CARLTON Head of Football Brad Lloyd joined Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN following the retirement of Liam Jones.
This is what he had to say on a number of key topics, including the next steps to come in identifying a replacement.
On when this came to the attention of the Club:
We were in constant contact with Liam throughout the season around his playing future. We put as much support around him so he could make a decision with where he wanted to go with his future. It escalated in the last week and a half or so. We’ve had conversations with Liam and his manager Shane Casley, and it really came to a head late last week and over the weekend. Liam was pretty strong on his decision to retire from AFL footy.
On whether the Club provided an ultimatum on timings:
There was no ultimatum at all. There’s a choice throughout the industry and there was no ultimatum from that point of view. There was open communication as much as possible, and as much information across all areas over what’s happening.
On whether Lewis Young was recruited with this in mind:
No. With Liam turning 31 in February, our list management team was keeping an eye on key position stocks and they identified Lewis as someone who could come in with his size and some of the attributes he’s got. We’ve got Lewis, Oscar McDonald and Caleb Marchbank returning from injury and some younger players coming through. Lewis was someone we felt was needed to round out our playing list from a key back point of view.
On the Club’s stance on the AFL’s vaccination program:
We support the vaccination program through the state government and the AFL. All of our playing list, men’s and women’s, we expect to be fully vaccinated. We return to training in the next couple of weeks: our first-to-fourth-year players next week and our more senior players a couple of weeks after that.
On replacing the vacant spot on the list:
From a playing list point of view, I’ve been in pretty regular contact on the weekend with Andrew Dillon and the AFL. We’ll be able to replace Liam’s position on the list. You’d be aware of the supplementary period where you can have players train on with the Club and then select one of those post-draft. We’ll also discuss with the AFL the possibility of having another pick in the draft if that’s a chance.
On Michael Voss’ thoughts:
I’ve kept him abreast of it all. Liam has been a quality person, player and leader for us. ‘Vossy’ is disappointed to lose him, but professional sport moves pretty quickly these days. We’ll move on with our playing list and work through ways to get another player in and keep moving.
On the potential of Mitch McGovern moving to defence:
He’s got some real ability and he can play forward and can go back. It’s certainly an option for ‘Vossy’ to work through for sure.
