SO THE Giants are starting to take shape. On Wednesday, GWS unveiled its first uncontracted player signings, Callan Ward and Rhys Palmer.
At 11am on Thursday morning, they are expected to announce what we have all known for a month - Phil Davis will leave Adelaide to join Ward and Palmer. Davis held a press conference at the start of August to announce he was bound for GWS, but, given the AFL rules governing GWS' right to sign opposition players, the Giants could not confirm his signing until the end of the season.
Giants coach Kevin Sheedy has also indicated he will revive the AFL careers of Port Adelaide premiership players Dean Brogan and Chad Cornes, with the battle-hardened veterans set to play protectors to GWS' plethora of youngsters.
But will the Giants' key target this past year, two-season Melbourne midfielder Tom Scully, join Sheedy and his gang as they launch the AFL's 18th team next year?
Most people think the answer to that question is yes. Media Watch reported on Wednesday that the website Sports News First took it as read that Scully will be wearing the Giants' orange, charcoal and white colours next season.
On Thursday, The Age's chief football writer Caroline Wilson proclaimed Scully was now "certain" to sign with GWS. Wilson wrote that Scully will conduct a tour of the Giants' Blacktown headquarters on Friday and would announce his future AFL home soon after.
Wilson acknowledged Melbourne had worked hard recently to persuade Scully to remain a Demon, but she wrote that those efforts had been hindered by the uncertainty that surrounded who would coach the club in 2012 and whether football manager Chris Connolly and chief executive Cameron Schwab would keep their jobs.
Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph reported that Sheedy claimed the Giants inaugural playing list would boast up to 15 players with AFL experience.
Last year, fellow expansion club Gold Coast secured 10 players from rival clubs under similar recruiting concessions to those currently enjoyed by GWS.
However, The Daily Telegraph's Todd Balym wrote that Sheedy wanted to recruit more experienced AFL players to counteract his list's youth.
Balym wrote that the Giants would sign just four uncontracted players this year - Ward, Palmer, Davis and Scully - but would target opposition stars such as Sam Mitchell, Brendon Goddard and Cyril Rioli as trades for the four 17-year-olds they can offer to the other clubs this season.
In typical spruiker mode, Sheedy told the paper those 17-year-olds, who include highly touted West Australian Jaeger O'Meara, would become AFL champions in the mould of Nathan Buckley, James Hird, Chris Judd, Luke Hodge and Nick Riewoldt. As such, opposition clubs would have to cough up, he warned.
"We want the best offers, otherwise they don't get the best player," Sheedy said.
The Australian reported that Sheedy's recruitment drive has not been limited to players, with the Giants coach targeting senior North Melbourne assistant Darren Crocker for a senior role in his coaching staff.
Giants chief executive Dale Holmes is also doing his best to ensure GWS starts its AFL life with a bang, with the The Age's Wilson reporting that the club is seeking to play its inaugural match one week ahead of 2012's other round one matches, preferably against cross-town rivals the Sydney Swans.
Hawks No. 23 in the news again
Less than two weeks ago, one of Media Watch's regular alter egos Ashley Browne wrote a feature in the AFL Record that examined why the No. 23 guernsey was so revered at Hawthorn.
The central question Browne posed was simple - who's the best player to have worn the Hawks' No. 23: John Peck, Don Scott, Dermott Brereton or Lance Franklin?
It's a question that was posed as a bit of fun, rather than a wild goose chase for a definitive answer.
The Herald Sun got in on the fun on Thursday. On its back page, it ran this headline, "Straw Poll: Who's the greatest Hawthorn No. 23 - Don Scott, Lance Franklin or Dermott Brereton." Alongside this, it ran a great photo of the three No. 23s sitting on a stack of hay bales on Scott's Moorooduc property.
As much as Scott and Brereton stood out, and Franklin continues to stand out, on the field, it's safe to say none has shone as brightly as Scott did in this photo. Wearing a zip-up cardigan that would have given Joseph's technicolour dreamcoat a run for its money - not to mention Bill Cosby's line of jumpers in the 1980s - Scott rounded out his fashion statement with a pair of orange pants, red runners, mismatching black and brown socks, a denim shirt and red T-shirt.
We hope Franklin was joking when he said he would start to incorporate some of Scott's influences in his T-shirt label Nena & Pasadena.
More seriously, it was a good effort by the Herald Sun's Glenn McFarlane to get the three superstars together. It can't have been easy given Scott and Franklin are renowned for being media shy.
It was interesting to read how all three grew up in awe of the players they would follow into the No. 23 jumper.
Scott remembered playing a practice game as an 18-year-old with Peck and how easy Peck had made it for him with his "bullocking work".
Brereton recalled watching Scott lead his teammates out of the race in the 1978 Grand Final. "I was thinking he is not asking, he is demanding that the team follow," Brereton said. Scott was "probably Hawthorn's greatest captain", he said.
Meanwhile, Franklin admitted to being overawed just being around Scott and Brereton.
Goodness knows, then, how McFarlane and Herald Sun photographer Michael Dodge felt being in the presence of the three No. 23s.
Coach Watch
Senior Age reporter Jake Niall took a look on Thursday at where Adelaide and Melbourne are at in their hunts for new coaches.
Niall reported that the Crows were considering former Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade for a senior assistant position in the mould of the mentoring role former Geelong coach Mark Thompson is playing alongside James Hird at Essendon.
According to Niall, the Crows have spoken with Eade about his interest in such a role, with the Crows most likely to appoint an inexperienced senior coach. Niall wrote that assistant coaches Scott Burns (West Coast) and Mark Neeld (Collingwood) were the leading contenders to replace Neil Craig, along with caretaker coach Mark Bickley.
Meanwhile, Melbourne's strategy to find Dean Bailey's replacement was based on targeting experienced senior coaches first, Niall wrote. As has been widely reported, Niall identified St Kilda coach Ross Lyon as the Demons' current target.
However, Niall wrote that the Demons realised they could not afford to sit back and hope Lyon would walk out on the final year of his current contract with the Saints. As such, they will begin interviewing assistant coaches, with Burns, Neeld, Leon Cameron (Hawthorn), Brenton Sanderson (Geelong), Alan Richardson (Carlton) and Ken Hinkley (Gold Coast) among the likely candidates, Niall wrote.
Niall expected Melbourne to interview between eight to 10 coaching candidates over the next week. He also believed the Demons had discussed appointing a senior mentor if they ultimately went with an inexperienced senior coach.
In short
Out-of-contract Adelaide ruckman Ivan Maric appears set to join Richmond in October's trade period, The Advertiser reports.
Although the Crows have offered Maric a new contract, Adelaide's daily newspaper said the Victorian would "almost certainly" grab the opportunity to become Richmond's No. 1 ruckman as opposed to continuing to play Sam Jacob's understudy.
NRL chief executive David Gallop claims the quality of the AFL has suffered in 2011 because of hastily made decisions about its expansion, The Australian reports. Gallop said that in trying to make Gold Coast and GWS strong through salary cap and draft concessions the AFL had alienated its existing clubs and had risked the "quality" of its competition and the "closeness" of its games.
Former Port Adelaide captain Warren Tredrea called on Adelaide and Port Adelaide players to lift their professionalism in his column in The Advertiser. Tredrea wrote that for both clubs to rebound from their disappointing 2011 seasons their players had to use the off-season break to get themselves in peak condition before pre-season training started.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
