No skulduggery from latest GWS recruit
SO WHAT many in the football industry accepted as a fait accompli has come to pass: Tom Scully has left Melbourne to join Greater Western Sydney, less than two years after being selected by the Demons with the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NAB AFL Draft.

Rumours of Scully's impending defection to the Giants first surfaced early last pre-season and persisted throughout the year. Given the Giants had a window at the end of last season to speak to players coming out of contract at opposition clubs, many assumed the Giants had sealed a commitment from the young Demon then.

However, Scully insisted in March that he had not spoken to the Giants and had not even been approached by them.

That would change, with the Giants dangling a long-term deal in front of Scully that the Demons could never hope to get remotely close to. When this happened, Scully adopted a simple position - he would concentrate on the Demons' 2011 season and when, and only when, that had finished he would decide his future.

It was a message we heard delivered primarily by Melbourne president Jim Stynes, then-coach Dean Bailey and, more recently, interim football director Garry Lyon, rather than by Scully himself. But all three took Scully at this word when he said he was not committed to the Giants and had yet to decide his future.

As Scully's decision to join the Giants sunk in on Monday, Melbourne and Scully were not changing their tune. Scully said he had signed a contract with the Giants that morning, having started to lean towards a move over the past two weeks.

Again, the Demons took him at his word, with vice-president Don McLardy and chief executive Cameron Schwab telling the media on Monday they accepted Scully's version of events.

As you'd expect, the media remains more sceptical. Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan acknowledged Scully's largely "believable" performance at his press conference on Monday, but said: "Some of us have believed he committed to the new club months ago. That he was headed north as far back as his memorable media conference on the eve of the season."

Fellow Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph was similarly minded. "Scully stretched the truth when he told yesterday's press conference that he had committed to GWS that morning," Ralph wrote.

For her part, Age chief football writer Caroline Wilson said simply, "pinpointing just when he chose to leave Melbourne seems like nit-picking now."

However, former Melbourne player and SEN radio host David Schwarz was prepared to put the hard question to Scully on Monday afternoon.

Schwarz told the 20-year-old he had been told by three people he trusted that the deal with GWS had been done well before the end of the year.

But, still, Scully maintained his version of events.

"I can categorically say there was no deal done. The deal was signed this morning and there has been a lot of rumours going around about that," Scully told Schwarz.

"People are questioning my integrity and that's disappointing. I would like to think I am a very honest person. I categorically know there was no deal done until this morning.

"All year I didn't want to talk about the contract until the end of the season and my management respected that, but they had been in talks with GWS.

"They didn't tell me until about halfway through the year. They said there is an offer from GWS and it warrants due consideration."

Scully also denied he had verbally committed to GWS prior to signing his contract.

Surely, now it's time for Scully, Melbourne and the rest of the football world to move on. This time next year, you can bet the Giants will be unveiling another prized recruit, most likely after a similar year of rumour and intrigue.

Crows may look closer to home
Melbourne is not the only club to have lost a highly touted youngster recently.

Obviously, the Western Bulldogs (Callan Ward) and Adelaide (Phil Davis) have also lost players to GWS that they were desperate to keep. Worse still, this is the second year running the Bulldogs and Crows have lost a player to an AFL expansion club, with Jarrod Harbrow and Nathan Bock respectively joining the Suns last year.

Unfortunately for the Crows, they now face losing another promising youngster, 19-year-old forward Jack Gunston.

The No.29 pick in the 2009 Draft, Gunston, 193cm, played two games in his debut year before kicking 19 goals in 12 games this season, including a five-goal haul in his last game, against Richmond in round 23.

As you'd expect, the Crows held high hopes for him to form a long-term partnership with fellow tall forwards Kurt Tippett and Taylor Walker.

However, a familiar problem has surfaced for the Crows - Gunston is from interstate (Victoria) and wants to go home.

Media Watch reported on Sunday just how shocked the Crows were when Gunston told them of his decision. It prompted an extraordinary reaction, with the Crows stripping Gunston of the Mark Bickley Award he was to have received as the club's best first or second-year player.
 
Gunston's move has also prompted Crows great Chris McDermott to urge Adelaide to draft more local players to avoid losing more interstate youngsters to homesickness.

McDermott told The Advertiser only five players who had played 100 games for the club - Tyson Stenglein, Kane Johnson, Ian Perrie, Scott Stevens and Mark Stevens - had been drafted from outside South Australia.

It seems the Crows share McDermott's concerns. Football operations manager Phil Harper told The Advertiser the fact players such as Gunston sought to go home "semi-regularly" might make the Crows revisit their recruiting and player retention strategies.
 
"I suppose when this sort of thing happens semi-regularly, like it has with us, it does make you look at it," Harper said.

"It's happened to our club with Tyson Stenglein (who moved to West Coast) and Kane Johnson (Richmond) and people like that. (The Advertiser also cited the examples of forward Fergus Watts, ruckman Jonathon Griffin and on-ballers Lance Picioane, Brent Williams and Matthew Collins.)

"The more it happens, the more it makes you probably want to put a heavier weighting on people who are from Adelaide in the first place."

Despite this, the Crows have not given up hope of convincing Gunston to recommit to the club.

Replacing 'Buddy'
Barring a Lazarus-like recovery, Lance Franklin's injured knee will keep him out of Hawthorn's semi-final clash with the Sydney Swans this Friday night.

With Franklin's long-time forward partner Jarryd Roughead missing since mid-season after rupturing an achilles tendon, the Hawks will have to recast their forward line dramatically.

The Age's Michael Gleeson took a look at the candidates the Hawks will consider to replace Franklin.

Gleeson wrote that the "first reaction" might be to play ruckman/forward David Hale as a deep target with another tall target, such as Jordan Lisle, playing higher up the ground.

Another option Gleeson raised was to bring Ben Stratton back from the VFL, so Ryan Schoenmakers could be shifted from defence into attack. After Schoenmaker's shaky game in defence against Geelong, that might just be a good move.

A more unlikely scenario, Gleeson wrote, was for former Melbourne ruckman Paul Johnson to come into the Hawks' team.

Alternatively, Gleeson suggested the Hawks could decide to bring another running player in, and open up their forward line to isolate small forward Cyril Rioli as their primary target.

Otherwise, Gleeson wrote, the Hawks could again to turn to one of their most versatile players in their hour of need, skipper Luke Hodge. Hodge sparked the Hawks at the start of the third quarter against Geelong with two quick goals, so there's no reason he couldn't have a similar impact as a forward against the Swans.

Make no mistake, replacing 'Buddy' will be the biggest issue Alastair Clarkson grapples with this week. Coming up with a workable forward line structure will be crucial to the Hawks' chances of avoiding a straight-sets finals exit.

In short
Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy has not discounted reviving the AFL career of former Carlton and Brisbane Lions spearhead Brendan Fevola, the Herald Sun reports. A day after footage surfaced of Fevola vomiting into a rubbish bin at Hawthorn's Glenferrie Hotel last Sunday night, Sheedy told the tabloid he had spoken to Fevola but would leave any decision on recruiting him to football operations manager Graeme Allan.

Geelong coach Chris Scott told Fox Sports' On The Couch Steven Johnson's "flair" can occasionally cause him headaches but denied claims his mercurial forward is selfish. "I heard one media commentator refer to him as selfish on the weekend," Scott said. "Now that's not true. He's one of the most team-oriented players in the game. We've all seen the way he can dish off and his goal assists are first class."

Richmond's Ben Nason looms as a likely part of any trade that sends Adelaide ruckman Ivan Maric to the Tigers, The Advertiser reports. Nason's manager Paul Connors told Adelaide's daily newspaper his client was interested in returning to South Australia after playing just four games for the Tigers this season. 

The Herald Sun's Jon Ralph writes in his online column The Buzz that "the frenzy" to jump off Collingwood's bandwagon after the first week of the finals is rash. As impressive as Geelong was in beating Hawthorn last Friday night, Ralph argued the Magpies remain a force to be reckoned with after dropping just two games this season and recording the highest percentage in AFL history.

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