Geelong Cats coach Chris Scott dismisses football department links to Si Giang Nguyen
Updated ,first published
Summary of football news from today’s AFL Briefing:
- West Coast premiership coach puts himself out of contention to land Carlton role
- Chris Scott says he understands interest in AFL enforcing salary cap rules
- Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters talks about his acting future
West Coast premiership coach Adam Simpson, a part-time coaching consultant at Carlton, has officially ruled out becoming the Blues’ next senior coach.
A week after Simpson refused to say whether he wanted to coach Carlton and suggested the departure of Michael Voss meant it was too early to raise his hand, he put a line under his own name and said: “It doesn’t feel right.”
The 2018 first-year coach and veteran of more than 300 AFL appearances for North Melbourne said he had a “very brief” conversation about his role in Carlton’s hierarchy but talks did not progress very far.
“From a coaching perspective I won’t be putting my hand up for any role at Carlton,” Simpson said on Fox Footy, where he is a regular panellist.
“I think I actually said that last week. It’s tough when you’re working in the club and mentoring someone.”
“This doesn’t feel right.
“So people can stop asking me about it. And I’m taking myself out of the discussion.”
Simpson finished explaining his choice not to raise his hand by saying whoever gets the Carlton job “will have a good career”.
“It didn’t feel right to me right now,” Simpson said.
“When you’re working with someone and the coaching staff, you can come in and try and [take the senior job]Yes, this is not quite right in my opinion.
“I’m sure whoever takes this job will have a good career.”
As scrutiny mounts on Voss’ coaching future, intrigue has emerged over whether Simpson could rejoin the coaching ranks after signing the mentoring and coaching advisor role at Carlton for 2026. Interest in Voss intensified after the Blues’ poor start to the season.
A week ago, Simpson remained firm on whether he would put his hand up for the Carlton job.
“I don’t know,” Simpson said on Fox Footy at the time.
“Today [the answer] ‘No’ but what will it be like in 10, 14, 15 weeks?
“It’s weird to say that because people think there will be an answer right away, yes or no.
“I assume there are some career coaches there. [would say]’I am a career coach, I will coach until I die’.
“[But] I think there’s a little more depth in our lives. And there’s a lot to work on.”
Former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has not withdrawn his candidacy for the role but gave a big endorsement to 2012 Sydney premiership coach John Longmire last week.
-Scott Spits
‘Inuendo, half-truths’: Chris Scott denies alleged scam football links
Geelong says former coterie Sy Giang Nguyen, who is under investigation for allegedly defrauding local non-profit genU, had no role in the football department when Chris Scott was coach of the Cats.
The dual premiership coach has responded to News Corp’s report that Scott and football manager Andrew Mackie stayed in the same hotel as Nguyen when traveling to Sydney early in the 2023 season.
The trip comes months before police said they were investigating the former genU employee for alleged fraud, and also within the timeframe of the AFL’s extended audit of Geelong’s management of player payments and third-party agreements, covering 2019-2024.
The AFL found that no breaches of player payments or player movement rules had occurred; however, the Cats were fined $77,500 ($40,000 suspended) due to administrative errors.
The audit found a number of non-disclosures and/or late disclosures of agreements with club partners and third parties that were required to be reported to the AFL.
“I understand the AFL’s interest in implementing the broader soft cap, particularly the salary cap,” Scott said on Wednesday.
“Our club has gone through a comprehensive audit over the last 12 months and we think we’re through that now. We fully support that the AFL has a role to play in this and we feel really comfortable with them taking on that role and secondly, we’re on board with any questions they may have, but I suspect some sort of public comment on that is likely to lead to insinuations, half-truths and conjectures.”
Scott said he knew Nguyen but “was not involved in any way with the trip Andrew and I took” and did not socialize with them during the trip.
“It wouldn’t surprise you or anyone else to know that I’m not particularly involved in booking business travel,” Scott said.
Geelong confirmed the club is covering Scott and Mackie’s travel and accommodation costs to Sydney.
The Cats coach said the Geelong football department remained separate from the commercial department, which deals with corporate sponsors and coterie members.
“If the expectation is for clubs to scrutinize people for things that might happen in the future, that would be a very high bar and we could also find ourselves without institutional support,” Scott said.
No charges have been laid against Nguyen but investigations are ongoing and the club has had no connection with Nguyen since the allegations of fraud were made known.
Nguyen and Geelong businessman Keith Greenwood agreed to pay $5.4 million to the charity in a civil lawsuit as genU sought to recover some of the missing $14.5 million. This imprint reported in December that the couple had made no further payments after making the first payment of $1.4 million.
-Peter Ryan
‘Emotional’: AFL’s most important feature for the future
Zak Butters says it’s almost time to seriously consider what the rest of the AFL has been talking about all year.
Port Adelaide’s star midfielder says wherever he decides to play from next season, it will be emotional.
The AFL’s hottest property insists he is yet to seriously consider multimillion-dollar bids from rival clubs to return to his home state of Victoria when his contract at Port expires at the end of the season.
“This is obviously a big decision,” Butters told reporters Wednesday.
“You think about everything… There’s definitely emotion involved in it. Whatever the decision is, it’s going to be a very emotional decision on my part, no matter what I do.”
Butters will play his 150th AFL game on Saturday night when the Power host Carlton at Adelaide Oval.
Port’s club champions for the past three seasons will return to his family home in Darley, about 55 kilometers northwest of Melbourne, during Power’s farewell next weekend.
“To be honest, I haven’t even talked to my family much about it,” he said.
“I really enjoyed seeing them in games and playing football.
“And I’ve always said I’ll probably think about it more in the back half of the year.
“Just like 150 games, this grabs your attention right away. So it’s probably something I need to start chatting about a little bit with my family, my friends, the people I’m closest to.”
The Western Bulldogs and Geelong are at the front of a long line of clubs trying to attract the 25-year-old.
But the dynamic player said he also enjoyed the romance of being a one-club player like Port icons Travis Boak and Robbie Gray; both were Victorian-born stars who resisted offers to return home throughout their careers.
-AAP
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