Rumour Hawks to be penalised for draft tampering?

[Pessimistic]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hawks were being ‘clever’ to be able to get two bites by selecting whoever they thought was second most appealing player, then select Newcombe with their next kick confident nobody else would take him due to his terms. Then the AFL tapped them on the shoulder saying the way to make it right is to select Newcombe at 2.

Otherwise none of what happened makes much sense at all.

did they also tell the other clubs not to select Callow?

 

[Pessimistic]

They won a flag with Kennedy (McGlynn injured during finals) you *******

a gift from buddy perhaps

 

[HairyO]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hawks were being ‘clever’ to be able to get two bites by selecting whoever they thought was second most appealing player, then select Newcombe with their next kick confident nobody else would take him due to his terms. Then the AFL tapped them on the shoulder saying the way to make it right is to select Newcombe at 2.

Otherwise none of what happened makes much sense at all.

Unless the player decided they didnt want to quit their job and change their life for a 6 month contract.

Not sure why so many people are struggling with this concept.

 

[Lampers]

Unless the player decided they didnt want to quit their job and change their life for a 6 month contract.

Not sure why so many people are struggling with this concept.

There were something like 500 nominees and I believe Newcombe was the only one who nominated terms at such high levels (reportedly 170k guaranteed in year two, performance bonuses, 3rd year too). I believe a few did the 18 month term choice so it wasn’t that 6 month risk and disruption.

Cream of the crop National draftees only get a two year contract.

That’s not job security for a 19 year old, I doubt he was on similar coin and was just wanting to keep parity while trying to pursue an AFL career.

That’s why it’s hard to believe there wasn’t some level of shenanigans at play.

I can only see two rational reasons for this.

1. Newcombe really rates himself and has the balls to put a price on himself that could scare off all interested parties and leave him with just VFL pay which is a pittance plus whatever he gets if he has a job. That’s a huge risk and his manager would be incompetent to recommend that action.

2. The structure of what was nominated was done with some level of input from Hawthorn. The only reason that would happen is if Hawthorn were trying to put off other clubs so they could get Newcombe AND the choice of all other players once Edwards was taken.

I think scenario 2 is far more likely, it’s what I’d try to do if I was a list manager, and I don’t know if that qualifies as tampering or not.

What’s weird to me is why Hawthorn chose him with their second selection, nobody else was going to touch him with those nominated terms. I can’t think of why that happened unless another club was going to take him even at those terms, or the AFL strongly recommended the Hawks take him at 2 to avoid further digging.

If there’s another theory that makes sense I’d like to know what it is.

 

[HairyO]

He got a 2.5 year contract. And the media are almost always wrong on the $$$.

If we were scaring other clubs away why get him with pick 2 rather than pick 17 ?

Unless more than 1 club were going to take him on despite his requirements... meaning he was smart to have them.