Leading player manager Colin Young has addressed the criticism labelled at two of his clients, Jeremy and Mitch McGovern.
A recent article in The Age suggested that West Coast’s Jeremy and Carlton’s Mitch were weighing “up their footballing futures” at their respective clubs in order to finish their careers playing together.
Both Jeremy, 30, and Mitch, 28, are out of contract this year.
SEN’s Kane Cornes responded to the article by saying, “This is what gives player managers a bad name”, questioning whether or not there is a stunning lack of loyalty surrounding the situation.
MCGOVERN BROTHERS TRADE CHATTER HIGHLIGHTS STUNNING LACK OF LOYALTY
The older McGovern was asked on the Backchat podcast by former Eagles teammate Will Schofield about younger brother Mitch.
“I was always in his ear to come over. I think he was pretty keen to come back,” the premiership Eagle said regarding Mitch’s eventual move from Adelaide to Carlton.
“We wanted to play together, that was probably our main thing to play together. But circumstances and the way it works out, it’s very hard to do that. If we could just choose it would be great, but there’s a lot of other things at play.
“He went to Carlton so it didn’t end up panning out. It still might. I’m out of contract this year, I might end up at Carlton,” he added, jokingly.
“I’d love to play with him, for sure.”
Young has had his right of reply to the stories created from what he believes was simply an honest comment Jeremy made.
“Absolute rubbish,” Young said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“It’s disappointing when you get ex-footballers, and I’ve got one here sitting next to me (Scott Cummings), but at least he’s honest and will do his homework if there’s a story out there.”
Tim Gossage asked: “Didn’t Kane do his homework on it?”
Young replied: “Well he didn’t give me a call.
“You’d get journalists like Cal Twomey, Damian Barrett, Jon Ralph will make the phone call, ‘Hey mate, is there any truth to this story?’
“There’s no truth to that story. If you read the headline, the headline even said, ‘Cinderella story’, which is a fairy tale.
“So why are you talking about a fairy tale? This is a ridiculous beat-up load of crap. This is why players don’t want to talk to the media sometimes.
“It was an honest conversation with Jeremy McGovern.
“We were walking down to do that promotion for the show (Show Me The Money II) and The Age grabbed us and started talking about the show. At the end of it, to his credit, he said, ‘You’ve got a big year next year, you’ve got McGovern out and by the way, I heard Jeremy’s podcast’.
“So two journalists heard Jeremy’s podcast, ‘Schoey’ asked him would you ever like to play with your brother? So, where is the crime in answering that question? ‘Hey yeah, I’d love to play with my brother, if that was possible I’d love to play with my brother’.
“That story has come from that.”
Does Young think the McGoverns will play together before their AFL careers are over?
“No, I don’t,” he added.
“I’d love them to but no, I don’t.”
Is he and Corporate Sports Australia colleague Andrew McDougall trying to orchestrate a union between the siblings?
“No, we’re not,” Young continued.
“The planets don’t line up.”
Do the McGoverns know it is unrealistic for them to play together?
“Yes,” said Young.
“Yeah, they both know. Andrew caught up with Mitch on the weekend and Mitch is pretty keen and loves Carlton. He love this teammates Zac Fisher, Blake Acres, Crippsy (Patrick Cripps), the WA crew is tight there.
“And I know for a fact that Andrew spoke to the club last year. Unfortunately Mitch had some injuries late, but I know that Andrew asked the club about next year and an extension and all that, (he’s) pretty keen to stay.
“It’s a Cinderella story, it’s a fantasy because the planets won’t align. Unless West Coast ring me today and say, ‘Look, we don’t want to secure Jeremy for next year’, then that could be (something). At the moment, no chance, no way.
“But the disappointing thing is Jeremy was asked an honest question so where is the crime in answering that question honestly?
“I think Cornes played with his brother, I think he was pretty happy about that, I think the family were happy about that.
“You know what, pick up the phone, ‘Hey mate, this is what was said, was that not said?’. ‘No mate, there’s no story there, move on’.
“All it does is create angst with the players going, ‘Gee, I can’t answer anymore questions about my family now’.
“It’s just a load of crap. There’s nothing there.”