Updated ,first published
In today’s AFL Briefing, your wrap of footy news:
- West Coast premiership coach has ruled himself out of the running to take on the Carlton role
- Chris Scott said he understood the interest around the AFL enforcing salary cap rules
- Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters has spoken on his playing future
West Coast premiership coach Adam Simpson, a part-time coaching consultant at Carlton, has officially ruled himself out of contention to be the Blues’ next senior coach.
A week after Simpson refused to declare if he wanted to coach Carlton, indicating that the circumstances of Michael Voss’ departure meant it was too soon to put his hand up, he has put a line through his own name and said: “It doesn’t feel right.”
The 2018 premiership coach and veteran of more than 300 AFL matches as a player with North Melbourne said he had “a very brief” conversation about the role with Carlton’s hierarchy, but the talks didn’t advance far.
“I’m not going to put my hand up for any type of role with Carlton, from a coaching point of view,” Simpson said on Fox Footy, where he appears as a regular panelist.
“I think I said it last week, really. It’s difficult when you’re working at the club and mentoring someone.
“It doesn’t feel right.
“So people can stop asking me questions on it. I take myself out of contention.”
Simpson finished with explanation about his choice not to put his hand up by declaring that whoever gets the Carlton job “will have a good career”.
“For me, at the moment, it just didn’t feel right,” Simpson said.
“When you’re working with someone and the coaching staff – to come in and try and [take the senior job], yeah, that’s not quite right for me.
“I’m sure whoever takes that job will have a good career.”
There has been intrigue about Simpson’s availability to rejoin the coaching ranks after he signed on to a mentoring and coaching consultant role at Carlton for 2026 while scrutiny grew on Voss’ coaching future. That focus on Voss intensified after the Blues’ poor start to the season.
A week ago, Simpson was noncommittal about whether he’d put his hand up for the Carlton job.
“I don’t know,” Simpson said on Fox Footy at the time.
“Today [the answer] is ‘No’, but what is it like in 10, 14, 15 weeks?
“It’s weird to say because people think there’s an answer coming straight away – yes or no.
“I’m assuming there’s some career coaches out there who [would say], ‘I’m a career coach, I will do coaching ’til the day I die’.
“[But] there’s a bit more depth, I suppose, to our lives. And there’s a lot to work through.”
Ex Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has not ruled himself out of the running for the role, but last week gave a ringing endorsement for 2012 Sydney premiership coach John Longmire.
-Scott Spits
‘Inuendo, half-truths’: Chris Scott dismisses football links to alleged fraudster
Geelong says former coterie member Sy Giang Nguyen, who is under investigation for allegedly defrauding local not-for-profit genU, had no role within the football department during Chris Scott’s time as Cats’ coach.
The dual premiership coach was responding to a News Corp report that Scott and football manager Andrew Mackie were staying at the same hotel as Nguyen when they travelled to Sydney early in the 2023 season.
The trip occurred months before police revealed they were investigating the former genU employee for alleged fraud, and also occurred within the time frame of the AFL’s extended audit into Geelong’s administration of player payments and third-party deals, which spanned from 2019-2024.
The AFL found no breach of player payment or player movement rules had occurred; however the Cats were fined $77,500 (with $40,000 suspended) for administrative errors.
The audit identified a series of non-disclosures and/or late disclosures of arrangements with club associates and third parties that should have been reported to the AFL.
“I do understand the interest in the AFL enforcing the broader soft cap, especially the salary cap,” Scott said on Wednesday.
“Our club’s been through an extensive audit over the previous 12 months or so, and we feel like we’re through that now. We completely support that the AFL have a role to play within this, and we feel really comfortable with them taking on that role, and two, us participating in any queries they might have, but a sort of public commentary around it, I suspect, probably, leads to innuendo, half-truths, and extrapolations.”
Scott said that he knew Nguyen but he “was in no way, shape or form involved in the trip that Andrew and I took”, nor did he socialise with them on the trip.
“It wouldn’t surprise you or anyone else to know that I’m not intimately involved in the booking of work travel,” Scott said.
Geelong confirmed the club paid for Scott and Mackie’s travel to Sydney, and the accommodation.
The Cats coach said the Geelong football department remained separate from the commercial department, which deals with corporate sponsors and coterie members.
“I think if the expectation is that the clubs can vet people on things that may happen into the future, that’s a very high bar to set, and we may well find ourselves with no corporate support as well,” Scott said.
No charges have been laid against Nguyen, however investigations are ongoing and the club has not had ties with him since becoming aware of the fraud allegations.
Nguyen, as well as late Geelong businessman Keith Greenwood, agreed to pay $5.4 million to the charity in a civil case as genU attempted to retrieve part of the missing $14.5 million. This masthead reported in December that, after making an initial payment of $1.4 million, the pair had not made further payments.
– Peter Ryan
‘Emotional’: AFL’s hottest property on playing future
Zak Butters says it’s almost time to seriously think about what the rest of the AFL has been talking about all year.
And Port Adelaide’s star midfielder says it will be emotional, regardless of where he decides to play from next season.
The AFL’s hottest property insists he’s yet to seriously weigh multimillion-dollar dollars from rival clubs to return to his native Victoria when his contract at Port expires at season’s end.
“It’s obviously a big decision,” Butters told reporters on Wednesday.
“You think about everything … there’s emotion attached to it, definitely. No matter what the decision is, it’s going to be a pretty emotional one from my end, no matter what I do.”
Butters on Saturday night will play his 150th AFL game when the Power host Carlton at Adelaide Oval.
Port’s club champion for the past three seasons will then return to his family home in Darley, about 55 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, during the Power’s bye the following weekend.
“Honestly, I haven’t even spoken to my family too much about it,” he said.
“I have just really enjoyed having them at games and playing footy.
“And I always said I’d probably think about it more in the back half of the year.
“Just like 150 games, it creeps up on you quickly. So it’s probably something I need to start having some conversations around with family and friends and people I’m closest to.”
The Western Bulldogs and Geelong are considered at the front of a long queue of clubs trying to lure the 25-year-old.
But the dynamic on-baller said there was a romance of being a one-club player such as Port icons Travis Boak and Robbie Gray – both Victorian-born stars who resisted offers to return home during their careers.
– AAP
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