TV wrap: Sam Draper’s Crow call, Lethal’s Nas worries, and coach security

If you were re-watching the Logies on Monday night, this is what you missed on the footy shows.

Let’s catch you up.

AFL 360

Once Garry Lyon hands the three GVP votes to Logan Morris, it is coaches night on the 360 agenda.

Fremantle boss Justin Longmuir came straight from the high performance briefing with news on Hayden Young, and potentially Nat Fyfe replacing him.

Young will miss at least this week with an adductor injury, with Longmuir not sure when he would be back.

“We have escaped serious injury, it is just a matter of whether we can get him back before our last game,” he said.

“We are cutting it pretty fine with timelines.”

Young has twice missed time this year through hamstring injuries but was named best-on-ground in a derby win over West Coast in round 20.

Similarly injury-prone, Fyfe made a rare WAFL appearance for Peel Thunder on the weekend, racking up 27 disposals in limited gametime.

“He comes into calculations this week … was easily best-on-ground in my eyes,” Longmuir said.

On the other Zoom screen, Chris Fagan was flying high after rebounding with a great win over Collingwood.

Morris was the star with six goals, but fellow forward Henry Smith also bagged three.

The beanpole Lion is listed at 202cm, but that is an old measurement.

“I think he’s 207cm now and along with that has come a few injuries,” Fagan said.

“I think he’s got a very bright future if his body can stay sound.

“Obviously because he has been a tall lad growing up, he has played a fair bit of football in the ruck … he is very nimble at ground level and moves pretty well, I really have an open mind about what he can do in the future.”

In terms of Morris, while some of us have been struggling to put a finger on a player comparison for the young star – I am going with Jack Gunston – Fagan has a 787-goal Tiger in mind.

“He reminds me of Jack Riewoldt,” the Lions coach said.

Another big Lion, Oscar McInerney missed the Pies win.

Fagan said the warrior ruck battled with his back during a QClash loss the week before and his chances of playing a meaningful role in the home-and-away season, plus finals, is on the edge.

“I have to be honest and say delicately poised is a good description,” Fagan said.

“He needed to take a weekend off just gone by to allow some treatment to assist and hopefully we will build him up again and see how we go.

“Certainly in the game we played against the Gold Coast he was pretty sore by halftime and it was a brave effort by him to get through. He can’t keep playing while he is like that, hopefully there is some improvement in the next week or two.”

Fagan confirmed he was still keen to boot the bounce, after Toby Nankervis clattered into an umpire on the weekend.

“I saw that and my immediate thought was that is why you shouldn’t bounce the ball,” Fagan said.

“You have a better chance if you’re an umpire of backing out of there if you’re throwing it up … hopefully it is a bit more evidence that we need to move on from the bounce.”

Both Fagan and Longmuir agreed they wouldn’t go public if they were meeting a player, like Craig McRae has with Jack Silvagni.

Fagan has quietly wooed Joe Daniher and Lachie Neale in the past and has Sam Draper on his plate this year, but refuses to talk about it publicly.

“I certainly wouldn’t reveal in public that I have been speaking with players,” he said.

Longmuir said he hasn’t met with any players so far this year but “it is best to keep your mouth shut and those things tend to come out at the end of the year”.

THE AGENDA SETTERS

A mystery bald security guard emerged on the Agenda Setters as the AFL going to the “next level” to protect coaches.

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin thanked the league after he was granted beefed up protection during a win over West Coast on Sunday, while Michael Voss received extra support earlier this year.

Both coaches were subjected to threats this year after losses.

Caroline Wilson picked out images of the same bald man with glasses spotted in club colours during the Melbourne game on Sunday, a Carlton game in round 18 and as support for Luke Beveridge the week before.

Wilson said the extra security “has been organised by the AFL’s integrity unit”.

“Why Luke Beveridge needed protection on that particular night I am not sure?,” she said.

“The AFL are very sensitive about this, they would rather we weren’t reporting it.

“We shouldn’t overplay this but they are prepared to go to the next level not only to protect coaches but to ease the minds of their wives and families.”

Wilson next reported that Gold Coast was working to dump home games held in Darwin, having rung Richmond with the idea of offloading one match.

It presents as an odd decision, given the Suns are undefeated when hosting games in Darwin in the last four years, having won all eight matches.

“They’re certainly second guessing it. This is a football decision, for the first time in their history the suns are on the verge of playing finals and they would rather play games at home,” Wilson said.

She said there was a “view” in the Suns footy department that they win games at home on the Gold Coast too, and the Suns have pocketed six of seven matches at People First Stadium in 2025.

Unusually quiet to start the show, Kane Cornes soon pondered whether Hawthorn took a risk bringing Will Day on the field after his foot was stomped on in the first half.

The Hawk played on after halftime but scans would show Day had a navicular bone injury serious enough.

Hawthorn has been adamant it didn’t take any risk with Day.

“You have to ask the question whether if it was a meaningless home and away game whether they would have risked putting him back on the field in the second half,” he said.

Seemingly on a roll, Cornes next wondered if Collingwood had been a “touch arrogant” by playing Jordan De Goey on a minutes limit in a loss to Brisbane, subbing him off for Bobby Hill.

The Pies lost but Nick Riewoldt said they should be shifting magnets to make sure they are right in September.

The big panel had some mixed feelings about Collingwood potentially bringing back all its veterans, but Riewoldt was all for keeping the flag window open as long as possible.

It’s pretty simple to introduce an anti tampering rule so we don’t have players who are in contracts talking to other clubs

Caro’s Call – definitely not affiliated with the now defunct Caro’s Arrow – zeroed in on Dogs coach Luke Beveridge snubbing Roaming Brian on Thursday night.

Riewoldt maintained that Channel 7 “couldn’t get” an interview with the coach during the telecast on Thursday, raising the question whether the coach was still not talking to the network after a frosty season.

Roo’s Marks had a glitzy twist, abandoning the letter grades, to hand out awards while Riewoldt wore a bow tie.

Why? Something to do with the Logies.

ON THE COUCH

The throne was wheeled out between the two couches in footy’s living room as Leigh Matthews made a triumphant return, espousing plenty of wisdom.

He declared St Kilda should be worried about Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera being the best paid player on the list, Tom De Koning be damned.

“All I know if your best player should be your highest paid player. And if he’s not, you’re asking for trouble,” he said.

That’s definitely not all Leigh knows.

He says ‘no’ to paying Harley Reid $24m over 11 years, a reported contract offer from West Coast.

But he says ‘yes’ to the Eagles getting a priority pick.

“If you’re ever going to give a priority pick again, they have been bad enough for long enough,” Matthews said.

The centre bounce, or throw up, was next.

Matthews expects the bounce to depart our footy world soon and he has a plan when it is replaced by a ball up, by changing the larger centre circle to two smaller semicircles.

The semicircles would mean the rucks had to start about 5m away from each other and run in when the ball was thrown up, to encourage leaping rucks instead of wrestling rucks.

Jordan Lewis liked it: “It actually gives the midfielders more room to move and there’s less free kicks”.

‘Lethal’ later revealed his ‘irreplaceable’ players for each team.

For the Crows Jordan Dawson, Sam Collins at the Suns, Harris Andrews for the Lions, Finn Callaghan on the Giants, Nick Daicos at the Pies, Will Day for Hawthorn (eek), Hayden Young on the Dockers (eek), Tim English for the Dogs and Jeremy Cameron with the Cats.

Time for an On The Couth premiership window update: Collingwood, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Geelong are in the green section, meaning they are in the flag window.

The Western Bulldogs are just defensively short.

The Couch crew all had some thoughts on Collingwood’s latest wobbles.

Lewis pondered whether Nick Daicos was being relied upon too much and if he was being too disappointed when he wasn’t given the ball by teammates.

With 43 per cent of Collingwood’s scores involving Daicos, Lewis highlighted a moment when he appeared upset not to receive a pass.

The Hawks great then suggested Dan Houston could be pushed to a mid-forward role to unlock his kicking.

Nathan Buckley zeroed in on Jeremy Howe as one of the most important players in black and white, given the way he sets up the backline and aids Darcy Moore.

Matthews noted the Pies rely on Daicos, Bobby Hill and Beau McCreery for speed and oomph going forward, with the latter two having not played much football in recent weeks.

Unfortunately Jack Riewoldt is “flat a little bit”.

He lost a record to Cat Jack Martin on Sunday, with Martin booting four goals in a span of 5min16sec, just nudging out Riewoldt, who did it in 5min29sec.

Stiff, Jack!

FOOTY CLASSIFIED

The desk over on Channel 9 was focused on a phone call.

Sam McClure reported that Matthew Nicks had hopped on the blower to Essendon’s Sam Draper in recent days in an attempt to woo the free agent ruck, who also has been heavily courted by Brisbane.

The Bombers have also put in offers to Draper to keep him.

While Craig McRae caused some minor angst among his coaching cohort by going public in meeting Jack Silvagni recently, other coaches have said they would keep player meetings quiet.

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd said Draper was “in a good position” with “three clubs to choose on who all want his signature”.

McClure said he expected the Draper contract at the Crows or Lions not to trigger the top band of draft compensation, which right now would be worth pick five.

Lloyd said he would rather have Draper than a second-round pick as compensation.

Still with the Bombers, veteran journo Damian Barrett said Port Adelaide fitness boss Stuart Graham and West Coast’s Mat Inness – formerly of the Bulldogs – were on the radar as the club’s new head of performance.

Lloyd has seen enough of the Hawks playing four tall forwards, after Sam Mitchell gave a forward line with each of Mitch Lewis, Calsher Dear, Jack Gunston and Mabior Chol a go on Friday.

Lewis the one to go according to the 926-goal champ.

“I think he is very limiting, unless he is taking strong marks I’m not sure what he offers,” Lloyd said.

Jimmy Bartel agreed that Dear was a better bet.

Lloyd almost begged Sam Mitchell to “bring in an A-grade” midfielder in the off-season to boost the onball brigade.

One of the few with real-life experience of kicking 100 goals in a season, Lloyd weighed in on Jeremy Cameron’s pursuit of the century.

He said Cameron was getting “too cute” when he snuck a goal off a handball from Rhys Stanley against Port Adelaide and he said “you don’t want to be flirting with form when a player is in the 70s (of goals).”

Lloyd revealed his old coach Kevin Sheedy once urged his Bombers to get Lloyd to the ton, during the 2000 qualifying final against North Melbourne.

The Bomber goalkicker recalled he was on 98 goals at the final change and with Essendon leading by 101 points, Sheedy demanded his team get him to raise the bat.

“Sheeds said ‘I don’t want this to be a distraction in the prelim we must get him to his 100th goals’,” Lloyd said.

“That was the case there and they looked after me in the 90s.”