THE future of Western Jets star Kyle Hartigan remains unclear following a dispute between AFL Victoria and the Werribee Football Club.
An appeal by Werribee to sign Hartigan was knocked back by AFL Victoria which ruled that Hartigan was ineligible because of a rule brought in late last year to help protect VFL and TAC Cup alignments.
The ruling means Hartigan is free to play with Williamstown this season however he has expressed the desire to pull on a Tigers’ jumper.
The rule introduced by AFL Victoria in November states VFL clubs are only able to recruit a maximum of two players from TAC Cup clubs that they are not directly aligned with.
Williamstown is aligned with the Western Jets and in October last year Werribee offered Jets’ Matt Notman and Scott Sherlock contracts reaching their quota of two.
Hartigan, a gun Jets player who was part of the AIS-AFL academy squad – a breeding ground for future AFL talent, was not offered a contract by Werribee because according to Werribee Football Club CEO Mark Penaluna “we were told that he was a chance to a be drafted and be certainly rookied.”
However, Hartigan was surprisingly overlooked in the national and rookie drafts and after returning from the Christmas break he decided Werribee was where he wanted to play football in 2010.
“I ended up really liking Werribee and with the half-alignment that they have with the (North Melbourne) Kangaroos I thought it would be a bit easier to play senior football there regularly,” Hartigan said. “I thought that’s probably the best option for me but just before Christmas they brought the rule in about the two players and they had already signed Scotty and Notty.”
The Werribee Football Club went through the AFL Victoria appeals process based on Hartigan’s desire to play at their club but the appeal was denied.
AFL Victoria operations manager John Hook said: “(The rule) was brought in to help protect the alignments that we have with TAC clubs and VFL clubs.
“The only problem we have had in the recent past is this region – Western Jets, Werribee and Williamstown.The bottom line of it all is that Kyle Hartigan would have been the best out of the Western Jets kids that didn’t get drafted now they (Werribee) could have had that opportunity to get him … but they signed up other players before that.”
Penaluna argued that the rule was brought in on 19 November with the TAC Cup seasons finishing in August and club negotiations already well underway. He also said that the expressed desire of Hartigan to play at Werribee combined with the fact that there was a “moral obligation” to uphold the contracts of Nottman and Sherlock, was reason enough to overturn the decision. “The VFL in this instance is the only competition in Victoria outside of the AFL where the player cannot play at the club of his choice unless he has signed a contract,” Penaluna said.
Hook said AFL Victoria could not be held responsible for the Werribee Football Club’s decision not to select Hartigan as one of their two possible Western Jets picks based on the assumption that he would get drafted.
“It’s not our fault, that’s his (Penaluna’s) fault,” he said.“If he wants to go to the press well then he has to cop the criticism that comes back: if he wants to criticise AFL Victoria on rules then be prepared to cop the criticism coming back and the criticism is that he could have managed it a hell of a lot better than he did. They have to look at themselves and say ‘could we have done this a little bit better?’ My answer to the question is they could have done a lot bloody better.” Williamstown Football Club General manager Brendan Curry said the club has followed the rules.
“I think the rule is spot on protecting every VFL club including Werribee (who are aligned with the Geelong Falcons),” he said.
Curry said that while the Werribee club may have argued in the past that the zoning did not work in their favour – meaning their geographic position from their aligned TAC Cup club Geelong resulted in players in their own backyard (Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, etc) coming under Williamstown’s banner, this was not the case with Hillside resident Hartigan.
“Werribee always sook and complain that they can’t get hands on players,” he said. “You might have grown up playing for Werribee juniors I can understand that or live in the City of Wyndham but Kyle Hartigan has never played for the Werribee juniors, he doesn’t reside in the City of Wyndham, he played all his junior footy at Keilor Football Club, he has had nothing to do with the Werribee Football Club so where is their argument? If Werribee want to get on their high horse, they should have been going out and getting their Geelong Falcon players.” Hook noted the argument regarding Werribee’s issues with zoning but said his organisation was doing the best it could.
“The fact is that we have got the TAC regions which don’t align to the VFL regions. You have got square pegs trying to get into the round holes and we have got to try and do the best on managing this pathway and it’s a very difficult process. I am disappointed in the Werribee footy club. (They) should now be supporting the kid to be getting him to play at Williamstown. They have lost an appeal and they still don’t like the result.”
Penaluna said: “I don’t want to get in to too much of a tit for tat with Williamstown but they are getting other players to their club from TAC Cup teams and using the rule to only get two players from Northern Knights, two from Calder and we haven’t gone out there and done that. We have concentrated on our backyard. We just want local kids to get the opportunity to play out our club and if one kid wants to play for us then we will fight tooth and nail for that to happen.”
Speaking before the weekend Hartigan remained unsure about what his football future had in store for him.
“(I’m) not really sure what I am going to do yet. All I want is the opportunity to play senior footy to give myself the best chance to get into the AFL.It’s not the most ideal situation because we are a month out from the season and I still don’t know where I am going to be football this year.”
Curry said the door was still open at Williamstown for Hartigan with the two to meet this week.
