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Adam Simpson gives a behind-the-scenes insight into the secret world of player movement
Ethan Clark • March 8th, 2025 4:44 pm
Former premiership coach Adam Simpson has shed some light on the behind-the-scenes dealings that take place to coax players out of their clubs in the AFL.
In an era where trade is rapidly becoming the most engaging content in the AFL world, the wheeling and dealing that gets deals done has remained relatively unseen and unheard.
Simpson opened the door to this with Kane Cornes, Gerard Whateley and Sam Edmund and gave an insight into how he and his team went about acquiring and tempting opposition players to the west.
“I reckon I’ve met 50 players in my time at my house. My wife goes and gets muffins and a fruit salad. That’s a little test, the first test (whether they eat the fruit or muffin),” he told SEN’s Crunch Time.”
“You say, ‘Here’s the team on the keynote, here’s the number we’ve got for you, we’ve got you at centre-half back or heard you really want to play on ball’.
“You do all the sell, and you’ve got your footy manager there for the off-field corporate support we have. We’re a big club.”
The former West Coast coach noted that Hawthorn seems to be changing the game in this regard, taking the wooing of players to another level.
“I think through Sam (Mitchell) and the rest of the guys at Hawthorn, they’ve gone to levels where it’s the whole package so it’s the (players’) wives, the kids, it’s the player, the new facility, it’s the whole sell and you do have to put work into it,” Simpson explained.
“The clubs have got very, very good and they use the players and the leaders as well.
“What’s happened with Hawthorn recently is that it’s open, it’s all very public whereas I empty the garage out and say, ‘Come down and park in the garage and I’ll slip you out the back’. That’s where it’s slightly different.”
In his time as coach, Simpson claimed he was rarely successful despite constant efforts to stay in touch with potential talent.
“(Elliot) Yeo was our first one and it was probably almost our last one to be honest,” he said.
“There was a long period of time there where everyone wanted to come to us.
“Jack Redden knew no one at West Coast, he just picked us and said he liked what we were doing, and I want to come.
“From a club point-of-view, ex-WA players are obvious. We always stay in-touch… you see them get drafted and you just keep in contact, you keep the door open and tell them how good they are and when the time is right, you catch up with them when they come back for ‘family reasons’.”
Recent reports from Channel 7’s Mitch Cleary suggested a potential return to Melbourne for Fremantle ruck Luke Jackson, a rumour Simpson says could be a management powerplay to boost Jackson’s earnings.
“We met Jackson when (Fremantle) did and the muffins didn’t work… sometimes you meet them, and you know they’re not coming,” he said.
“This Jackson situation now (on potential return to Melbourne), how much of it is real and how much is Jackson going to benefit financially if it’s not real.”
In such a jam-packed schedule, the time to meet players can be very narrow and opportune.“When they come over (to WA) to play and they get half a day off after captain’s run, that’s the time (we meet),” Simpson revealed.
“The work is done early, the bye round is almost too late… and if (Tassie) aren’t starting now, they’re behind.”
When asked by Cornes what his tactic would be to attract Chad Warner if he was still West Coast coach, Simpson had this to say.
“It’s too late now. Whatever’s happening has happened, if it’s happened,” he said.
“Now it’s up to (Warner) to make the decision. The pitches have all been pitched.”
Even after all these efforts to lock-in a trade, occasionally loyalty still prevails and hand-shake deals are thrown out at the behest of the player.
“We’ve had players commit (to come to West Coast) and say they’re in… and then after the season they say, ‘I can’t go, I want to stay. Loyalty has got me’, so nothing is locked,” Simpson said.
“It’s common, it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone. You’ve got to be careful how you treat people because what goes around comes around.”
Just how far the industry has matured in this regard remains to be seen, but insights like this will only feed the hunger of the footy world to know as much detail as possible when attracting or losing talent from their clubs.
