Ward gone
THE CASES of Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow, Michael Rischitelli, Campbell Brown, Jared Brennan and Nathan Krakouer last season told us that where there's rumours, there's players being signed to mind-blowing offers at the AFL's latest expansion clubs. 

This season, as GWS has taken over from Gold Coast as the AFL's resident player poacher, Melbourne's Tom Scully and Western Bulldog Callan Ward have been two of its biggest targets.

On Monday, as we'd long been conditioned to expect, the Bulldogs announced Ward had informed them he was heading to western Sydney next season to become a Giant.

With the Demons' season also coming to an end last weekend, we expect to hear shortly that Scully will join Ward in the land of the Giants.
 
Even before the Bulldogs made their announcement, we awoke to a report by The Australian's Greg Denham that Ward was already a Giant. Denham wrote that Ward informed the Bulldogs on Friday that he would join the Giants on a five-year deal totalling $4.5 million.

Denham wrote that Ward had played the Bulldogs' final game of the year, against Fremantle on Saturday at Etihad Stadium, with the club's blessing. He also wrote that Ward's manager could announce his defection to GWS as early as Monday.

Interestingly, The Australian claimed an exclusive, with Denham noting it had broken the news in April that Ward would join the Giants.

It's a big call.

There's been so much uncertainty and intrigue about how the expansion clubs have identified, pursued and formalised their agreements with their players, can anyone truly know for certain that they're signed, sealed and delivered until the deal is formally announced?

Perhaps. However, Ward has presented himself for much of this year as a young man grappling with the biggest decision of his life, not as someone who had definitely made his mind up in April. Certainly, that's the song Ward's been singing to the Bulldogs - at least until last Friday, if Denham's report is on the money.
 
In any event, the Herald Sun's Mike Sheahan agrees with Denham that Ward is about to leave the kennel. Sheahan wrote that Ward would announce his departure to GWS by the middle of this week and would soon be joined by Scully and Fremantle's Rhys Palmer.

Sheahan also tipped the Giants would unveil some experienced recruits in former Brisbane Lions co-captain Luke Power and recently retired Port Adelaide duo Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan.

It promises to be an interesting next couple of weeks. By the end of it, we'll know a lot more about just how effective the first stage of GWS' player poaching campaign has been.

Pies' shocker an aberration
Not surprisingly, the Magpies' 96-point loss against Geelong on Friday night was still big news on Monday.

It's not every season the reigning premier, on the back of a 20-1 record, loses the final game of the season by almost 100 points. Even if it does so to its nearest rival.

So, three sleeps' later, what should we make of the Magpies' loss?

The Herald Sun's Mike Sheahan suggested the Magpies' lack of incentive against the Cats - they already had top spot stitched up - had been a key factor in the result.

"A team so good that it wins 20 of 21 games doesn't get beaten by 96 points in its 22nd game if it's having a genuine crack," Sheahan wrote.

In Sheahan's view, Collingwood "went through the motions" after quarter-time against the Cats. He suggested several Magpie players - he named Scott Pendlebury - would have "gone a lot harder" if more had been at stake. The Magpies' intensity would return for their clash with the Eagles this Saturday, Sheahan predicted.

The Magpies can also take solace that they will be strengthened in the finals by the pending returns of Heath Shaw, Leon Davis, Nick Maxwell and, in their second final, Dale Thomas, Sheahan wrote.

However, Sheahan foresaw one concern for Collingwood - the ruck. He wrote that Darren Jolly does not look the "imposing figure" he was from 2005-10, which is a significant concern given he will go up against Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui this weekend.

The Age's Rohan Connolly wrote that Friday night's drubbing had made many in the Magpie army nervous, but not coach Mick Malthouse.

Connolly wrote that Malthouse had experienced last-round "shockers" before as a player and a coach and knew that teams could recover from them.

As a Richmond player, Malthouse was part of the team that went into the final round of the 1980 season on top of the ladder only to lose to sixth-placed South Melbourne by nine goals. That loss meant the Tigers lost top spot to Geelong, but they recovered to go through the finals undefeated, thrashing Collingwood by a then-record 81 points in the Grand Final.

And, last season, the Magpies lost their final home and away game, to Hawthorn by three points, on their way to the premiership. Like this season, Collingwood went into that game knowing a loss could not dislodge it from the top of the ladder.

More compellingly, though, Connolly wrote that Collingwood had "proved itself consistently the best team in the competition for nearly two years". As such, he thinks the Magpies' loss to the Cats will most likely prove "a mere blip on the radar".

We'll have a much better idea if Connolly is right late this Saturday afternoon.

It takes more than 22
Every year in Grand Final week, tales emerge of players who are desperately unlucky to miss out on selection in their team's final 22.

It happens every year. But to take last year as an example, Ben McEvoy missed St Kilda's team for the drawn Grand Final after playing 18 games for the season. And Tarykn Lockyer, along with Shane O'Bree and Josh Fraser, missed both Grand Finals after having been an automatic choice in Collingwood's team for more than a decade. Agonisingly, Lockyer was among the Magpies' emergencies throughout its finals campaign after playing 11 games in 2010.

Such stories and the thoughts of Geelong coach Chris Scott have struck a cord with The Age's Rohan Connolly.

Scott told Melbourne radio station 3AW on the weekend that Geelong had had a "really significant contribution" from a squad of 30-32 players this season, which had put it in a position to make a tilt at its third premiership in five years. As such, Scott said he was conscious he had to keep reminding his players they were all contributors.

"It's not necessarily a good thing in today's football that the final 22 just go out onto the ground and get all the credit," Scott said.

Connolly wrote that AFL football was moving closer to the English Premier League, where credit for the league title is apportioned to the champion club's squad rather than the team that clinches the title on a given day. 
 
Connolly acknowledged that a similar scenario in the AFL would require "a shift in thinking that won't necessarily happen quickly".

But given the increasing demands of the game mean more and more clubs are rotating players in and out of their teams purely to spread the load, there is an argument that merely recognising the 22 players who take the field on Grand Final day is to ignore the other players who have earlier played meaningful parts in that club's successful premiership campaign. 

In short
The Sydney Swans' 43-point loss to Richmond in round 21 was the catalyst for their strong finish to the season, Ryan O'Keefe told The Daily Telegraph. O'Keefe said the Swans had a comprehensive team review after the loss to the Tigers that had helped them win their last three matches. "We looked at ourselves and said we can't kid ourselves here and we won't even make the finals if we keep playing like that," O'Keefe said. "To the boys' credit, they've all taken it on board and chipped in and we've had a really even contribution."

AFL Players' Association board member Jason Blake told radio station Triple M the AFL's revamped pay offer last week had not resolved all of the players' concerns in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations. Blake said it was unlikely the CBA would be signed by the League's deadline of September 15.  

Carlton skipper Chris Judd faces a nervous wait to see whether the match review panel will cite him for his tackle on St Kilda's Sam Gilbert in the second quarter of Saturday night's clash at the MCG, the Herald Sun reports. Judd was not penalised for his tackle and Gilbert got to his feet immediately and played out the rest of the game. 

Although his mind is fixed on his team's elimination final against St Kilda this Saturday night, Sydney Swan Matt Spangher told The Sydney Morning Herald he had allowed himself to imagine the possibility of clashing with his former side, West Coast, later in the finals. "I think, depending on how it all goes, we could potentially meet them in the prelim [preliminary final] or the Grand Final," Spangher said. "I'd certainly relish the challenge. I'm looking forward to it."

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.

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