Nisbett in the Age and Paul Roos in the Herald-Sun have accused Carlton of deliberately tanking. The article also shows Richmond were cut-out by Judd, his manager and Carlton, no matter what picks/players we could have offered West Coast.http://realfooty.com.au/news/news/tanks-for-nothing-carlton/2007/10/12/1191696179365.htmlTanks for nothing, Carlton
Steve Butler and Craig O'donoghue | October 13, 2007
WEST Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett says that although Carlton did not breach AFL rules in its hunt for Chris Judd, the Blues had deliberately lost games — or tanked — to ensure a priority pick before the national draft.
Nisbett revealed Richmond had been prepared to offer a package including its draft picks two and 18 to West Coast for Judd if it could have done a separate trade deal to win back another top-10 selection.
The Eagles would then have dealt with the Tigers to preserve the "integrity" of the system.
But Carlton and Judd are understood to have discussed cutting Richmond out of the market with a first-year price tag of up to $2 million for the 2004 Brownlow medallist, if the Eagles and Tigers struck a deal.
"We were tempted to do a deal with Richmond on the basis that Chris would have gone to the lowest club and it would have maintained the integrity of the draft, which is that the bottom clubs should get the best players," Nisbett said.
"In this case, the second-bottom club got the best player and also for want of a better word, had tanked the last seven or eight games to get a priority pick. That's within the rules, so I guess in the end we have to look at how the rules are structured.
"Now every player will think that if they need to leave a club, they can just walk out, interview clubs and select one — and there's no reason at the moment why you can't. Our club remains an advocate for no free agency because it protects the integrity of the whole competition."