The Herald Sun’s Sam Edmund says Gold Coast’s Tom Lynch was angered by the public honesty from Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley about the Magpies’ pursuit of the key forward.
Buckley admitted on Channel Nine’s Footy Classified earlier this year that he has met with Lynch, a statement the Pies coach says he somewhat regrets.
Edmund has explained how the comments from Buckley made Lynch feel.
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“What we have managed to find out is this greatly angered Tom Lynch at the time,” Edmund told SEN Breakfast.
“How much damage this does for Collingwood’s pursuit of Tom Lynch obviously remains to be seen.
“He grew up a Collingwood supporter, though, and he chose to meet Buckley, not Damien Hardwick, not Alastair Clarkson, earlier this year.
“The amount of bidding and salesmanship that is going on at the moment is extreme.
“Nathan Buckley told the football world that late last month on Footy Classified, which I might add is all you can ask for as a consumer of our game is honesty and transparency, but it’s not what Tom Lynch was asking for.
“The game is not ready, we are not mature enough to deal with this at the moment as an industry.
“It unloaded a whole heap of crap on Tom Lynch’s doorstep, he was obviously stripped of the captaincy, banned from the football department, having questions asked of him by younger teammates about loyalty, all the things you don’t want.”
Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn are the three clubs chasing Lynch’s signature.