Carlton football boss Chris Davies has defended Adam Simpson’s role as one of the four selectors set to collectively hand-pick the club’s next senior coach.
It comes as Davies also made an admission around the Blues’ list, while giving a cagey response around its openness to trade big names again this year.
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West Coast premiership coach Simpson was confirmed on Thursday as one of four names set to work towards deciding on the Blues’ next coach hire, alongside Davies, Graham Wright and Rob Priestley.
The call raised a few eyebrows, given Simpson – now a leading media figure after exiting as Eagles coach in 2024 – is predicted by some to put his hand up for a head-coaching gig in the future, with Essendon and Tasmania also with vacancies.
Davies was asked by dual premiership player David King on SEN Breakfast whether unsuccessful Carlton candidates might feel uncomfortable presenting to Simpson, given the ex-mentor could be competing with them for future positions on offer at other clubs.
“That’s a reasonable position to have – it’ll be something that we’re going to have to manage into the future,” Davies said on Friday morning.
“But I think most people right now are seeing Adam Simpson as the media person who is a very good media person, and will have a career in media for as long as he wants to.
“There’s not too much of Adam right now that is suggesting that he wants to get back into coaching – but at the same time, people have conflicts all throughout the AFL, don’t they?
“So, it’s not something that we’re fussed about at all.”
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The Blues have won their first two games under interim coach Josh Fraser after parting ways with Michael Voss early in the month, but it hasn’t shielded Davies to the reality the club faces at year’s end.
Quizzed on Carlton’s list timeline as it prepares to present to prospective coaches, Davies said that while he wasn’t willing to “put a ceiling” on its potential, there are still necessary changes to be made.
“As much as I think that our list is more balanced than it was last year, I still don’t think the list is good enough, ultimately, to compete at the top level,” he said.
“And we’re going to have to do some work on that over the next period of time. We started that last year with trading out the players that we did, or letting them go in free agency.
“We’re well-placed from a draft capital standpoint to get Cody Walker in, and do some other things into the future, but I want to make sure that we’re bringing in some young talent which is going to be required for us to be a sustainable force up the top end of the ladder.”
Pushed on the idea that those comments meant there could again be big Blues names on the table come October, Davies said: “I don’t think you have to read into that (idea that) everyone’s available.
“I still firmly believe that your club, in these situations, you have to have good senior players who are mentoring the younger blokes, showing them the way to go about their footy.
“I don’t subscribe to the theory that everyone is up for grabs. I certainly think that you’ve got to have a strong nucleus of people who are going to be good people at your club, and show the young players how to go about it.”
But probed on whether it was a ‘flat-out no’ to the possibility of trading a big name such as Patrick Cripps or Jacob Weitering, Davies didn’t shut down the possibility, saying: “I don’t need to go into it any deeper than the fact that I think it’s really important that we’ve got quality senior players at our club into the future.
“The people you’ve just mentioned – Patrick, Jacob – you wouldn’t meet two more committed Carlton people.
“We’ve got to definitely think about how we balance our team … I also accept that the transition game is something that the club needs to continue to be good at into the future, and part of that is a personnel discussion, no doubt.”