Welcome to Laverde & Langford

[jobe#4]

Laverde has been training with Hooker for like last 8 weeks i just find it interesting that Hird didn't even know like why wouldn't Hooker tell the club about Laverde and give them info on him etc

it was in the video of Laverde meeting Hird just after being drafted

maybe he did know but didn't want to admit it as it might be seen as training with the club i dunno

probably why, didn't want a lot of people to know

[elephants]

Jesus Christ surely Hird would be doing everything by the book and not looking for loopholes atm...

[kilbluff1985]

Langford's 18th birthday today and he started day 1 of preseason i wonder how many would have asked for the day off

[JBs-Hawks]

Langford's 18th birthday today and he started day 1 of preseason i wonder how many would have asked for the day off

Dayle Garlett and nobody else.

[AFEV]

Laverde has been training with Hooker for like last 8 weeks i just find it interesting that Hird didn't even know like why wouldn't Hooker tell the club about Laverde and give them info on him etc

it was in the video of Laverde meeting Hird just after being drafted

maybe he did know but didn't want to admit it as it might be seen as training with the club i dunno

Seems perfectly plausible to me. Senior players didn't start their training until later so Hird might not have spoken with Hooker in the last 2 months, plus not like Hird has been around the club much in the last year. Cale would've certainly spoken to the defensive coaches but not necessarily Hird since the players returned.

As for it being seen as dodgy, all interactions between players nominating and AFL clubs are reported - pretty sure that the AFL would've known Laverde was training with Hooker. Similar things happen at other clubs ie Nakia Cockatoo with North Melbourne this year, it's not all that uncommon.

[jobe#4]

they had been training for 8 odd weeks together, so it might not have been at Tulamarine...could been at a gym somewhere

[powersuperkents]

Don't think him training with Hooker was dodgy at all. The fact remains that their were 19 prior picks available in which almost every club were free to select him. If this wasn't the case then it would be unfair. Therefore, there is nothing dodgy about it at all, he could have went to almost any club, they chose not to select him, Essendon has him at pick 20 and regardless of whether or not Hird was aware of him training with Hooker it doesn't make any difference nor create any unfair advantages.

It is quite common for players to have a few training sessions with clubs before the draft as a recruitment practice (allows the club to assess how they interact with the playing group, their physical characteristics etc.). Laverde didn't even train with the Essendon football club rendering all this discussion completely redundant. These inferences being drawn are fallacious and I suspect those that believe that Hird was exploiting loopholes are justifying those suspicions on the basis of Hird's previous malfeasance hahaha.

I don't think there's anything to really look into regarding Laverde training with Hooker. Even if Hird was aware of it.. it makes no difference  :) I'm just waiting for Essendon to develop Laverde so Port have a replacement ready when the Hoff retires  :P   

[jobe#4]

exactly! there's some nothing wrong with him training with Hooker-wasn't with the club, maybe not even at it.

coulda been secretive as they didn't want other clubs to see how interested the bombers were in him, because then clubs with earlier picks like Carlton, would probably be more interested in him and pick him just to shower off Essendon...