love a bit of off-field rumour and innuendo, we've got another year of it to come with GWS next season. And with free agency coming in at the end of 2012, it may continue.
The reaction to Ward's defection to the Giants was predictable. The Bulldogs wanted the best possible compensation they could get. Chief executive Simon Garlick nominated two first-round draft picks as the "minimum" the Bulldogs should receive. However, Footy Classified panellist Grant Thomas suggested on Monday night that was wishful thinking given Geelong had received no more when Gary Ablett moved to the Suns.
On Tuesday, the Herald Sun devoted its front page to the story, under the headline "Money Rules", with a photo of Ward's mother Kerri and sisters Mickayla, Aysha and Kiandra holding a framed photo Ward in action for the Bulldogs.
Ms Ward told the Herald Sun the AFL was to blame for her son leaving the Bulldogs, saying angry Bulldogs fans should vent their spleen at it rather than her son.
"In all honesty, the days of the one-club player are really dying out, particularly when you have clubs being set up like this where they come along and offer ludicrous amounts of money to play football," Ms Ward said.
The Herald Sun reported that Ward will reportedly earn about $800,000 a season at GWS, almost double what the Bulldogs offered him.
The Age's Greg Baum also went into bat for Ward against the "mindless" Bulldogs fans who booed him against Fremantle last Sunday.
Baum wrote that Ward's defection to the Giants should not be judged alongside Bulldog great Chris Grant's decision to refuse a lucrative 1996 offer to join Port Adelaide. Baum argued that if Grant left it might have been the "death" of the Bulldogs, but the Bulldogs would survive Ward's departure and perhaps even thrive on the compensation picks it received for him.
Secondly, Baum wrote that Grant was tempted by a Port offer that reflected his market worth, whereas Ward had been enticed by a salary far in excess of his current market value.
Like Ward's mother, Baum suggested Bulldogs fans' anger be directed at the AFL, arguing that every club should have had to give up one player to the latest expansion clubs before any club gave up two. The Bulldogs also lost Jarrod Harbrow to the Suns last season, while Adelaide lost Nathan Bock to the Suns and are set to lose Davis to the Giants.
Understandably, the news of Ward's signing was greeted with less recrimination north of the Murray. The Daily Telegraph's Todd Balym lauded the character Ward had shown to keep performing for the Bulldogs this season as speculation about his future raged.
"They haven't just bought a quality footballer, they've secured a level-headed young man around which to build a champion team," Balym wrote.
The shape of that team will become more apparent by the end of this week, with The Age reporting the Giants are set to reveal "several" more out-of-contract player signings.
Ratten's final test
As Brett Ratten entered the final year of his current contract as Carlton coach, the blowtorch was applied to him early.
It came chiefly via the pre-season comments of Blues president Stephen Kernahan, who said the Blues needed to win a final in 2011 after bombing out in consecutive elimination finals in 2009-10.
The Blues subsequently moved to douse the pressure that inevitably put on Ratten, with chief executive Greg Swann suggesting in recent months Ratten did not necessarily have to lead the Blues to a finals win to secure a contract extension. Indeed, last month, Swann said "something disastrous" would have to happen for Ratten not to be reappointed.
Obviously, Swann's comments at the time reflected the excellent job Ratten had done to have the Blues on the brink of a top-four spot as the finals approached. We do not imagine the fact they ultimately fell short and finished fifth, with 14 wins and a draw, would change the Blues' mindset.
However, 2005 Sydney Swans premiership coach Paul Roos told the Herald Sun he had "no doubt" Ratten would be worried about his job security heading into this year's finals campaign.
Roos said he feared emotion would override logic if Carlton bowed out of the finals with a loss to Essendon on Sunday.
"If you judge [Ratten] over the full season, then he's safe," Roos said. "But football is an emotional business. We know people make emotional decisions. We've already seen that this year on one game.
"And that's the concern for Brett."
Asked about his comments on Fox Sports' On The Couch, Roos said they would probably prove academic - he expected Carlton to defeat the Bombers on Sunday.
Certainly, the Blues will start favourite in this Sunday's game. However, even if they do lose, we think Ratten will start a strong favourite to keep his job.
Especially given he will most likely take on the Bombers without his best key forward, Jarrad Waite, and, at best, with his best key defender, Michael Jamison, severely underdone.
Hawks living on the edge
After two seasons back in the pack, Hawthorn has returned as one of the competition's elite teams this season.
They have done so on the back of a new game plan, in which coach Alastair Clarkson has them piercing opposition zones with pin-point short kicks.
However, Hawks vice-captain Jordan Lewis told The Age Hawthorn's determination to rediscover - and even up the ante on - the 'unsociable' edge that drove its successful 2008 premiership campaign had also been a key factor in its 2011 resurgence.
"That's why we've been so good this year - a lot of guys have been playing on the edge," Lewis said. "In 2008, we were not soft, but were probably waiting for somebody else to do it.
"That's why we have come back. A lot of the guys are playing good football, but are playing on the edge. That's the way we play our best football."
Lewis said the Hawks' loss to Fremantle in the first week of last year's finals series had been the catalyst in them regaining their winning mentality.
"We played [the Fremantle final] like it was round 12 and we had a game next week," Lewis said.
"That hurts. It's a pretty long pre-season. When the season came around, we just said to each other: 'We are not going to let this one slip'."
It's an attitude that should ensure a compelling match-up with a Geelong team similarly determined to win a premiership while its aging stars still shine.
In short
Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan writes that a flurry of recent bets that have installed St Kilda coach Ross Lyon as a $2 favourite to take over as the next Melbourne coach add to the "deep intrigue" about his future. Sheahan noted that Lyon, who has just led the Saints into the finals for the fourth season running, was contracted at St Kilda until the end of next season. "But something's not jelling on this one," he wrote. "There are lots of rumours. Too many rumours."
St Kilda is set to record a loss of more than $1.5 million in 2011, The Australian reports. St Kilda chief executive Michael Nettlefold told the paper much of the blame for this lay in the poor match-day returns it had netted from playing nine home games at Etihad Stadium. Nettlefold said playing home games at the MCG netted the Saints between $200,000 and $300,000 more a game. The Australian reported St Kilda, which is no longer a contracted tenant at Etihad, had requested that the AFL schedule all of its home games at the MCG next season.
Crows great and Advertiser columnist Mark Ricciuto writes that Adelaide should pre-empt forward Kurt Tippett's inevitable return to the Gold Coast by trading him to the Suns next month. Tippett is contracted to the Crows until the end of next season but Ricciuto is wary of speculation that his contract contains a clause allowing him to move to Gold Coast for a second-round draft pick. Ricciuto wrote that the Crows could use Tippett as trade bait to try to entice one of the Suns' South Australian youngsters Sam Day and Daniel Gorringe home.
Former Collingwood midfielder Shane O'Bree has warned West Coast Collingwood will be a "pretty scary" opponent this Saturday after its humiliating loss to Geelong last Friday night, The West Australian reports. "That's not the real Collingwood team that played last week and they were really shown up in a lot of areas. They would have gone through their review today and Mick would have given them a fair old touch-up," O'Bree said.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
