CARLTON boss Steven Trigg will welcome any questions from the AFL about Mick Malthouse's claims that Eddie Betts had already signed with Adelaide 18 months before the small forward left the Blues.
Under AFL rules, players cannot sign with a rival club while under contract and the League confirmed to AFL.com.au it would "make an inquiry" into Malthouse's explosive allegation, made during a radio interview on Tuesday.
Malthouse claimed Trigg had told him not to take Betts leaving Carlton as a restricted free agent in October 2013 "too personally" because the Crows had already "stitched up" a deal with Betts 18 months earlier, when Trigg was Adelaide's CEO.
But speaking at the media conference on Tuesday to confirm Malthouse's sacking, Trigg said the record-breaking coach's claim was incorrect.
"I'm hoping it was an error of terminology," Trigg said.
"And the reason I say that is because there are eight people sitting around the list management table who heard quite consistently from me the reference to Betts being quite unrelated to his acquisition, but more about what Carlton needs to do in terms of its database and its analytics and what Adelaide did from 12 months out in terms of benchmarking Betts against every small forward in the competition to arrive at a valuation and a decision on him.
"That is a very, very far cry from having an agreement. I'm not sure it's even going to come to it, but there were plenty of people around the list management table who would corroborate that.
"I'm just hoping it was a slip, because that's the facts and I would welcome any question from the AFL on it."
The Crows issued a statement late on Tuesday afternoon denying any wrong-doing over the signing of Betts.
"We are extremely disappointed by comments made to the contrary today," it said.
"The Carlton Football Club and Betts’ manager have also publicly refuted any suggestion of wrongdoing by our club."
Malthouse's radio interview on Tuesday morning triggered his downfall after 54 games as Carlton coach.
He questioned why the Blues had decided to wait until the bye to decide his coaching future and dropped the bombshell that Betts was on the way out long before he officially left Carlton.
"Steven Trigg assured us when he arrived here 'Don't take it too personally, we – being Adelaide – had him stitched up 18 months out’," Malthouse told SEN.
"So it's very difficult when you come to a football club and a bloke like that plays very cautious football because his heart and soul, certainly his mind, was everywhere else."
The comments have prompted the AFL to look into the matter.
"We would make an inquiry to see if we need to do anything that would require us to investigate further," an AFL spokesman told AFL.com.au.
Malthouse's claim has now been refuted by Trigg, the Crows and Betts’ manager Ned Guy.
“It is 100 per cent not true. I am not sure where the confusion lies but I am pretty sure Steven Trigg wouldn’t have said that to Mick,” Guy told News Corp.
“It just didn’t happen. He didn’t agree to it until after the season finished. I find it pretty disappointing that he (Malthouse) would question Eddie’s intent on the footy, saying he played cautiously.
“By his own admission he didn’t have the greatest year but that was pretty disappointing to hear that from Mick.
“He broke his jaw in round one, came back and played three games and broke (St Kilda player) Nathan Wright’s jaw, which he was really regretful about, and so he missed more footy.
“He had no continuity in his footy in the first half of the year but he kicked five goals in the two finals they played.”
Betts' goalkicking output was down in 2013, with the small forward booting 27.15 from 18 games.
In 2012 he kicked 48.30 in 22 games and last year – his first season at Adelaide – the 28-year-old snagged 51.22 in a full season.
He is currently second in the Coleman Medal race with 29 majors, only two behind West Coast’s Josh Kennedy.
