As Gold Coast captain, how can Tom Lynch be holding meetings with Collingwood and Richmond?
TOM Lynch is captain of the Gold Coast Suns yet is holding meetings with rival coaches about his future in-season. How can he look his teammates in the eye? The whole situation is a mess, writes MARK ROBINSON.
Mark Robinson
Don't miss out on the headlines from Mark Robinson. Followed categories will be added to My News.
INTEGRITY in the AFL is under siege.
Tom Lynch is captain of Gold Coast and is having meetings with Collingwood and Richmond and presumably Hawthorn at some stage.
Imagine if Scott Pendlebury met Essendon last week. Or Joel Selwood met North Melbourne. Or Sydney’s Josh Kennedy with Melbourne. And then returned to their clubs and pushed core values and principles, which is what captains do and it’s why they are captains in the first place.
JON RALPH: WHY LYNCH CAN MEET WITH BUCKS
GILL’S CALL: DON’T BLAME LYNCH FOR MEETINGS
They are leaders. They set standards and demand respect. They look people in the eye.
But Lynch, a free agent at the end of the year, is shopping himself around.
The captain of one club is meeting coaches of another.
Free agency, in part, is encouraging Lynch to scamper around under the cloak of darkness and live a lie with his club and teammates.
How he looks Suns coach Stuart Dew in the eye after his meetings with opposition coaches is an interesting thought.
Nathan Buckley said this week he had met Lynch, but on Wednesday said he regretted his comments.
“I think out of all this, the biggest issue is the integrity of the young man himself. From my understanding, he has conducted himself with dignity and respect,’’ the Collingwood coach said on SEN Radio.
Wonder if Bucks would feel the same if Pendlebury was meeting with the Bombers and not telling the Pies?
Lynch is in a difficult position. He is failing his duty as captain and everything that captaincy stands for because there’s seemingly a gentlemen’s agreement over clubs talking to rival players.
Not everyone will agree with that comment, but clearly there is an agreement and the whole situation is a mess.
COMPLETE THE SURVEY AND YOU COULD WIN GRAND FINAL TICKETS
Perhaps it’s best that Lynch tell the Suns his plans and end this charade, and then Lynch and the Suns deal with it.
It’s magnified when it’s the captain, but maybe it’s time all players announce their plans if they are leaving the following year.
You can understand their reluctance to do it.
Former coach Paul Roos is on record saying he wouldn’t play a player if he knew that player wouldn’t be at the club next year.
Carlton’s Lachie Henderson said three years ago he wanted a trade and the Blues didn’t play him in the final three games of the season.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan said at the time he didn’t like Henderson’s announcement before the end of the season — labelling it ‘’unnecessary’’ and ‘’undisciplined’’.
Why would a player come out when even the boss is so against it?
No one begrudges Lynch for wanting out, he has given eight years to the AFL’s baby, but this current climate of subterfuge cannot continue ... for any player.
Lynch is moving under the umbrella of free agency.
It has been suggested free agency is the new world order, but another suggestion is free agency could kill the competitive balance.
Is free agency working when/or if Lynch goes to best team in the competition, which is the Tigers?
Do we want the equivalent of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets with super teams via free agency? Or a situation similar to the English Premier League, where four clubs dominate?
The Total Player Payments does keep clubs in check and perhaps we need free agency rules to stop the best teams acquiring the best players, such as a bar on top-four or top-six teams participating.
The AFL also has its integrity challenges over the trialling of new rules.
McLachlan is considering asking clubs not vying for finals to put on an exhibition game.
“If you trialled something between the two clubs and they weren’t playing another team that’s competing for the eight, I don’t think there’s any way it could be a risk to the integrity of the competition.’’ McLachlan said.
Same season. Different rules. Guinea pig teams = no risk to integrity? This is kite-flying surely.
What happens if one team doesn’t take it as serious as the other? Are they tanking? Are they fined?
The AFL should pay teams to play carnival matches on the weekend between the Round 23 and the finals and leave the season proper alone.
Why? Because integrity of the game and of positions in the game can’t be sidelined in this new world order.
Watch every match of every round of the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. SIGN UP NOW >
‘In games we give up’: Flag hero savages Dons as board war looms
‘We are no longer feared, we’re certainly not respected’ – Essendon premiership player Paul Weston has had enough. He tells MARK ROBINSON exclusively about his plan for change.
‘We’ve got champions who are zombies’: Mitchell’s plea for help
Last Monday, at just 58, Barry Mitchell was lying in Epworth Hospital wondering if the game he loves had almost killed him again. This is his confronting story the footy world needs to hear.