Archive for February, 2012

Former Fremantle boss Mark Harvey says he would never follow Ross Lyon’s example and hold secret talks with a club knowing the current coach was still under contract

Asked about whether there was a brotherhood among coaches that dictated behaviour of those in the coaching game, Harvey was clear in his view.

“Put it this way,” Harvey said on SEN’s Morning Glory. “If I was asked by another club and that coach had a contract, I certainly wouldn’t be entertaining it.”

When told of Lyon’s comments on On The Couch on Monday night, where the Fremantle coach said he wouldn’t be calling Harvey, the new Brisbane Lions assistant bristled.

“If he feels that way, that’s fine,” he said.

“I certainly won’t be picking up the phone.”

While Harvey was shocked and disappointed to lose the Fremantle job, he said it was the Lions’ relentless pursuit of him that convinced him not to take a break.

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Fremantle coach Ross Lyon says he would pay Hawthorn’s Lance Franklin $1.5 million a year to come to the club.

Commenting on rumours Collingwood power forward Travis Cloke might be lured to new club Greater Western Sydney by an offer like the one Gold Coast used to prise Gary Ablett from Geelong, Lyon said there were “clearly” $1.5 million a year players in the AFL these days.

The AFL’s annual salary cap figures released this week revealed that two players (Ablett and an unknown second player) were now being paid in excess of $1 million per year.

“I tell you what, I would give Buddy $1.5 million tomorrow, there you go,” Lyon said.

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Jack Anthony has already been on a few Community Camps in his AFL career and the Freo forward says it’s an event he looks forward to every year.

He was in Esperance today for Fremantle’s 2012 Australia Post AFL Community Camp.

Anthony, who visited south west WA town Albany in 2008 when his former club Collingwood played a regional challenge match there, said this year’s Camp has been one of the best.

“It’s been fantastic to meet some of the great people in this community,” he said.

“Many people here love making the trek up to Perth to watch the footy, so they loved the opportunity to have us visit them.”

“In the bigger cities it’s easier to get involved with football. But with Esperance, for instance, it’s so far away the only chance they really get to meet footballers is here.”

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Former St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has brushed off suggestions a dispute over a pay cut was his motivation to walk out on the club last year.

Lyon quit the Saints after he was headhunted by Fremantle to become its senior coach last September, taking the football world by surprise.

He was contracted to the Saints for 2012 but exercised an out clause to take up a long-term offer with Fremantle.

In an extend interview on Fox Footy’s On The Couch program, Lyon refused to elaborate on suggestions that a major part of his decision to leave St Kilda was based on a re-worked contract offering less money.

“I’m not sure that’s relevant. I’m not sure that’s in the public domain. I haven’t put that in the public domain, have I?” Lyon said in response to the suggestion of a pay cut.

Last year on Thursday, September 15, news broke that senior coach Mark Harvey had been sacked by Fremantle and Lyon would be his replacement.

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