THE DEMONS and their fans may be fretting over the will-he-won't-he Tom Scully saga, but the Herald Sun's Mark Stevens believes the young midfielder won't be a huge loss to Melbourne if he takes the money and runs to Greater Western Sydney.
Stevens says the former No. 1 draft pick has some serious flaws in his game, and the Demons could actually benefit from his departure north.
"Scully is over-hyped as a footballer and, by extension, over-rated," Stevens said on Saturday.
"That might seem a tough call but it is fair on evidence provided thus far in his two seasons at AFL level. Scully accumulates and works his butt off, and this time next year may be the player we all thought he might be, but right now his status is over-cooked.
"Scully … is burdened by some worrying statistics - he doesn't kick the footy enough and when Scully does kick the ball, too often he turns it over. The stats back the theory up. Scully's kicking-efficiency rate is 49 per cent. The league average is 65.7 per cent.
"There are also questions about his ability to mark overhead."
Stevens went on to say fellow emerging Demons Jack Trengove, Jack Watts, James Frawley and Colin Sylvia would be harder to replace if they departed the club.
The Demons are said to be doing all they can to keep Scully in the red and blue, but Stevens believes all will not be lost if the young star signs with GWS.
"If Scully goes to GWS, and it looks a done deal, the Demons should not fret. Take the compo picks … if Melbourne can pick up two kids of a similar ilk to Scully it will actually finish ahead," Stevens said.
Crow crisis heats up
The fallout from Adelaide's horrible loss to St Kilda has escalated, with former club great Shaun Rehn suggesting Neil Craig’s position as coach had become “almost untenable” and Craig admitting he wasn't sure if he'd be at the helm next season.
On Saturday, Rehn told SEN the board’s support of Craig had assisted the club in maintaining stability in one of the darkest times in the club’s history, but said it had come to the stage where they needed to make a decision on the coach’s future.
"The supporters and the backlash has probably been the worst I’ve ever seen," Rehn said.
"The blowtorch is on everything in South Australian football."
Rehn said Adelaide’s game plan has not evolved enough to suit the parameters of modern football.
"The game plan has flaws, and it hasn’t been adapted from the new style of football," Rehn said.
He joins a list of influential Adelaide people, including 300-gamer Tyson Edwards and former captain Chris McDermott who have pushed for a decision to be made about where the club is heading.
"This is probably the first time that people in Adelaide are echoing the supporters’ sentiment that they’re looking to change," Rehn said.
The night after the horror defeat to the Saints, Craig said he wasn't 100 per cent sure if he'd retain his position for 2012.
"I don't know that. I think the next six weeks are really important, and if I did [know], I'd tell you," he told 3AW.
Voss still the boss
Despite the Brisbane Lions lurching through a disastrous 2011 campaign, The Age believes coach Michael Voss will sign a new deal to remain at the helm until the end of 2013.
Caroline Wilson reported on Saturday that Voss completed an impressive presentation to the Lions' coaching club committee, which included David Parkin and John Reid, along with Lions chairman Angus Johnson and other club executives.
"Voss was contrite in his own self-assessment, admitting he had taken on the senior position and made mistakes. He also remained determined that he was the right man to help rebuild the club," Wilson said.
The new deal could be announced as early as next week, Wilson said.
Wilson has obviously given a lot of thought to next year's likely coaching arrangements.
In a separate column, she said it was likely Collingwood would be the only team with a new senior mentor in 2013.
Wilson said Adelaide's Neil Craig and Melbourne's Dean Bailey were the most vulnerable current coaches, while the Bulldogs "would be crazy" to let Rodney Eade go.
However, the coaching landscape is an ever-volatile one, and Wilson concluded her piece by suggesting if Malthouse was lured to coach a rival club, everything could change in an instant.
"Malthouse … is the most crucial domino of all in the brutal off-field sport of coach lotto," she said.
In short
Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton has accused West Coast of being a team of "serial head-duckers".
Five-time premiership star Brereton claimed the Eagles systematically tried to milk free kicks for high tackles after watching their match against St Kilda last Saturday night.
"I've got to say, I watched that game on replay and there were many, many times I put the game on pause-rewind," Brereton said on SEN.
"They have a team of serial head-duckers, blokes who, when they're about to get tackled, drop to the ground, drop to their knees ... serial head-duckers."
Brian Lake appears a long way from returning to the Bulldogs' line-up, after being declared unfit for the VFL for the third consecutive week.
Sam Landsberger writes in the Herald Sun that Lake has plunged "further into the football wilderness," having not played since an impressive game against the Northern Bullants on July 3.
Lake hurt his calf late in that match, but Western Bulldogs development coach Peter German would not comment on why the dual All Australian is unavailable for the contest against Werribee.
German said he did not know when Lake would return.
With the Bulldogs hoping their late-season surge results in a finals berth, it seems Lake is facing an uphill battle to regain his spot in the senior team.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
