FIND out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Saturday, June 18, 2011

Herald Sun

Melbourne can’t afford to lose Scully
By Mike Sheahan

FOR the purpose of the exercise, let's accept Melbourne's view that Tom Scully's future remains in the balance. That he is Melbourne's to lose, rather than already lost to Greater Western Sydney. What, then, is a fair and reasonable offer for a player of 20 years of age and 32 games (if he were to play the remaining 11 games this year)? Not just any 20-year-old, obviously, for he is a No. 1 draft pick and destined to be a star, and not because one is supposed to follow the other. Melbourne has a figure in mind, for it is understood to be considering putting new contract terms to Scully's management group, Velocity, in the near future. The club, though, isn't shedding any light on proceedings. Chief executive officer Cameron Schwab and general manager of list management Tim Harrington both offered nothing more than the party line to the Herald Sun this week. "We don't talk about these things, you know that," Schwab said. "It becomes impossible to manage if you do. Pretty high stakes." Harrington said: "You know I have to trot out the policy line." Velocity's Peter Blucher denies any offer, but admits he spoke to the Demons last week while in Melbourne for the AFL Hall of Fame function. "We talked in a general sense about their philosophy. We're not at the figures stage." The rumour mill is rather more expansive.

Scully is worth No.1 pick
By Mark Stevens

THE AFL was transparent enough in the early days of selling its compensation package to admit it would not be a perfect system. Yes, clubs losing uncontracted stars to expansion clubs would gain something in return, but in most cases the compo would not match the worth of the player they had lost. It was the way it had to be, the AFL said. Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney needed a kick along -and the league told us it could have been a hell of a lot worse. We were swiftly reminded the original model, discussed by a working party, included no compensation. Thankfully, compo was thrown in as a sweetener, but the AFL was spot on with its other warning - invariably, the compo would not match the worth of a player lost. Hawthorn had no reason to complain about receiving an end of first-round pick in return for Campbell Brown. In fact, it was generous, given his age. Two first-round picks for Gary Ablett was reasonable, but how do you compensate for the loss of such a superstar? But almost all the other clubs that lost players received "unders" in return. The compo for Nathan Bock and Jarrod Harbrow was insufficient, but the clubs took a jab to the guts and moved on. Yet, if Melbourne loses Tom Scully to GWS, a major injustice is looming. This is no jab, but a knockout right hook.