Ex-Hawk Ben Dixon has hit out at critics who claim North Melbourne would have been better off losing to the Gold Coast Suns, to end up with pick one.
The Kangaroos were shock final round winners over the Suns, in jubilant scenes for players and coach Alastair Clarkson after ending a 20-game losing streak.
But amid fears the Roos’ first draft pick could slip to four after Academy selections are made, Footy Classified’s Craig Hutchison stated it was not a “difficult game to manufacture losing”.
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Dixon, who played under Clarkson at the Hawks, slammed that sort of thinking on the Fox Footy Podcast on Tuesday.
“I know Clarko extremely well and that’s never entered his mind (‘manufacturing losing’) in any situation, Hawthorn or North,” he said.
“I know when he first got to Hawthorn in 2005, you know, we were horrible.
“We were 15th on the ladder and he was all about winning regardless.
“Like, yep, you want draft picks but you know they’ll fall however they fall – it’s about winning footy and culture, so that would never have entered his mind.
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“I knew right from the get go, he was gonna try from the first ball to win the game of footy so everyone can throw out tanking and I know there was some discussion even last night to the fact that, you know, what were they thinking? (Thinking) ‘This is not in the best interest of the club’.
“Well, how about the integrity of the game?
“You questioning the fact that they’re gonna tank questions the integrity of the coach and the players.
“If I was a player – and I’ve been in that situation – there’s no way I would cop anyone trying to tag the footy club, players or coach labelling that they should be throwing a game of footy.
“What an insult to the integrity of the football club!
“I just thought it was a disgrace and yep, media talks it up and says this great scenario – but you know they got (Jason) Horne-Francis number one pick, they had traded him away. They got additional picks.
“I mean the top 10, regardless of who you want, it’s a need basis.
“West Coast (who did finish last) mightn’t want Harley Reid. They might want a local boy. So these are the sort of scenarios that no one’s got a crystal ball.
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“You’ve just got to play your best footy and turns out that their best footy was a winning one on the weekend.”
Eagles coach Adam Simpson also hit out at the “disrespectful” tanking talk that followed his side for weeks – firstly after the one-point thrilling loss to Essendon where his tactics in the dying seconds were questioned.
And then again off the back of the Round 23 win over the Western Bulldogs which did lift them into 17th – before that final round Roos win dropped them back to the wooden spoon.
“You guys talk about tanking, but we don’t. And North doesn’t,” he said at his end of year press conference.
“The general commentary is really disrespectful to footy clubs because we play to win every week.
“These guys don’t think about the draft or draft picks or what might happen next year … so we’ve got to stop talking about that because it’s disrespectful to players and coaches and clubs involved.
“Have a look at North – they’ll take that (win) any day of the week.”
