Hugh Greenwood has explained how his shock move to North Melbourne came about.
It has been well documented this week that the midfielder was delisted by Gold Coast for strategic reasons before the Kangaroos pounced.
Greenwood was snapped up by North when the Suns felt they would be able to re-draft him, creating plenty of headlines as a result.
The 29-year-old said his experience playing basketball in the USA and his (alleged) status as an older player who other clubs would not be interested in were the main reasons why the Suns delisted him.
“It was being mature enough to handle the chatter,” he said on SEN Hobart.
“Obviously touching on my experiences in America and being around American sports and appreciating teams using all that they can to help their team out. Having followed American sport and they do all the loopholes and this and that.
“The messaging was the teams that were interested - North and Collingwood - were the two teams that technically had (draft) picks before the Suns and they weren’t looking for a player like me.
“That was why they put my name out there and unfortunately or fortunately it wasn’t the case. There was a team that was very interested and they’ve gone out and made an attempt to add someone to their list they can believe can help their footy club.
“And here we are.”
The former Adelaide player went through everything from the start and how the Suns came to the conclusion that it was he they should delist.
He said talks with Suns coach Stuart Dew and list boss Craig Cameron were all positive, even if a little strange.
“It was a weird one, it would have been two days after the trade period ended that I got a text from Stuey (Dew) saying can you come and meet Craig and I in my office,” he said.
“You always assume the worst. I thought I’d made it through the trade period so I thought I’d be alright.
“They said, ‘We’re trying to add some flexibility to the list and figure out how we can keep the group together other than bringing in kids which we have plenty of and who we believe are the future of the footy club’.
“‘We’re going to try some things and would you mind if we delisted you, but we’ll keep you on the primary list, your contract will stay the same. Nothing will change on your end, we just want to make sure that you’re on board with it’.
“The first thing that came to mind was, ‘What if someone else takes me?’. They said, ‘We’re pretty confident, we’re very confident, in fact, that we wouldn’t be putting your name out there if we didn’t think that was going to happen’.
“A month went by and I didn’t think anything of it, then I got a call on the Wednesday from Craig, ‘Today’s the day, no worries, there might be a bit of media around but we’ll stick to what the plan is. That’s to bring you back, you’re a big part of the footy club and it’s all well and good’.”
Then things completely changed.
He signed with the the Roos just days after defending the Suns with a post on Twitter.
“Thursday rolled round and I sent out that Tweet after a bit of noise around why I got delisted and if I was an anti-vaxxer or if my knee was cooked or I had a falling out. So I put that Tweet out to clear everything up,” Greenwood said further.
“Friday I got the call from North, they called my agent and they basically asked if ‘Nobes’ could give me a call. Nobes is a man I’ve known for a very long time who had sent some time in the States trying to get me back from basketball to the Crows.
“I thought the least I could do was take a call from him and obviously things progressed from there. By Monday afternoon I was off to North.”
Greenwood insists that all was fine with Gold Coast and he had been told in no uncertain terms that he was a required player.
“I walked out of the initial meeting having cleared everything up,” he said.
“The first questions are, ‘Do you actually want me and where do you see me?’ They were like, ‘Nah, nah, nah, this has got nothing to do with where we see you, you’re clearly a big part of our plans, you’re in our 22’.
“So I walked out of that meeting confident of where I sat, that’s why I didn’t think anything of it until North called.
“The initial plan was to go into the draft in the pre-season, I get confused to be honest with all the different drafts and whatnot.
“They basically called and said, ‘Do they realise that we can actually take Hughie before the Suns? We’re pick 1 and they’ll have pick 3’. We turned around and said, ‘Yes, we do, but it would have to be something that Hugh’s really comfortable with. He obviously loves it here and despite the delisting, the club wants him as part of the future’.”
After two seasons and 32 games for the Suns, Greenwood will now suit up in the royal blue and white in season 2022 and beyond.
It was quite a remarkable occurrence which will no doubt be spoken about for some time yet.