Q. At what point in the year would you sit down and talk about it, if he was available?
A. It would be too early for me to even say now. To see talent just sitting there. He is 32 next year, so you are not going to get a lot of footy out of him when it is all said and done.
Q. Do you think players at a lot of clubs would share Akermanis feelings?
A. There could be but I wouldn't want my players making any comments about any other player in any way shape or form in any other club whether it was Wayne Carey, Nathan Buckley or a player from West Coast or Port Adelaide. We have been through that over the years and the football club runs the club - the board and the management - they run the Essendon Football Club and that is the way it should be.
Q. Do you think your players would welcome him?
A. I would not have a clue - I have never even discussed it with them.
Q. Would you be unhappy getting input from your players if they came to you as a group and offered that we don't want a particular player to come to the club?
A. You would always take it on board, of course you would. That is what a club and a team are about. From that point of view I have been down that track before with Ben Doolan, Steve Carey and Peter Bradbury back in 1986. Those circumstances back then we had just lost three players for a year - Watson, Van der Haar and Darren Williams. We actually made the finals getting Raines - he was a very good player. It wasn't a bad decision then when you look back in hindsight - Raines is probably one of the best players ever drafted to a club in 1986. If you look back at the history, I think that only eight players only ever made it from that draft - that was the first ever draft in national football history. I think Lynch is the last of the mohecians, him and Febey - so there is still two.
Q. What would your thoughts be if Carey came to the club and said look - no one is that keen on me, so I am willing to play for a small amount of money just to prove that I can still play and fit into a club. Would you be happy to sign him for a one year deal?
A. Highly unlikely. Our situation is clearly that we have a pretty happy list of players and I wouldn't really want to bust open that camaraderie here and if anything I would go to my captain and four vice-captains and discuss it with them. If it went any further, naturally you would debate it with the club Chairman and CEO and it would go to board.
Q. A Lloyd, Hird, Carey forward line is pretty impressive?
A. Yes but at what cost?