THERE is no shortage of people waiting to pounce on the slightest signs of tension between Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley.
As the game's second-longest-serving coach prepares to pass the Collingwood coaching baton to his assistant coach at the end of this season, some seem to presume the Malthouse-Buckley relationship is racked with tension.
'Why would Malthouse want to hand over the top job when he's closing in on back-to-back flags and seems to be in the best form of his 27-year coaching career?' they ask.
It's a fair question. Malthouse is an extremely driven individual, one you suspect will find it hard to give up the buzz of coaching for the backroom mentoring role he is set to assume under the succession plan brokered by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire.
But if Malthouse is grappling with his looming role change, it does not appear to have affected his relationship with Buckley.
Buckley told Channel Nine's Footy Classified on Monday night he had never got on better with Malthouse than he had this year. And he has worked under Malthouse for 10 years, as a player from 1999-2007 and as an assistant coach from 2010.
Buckley said he had never had a problem working under Malthouse since the succession plan was announced in late 2009. He pointed out he had been used to taking orders from Malthouse as a player and had easily adjusted to life as a member of his assistant coaching team.
How the Buckley-Malthouse relationship will change beyond this year is unclear. There has been no shortage of speculation Malthouse will leave Collingwood to pursue a senior coaching position elsewhere.
It seems extremely likely there will be coaching vacancies at the end of this year and just as likely Malthouse will be near the top of any prospective suitors' wish lists.
McGuire has previously insisted Malthouse will honour the three-year deal he has to become Magpies director of coaching, even suggesting - at least partly in jest - the club would sue him if he did not.
However, Buckley said he would have no problem if Malthouse decided he was not ready to call time on his coaching career.
"I don't think you'd hold anyone back," Buckley said.
"If you don't want to be there, you don't have to be."
It will be interesting to see what transpires. However, whatever Malthouse decides to do, it seems the mutual respect between the Magpies coach and his former captain will ensure their relationship does not suffer.
Watts investment will kick goals: Bailey
In case you've been living under a rock, Jack Watts was the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft.
He's the bloke who was monstered by a pack of Collingwood players when he made his debut for Melbourne in the 2009 Queen's Birthday clash.
Around that time, one of the game's pre-eminent voices, Leigh Matthews, said he could not detect any standout qualities in Watts that warranted him being the dux of his draft class.
Meanwhile, the No. 7 pick in Watts' draft, Daniel Rich, was winning plaudits on his way to a runaway win in that year's NAB AFL Rising Star award.
And, last year, West Coast's Nic Naitanui (the No. 2 pick), Fremantle's Stephen Hill (No. 3) and Essendon's Michael Hurley (No. 5 pick) were all performing well enough that serious questions were being posed about the Demons' decision to choose Watts.
However, this year, Watts has slowly started to win over some of his detractors.
He has not missed a game and, especially since being shifted from attack into defence, has shown just how well he reads the play. Couple this with his remarkable pace for a big man - he's 196cm - excellent foot skills, and the fact he is starting to clunk marks like he did as a junior, and all of a sudden Watts seems on track to repay the Demons' faith.
Melbourne coach Dean Bailey is also confident he will do so in the position he was drafted to fill - key forward.
"Eventually inside 50, close to goal he'll start to put a few goals together,"
Bailey told Fox Sports' On The Couch on Monday night.
"I'm convinced the way he's developing that he can still be a guy who comes out of the goalsquare.
"We've drafted him to be a forward goalkicker and given time he'll certainly be able to do that."
It's worth remembering Watts only turned 20 in March. And, unlike fellow key-position prospect Hurley, he came into the AFL system with an underdeveloped body. So, it was always going to take time for him to develop the strength and bulk required to hold down a key position.
Given that time, he may just become the player Bailey is expecting him to be.
Craig may groom successor
First, Collingwood announced the Mick Malthouse-Nathan Buckley coaching succession plan in late 2009. Soon after, the Sydney Swans put in place plans for Paul Roos' long-term assistant John Longmire to replace him as senior coach at the end of last season.
Now, it seems Adelaide may follow suit.
The Advertiser's chief football writer Michelangelo Rucci wrote on Tuesday that Crows coach Neil Craig may have to anoint his successor at the end of this season and spend 2012 grooming him to take over.
Rucci said the chief candidates under such a plan would be former Crows captains Mark Bickley, Simon Goodwin and Mark Ricciuto, and former 200-game defender Nathan Bassett - with Goodwin, currently an Essendon assistant, and Bassett, a SANFL senior coach with Norwood, at the front of the queue.
Rucci's column was based on comments from Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg. Trigg told Rucci the Crows had a "very strong belief in promoting from within".
"In Neil Craig, we saw his on-the-job performance (as an assistant to former coach Gary Ayres)," Trigg said.
"That process clearly reveals a coach's shortfalls, weaknesses and abilities. The age-old process of appointing coaches requires reference checks, interviews - and an element of risk."
At the start of this season, Craig, who was entering the last year of his existing coaching contract, was made a permanent employee of the club, as the Crows reaffirmed their long-term faith in him.
However, after a poor start to 2011 that sees the Crows 14th on the ladder with just three wins, Rucci said Adelaide's administration could face pressure from sponsors, members and fans to appoint a new coach.
The succession plan Rucci is pre-empting may be one way of doing this.
However, Trigg made it clear any such talk was "hypothetical".
It seems much will depend on the Crows' finish to this season, in particularly Craig's ability to fast-track the young list he says is the "most exciting" in the club's 20-year history.
In short
Geelong key forward Cameron Mooney told OneHD's One Week at a Time he was struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demands of the modern game, but the 31-year-old said he would play at least the next three VFL rounds before deciding whether to continue playing until the end of the season.
The Sydney Swans' premiership aspirations will "implode or explode" in the next two rounds, when they meet Collingwood and Carlton, The Daily Telegraph's Malcolm Conn writes. Conn said the Swans "had flown under the radar" to sit fifth after 12 rounds but there would be "serious doubts" about their ability to push for a top-four finish if they could not win at least one of these matches.
Gold Coast may hand the task of quelling Hawthorn spearhead Lance Franklin to one of its youngsters this Saturday, Suns assistant coach Dean Solomon told the Gold Coast Bulletin. While the Suns' vice-captain Nathan Bock is one of the best key defenders in the competition, Solomon says Tom Lynch or Jack Hutchins could be given a "taste" of playing on one of the game's most destructive forwards.
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has endorsed North Melbourne's deal to play two home games at Hobart's Bellerive Oval from 2012, the Herald Sun reports. Hawthorn plays four games a game at Launceston's Aurora Stadium and Kennett said the additional games in Hobart would be "good for Tasmania".
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The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
