At this time of year, rumours abound about the comings and goings of coaches and players, injuries to star players and anything else that might create a little traction in gossip circles. It might be just me, but with the new media world of websites and social networks it seems to be even worse.
I have been around footy all my life and it seems now that someone, somewhere can float a rumour and it soon becomes gospel.
In the last couple of weeks, I have even been caught up in it all, first of all linked to Port Adelaide and then my first club, Essendon, as a possible coaching replacement. I will take this opportunity to say that I am extremely happy at West Coast and intend staying here to see out the task of making us successful again.
There is a lot of work to do, but I am enjoying the challenge.
The tough part of my new role as general manager of football operations comes now, in planning for next year. Some of our players unfortunately will be left in the air to some extent, until after the trade period (October 11) and our first list lodgement will be made on October 28.
There are a few players, who I am not going to name out of respect, who will not be offered contracts at this point. With trade week approaching, we need to leave room on our list for the possible recruitment of a couple of mature-aged players.
Once trade week has been completed, we will be in a better position to assess our list in its entirety and then establish our draft strategy.
Having said that, at least three of our players will need to come off the primary list, because that is the system at work. We have to bring at least three new players into our club and the only way to do that is to delist three current players.
That is a difficult task, an unpleasant chore, but it is part of the complex rules employed by the AFL.
This is a critical time; it is important that we build our list and that we get this right. We have already spent a lot of time on our list structure and will continue to work at length on this important issue which is becomingly increasingly crucial in the AFL.
The role of a list manager is a relatively new innovation in the AFL, but it has quickly become a key part of a club’s operations, not only looking purely at the immediate squad, but also projecting forward and ensuring we have players to fill the gaps as senior players move on.
That is why we are looking nationally for a replacement for Steve Woodhouse, who will wind back his duties next year for health reasons. That exhaustive search is continuing.
